Some Little Squashes, and Conundrums

John and I went to the farmers’ market this Saturday.  We bought three parsnips, a bunch of leeks, two little squashes, and a couple of pounds of carrots.  And now all I want to do is make soups.  I read two cooking blogs written by French women (this one and this one), and this week, because I’ve been missing France, I’ve been scrolling through their archives, absorbing the beauty and simplicity of their recipes, and especially their winter soups.

(The man who sold us this little squash (photo above) told us it was a kobocha squash, but it doesn’t look anything like the pictures of kabocha squashes I am finding.  Does anyone know what kind it is?)

The only problem is that John doesn’t really like soup.  But we went to a small dinner gathering last night where we ate potato leek soup and bread with butter, and John loved it.  So I have hope.  The other problem is that I need to go to the grocery store for a few things– onions and thyme and curry powder and some lemongrass (because I want to make this soup, minus the shrimp).  But it’s freezing cold and snowing, and I still can’t get used to this place where life goes on as usual in the middle of pouring snow showers.

But as hard as it is to get motivated to run errands in this weather I do love having a real winter.  Seasons are good things, and I have to remember how much I missed a good fall and winter when we lived on the North Carolina coast.  And I think maybe 6 months of miserable cold are a decent trade-in for 6 months of miserable mosquitos…. So, off to the grocery store.  I don’t know how much time I will have to write about the soups this week, but I will try to post a few pictures and links to the recipes that I’m basing mine on.  (For those of you on pinterest, here’s a link to my food for fall/winter board, where I’ve collected the soup recipes I’m going to try out in the next few weeks.)