Lots o' cheese & pumpkin in one post...

Hi everyone!  Hope you guys had a great weekend!  Aside from many FALL activites had WHILST bathed in humidity, ours was lots of funJ

It started on Friday night with our annual "Wine & Cheese" party...

 ...and, as usual, we had enough food to have at LEAST 3 MORE parties! 

TONS of cheese, crackers, fondue, mini hot dogs, roasted potatoes, pepperoni crescent rolls, caprese bake, taco dip, fruit, brownies, wine (and non-alcoholic "baby belinis"  SOOOOOO good!)...

It was a SIN what we had to throw out by the end of the night.  Sin, I tell you!

So after all that carb/cheese fabulousness...Saturday, I just needed SOMETHING on the "lighter" side of the spectrum.  It just had to happenJ  And since a can of pumpkin was calling to me from my cabinet, I decided to make an ALL OUT pumpkin dinnerJ

Starting with my beloved pumpkin soup with cran-apple relish...

I "slimmed down" the soup the same as last time by swapping out the 2 cups of CREAM with 1 cup of 1% milk and 1 cup of squash.  This year I used a box of frozen butternut squash that I had in the freezer.  I just melted it in the pan, before making a well in the center and cooking up the onions, celery & bay leaf...

After the onions & celery were soft (about 6 minutes), you cook 3 tablespoons of flour for a minute before adding in 6 cups of chicken broth, 1 LARGE can of pureed pumpkin & LOTSSSSSS of spices...

Swirls of sage, nutmeg & cinnamon...yum!!!!  Bring it to a boil and then let it all simmer for 10 minutes. (or until slightly thickened)  Add in the last cup of 1% milk, let it all warm up together, add any salt & pepper to taste and WALLAH!  Pumpkin soup!

And the Cran-Apple relish really just seals the deal of deliciousness...it's NOT to be missed!  Even SCOTT loves this soup and me thinks that says a lotJ

Did you think that's where the pumpkin-ness ended??  Oh no...the soup just NEEDED a mate...

...and pumpkin maple corn muffins was the answer!

(Fellow Bloggers- Did you ever think you've invented something only to give a quick google search and find 20 recipes for your "creation"???J  It's always a bit of a let down...but at least you get to "follow someone's lead" hahahahahahhahaha...J)

These were super moist and BURSTING with flavor from the maple extract...loved, loved, loved these.  Try em out the next time you have that rouge cup of pumpkin leftover from another recipe.

Well, that wraps up our Friday & Saturday...I'll fill you in on our Sunday, since we're having a bit of a "dinner on the go" tonight.  I'll explain tomorrowJ  For now, here's a pretty previewJ

Have a good Monday!