We are talking about a window of opportunity here to either seal the deal or your fate. Lucky for me I tend to show well, or at least that’s what my mom tells me, so I’ve always done well during my meet the parents interview. I can only think of one time where my cunning wit and personality didn’t win them over, but this incident was a step mother so I think that keeps my record to 100% success rate no?!?

Either way I could tell from the moment our eyes met that I was in for it, actually it wasn’t until our second meeting that she handed me my ass on a platter, so first meeting blah blah blah, now ass platter time.

I can literally remember it like it was yesterday, kinda like if I think about eating a Twinkie I can almost taste it. Only this memory has nothing to do with taste, and everything to do with my stomach crawling up into my throat and then wanting to DIE!!!

The “step mother” was coming down the stairs but as she approached like a lion looking for prey I noticed she was very dressed up, must have been going out to torture other nice people. So what did I do you ask? Threw her a compliment of course, “You look really nice”. To which the evil step mother replied, “Why do you say that like you’re surprised that I could look nice???” I don’t even think I answered, pretty sure she just kept on going right past me on her broom.

From that day on I started calling her mom lol, NOPE!!! Would have been super fun to test it out though.

Speaking of testing something out, why not try this butternut squash soup, only this time toss in some pistachios to kick things up a notch.

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large butternut squash cut in half and roasted
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 carrots peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 sprigs of thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cups vegetable stock (this way the vegans can play)

First up place your two squash halves on a pan lined with parchment paper and bake covered with foil for about 45 minutes to one hour. Once the squash is soft to touch put on the counter to cool.

Next in a soup pot over medium heat, sauté your onions in oil for about 5 minutes. Then add the celery, carrots, garlic, and continue to sauté for another 10-15 minutes.

Now for the star of the soup… scoop your squash out of the skin (this should come out easily, if not you didn’t cook it long enough). Once all the squash is in your pot toss in the thyme, salt and pepper, and the 8 cups of veggie stock then bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for about 15 minutes to allow all the flavors to do there thang.

If you have a hand held blender then this next part will be a whizz, if you don’t you can always use your stand blender, just be careful blending hot liquid, you don’t want a soup facial.

Once all your soup is blended smooth, back into the pot it goes, or simply serve it up into bowls and garnish with salted pistachios. This flavor combo is a match made in heaven.

Kind of like me and the evil step mother (insert sarcasm here).