dark days

I missed the recap this week, and since I was incredibly busy I didn't do much in the way of cooking this past week. I did learn how NOT to make curried pumpkin soup: don't experiment with the whole batch; don't toss in too much Thai red curry paste; don't add an apple, thinking that sweet will counteract the hot; and definitely do not add some heavy cream to try to save it. That last step really killed the soup, sadly. If you're going to use Thai curry paste, make sure you have some coconut milk on hand (I think that would have saved the soup.) Ah well, live and learn.

This past week I have been enjoying a new product: maple sugar! I got it from the maple syrup folks (Pleiades Maple Products, Mt. Gilead, Ohio) and I am in love. I'd noticed that putting maple syrup in my oatmeal wasn't working out so well - I had to use a lot of it, and the texture/taste was a little off. The maple sugar works like a dream! I use less of it than I would of brown sugar, and it gives a wonderfully sweet maple flavor. With it I can make a bowl of 100% local oatmeal (with local oats and a grated apple.) It's so good that I could eat it by the spoonful, so thank goodness it came in a shaker bottle (and I've only pried the lid off two or three times! :-)