I am here to tell you that if you have a bad day it's ok to go home and make a batch of homemade chocolate icing and eat it. Really, because bad days happen and we all need a little something to help us over the hump.
I am giving you all the permission you will ever need. So, go ahead.
Do you want my recipe? Its the best.
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (I believe in unsalted butter)
1 block cream cheese
However much Hershey's Cocoa you'd like (about 1/4 cup)
Some people may call this justification but I call it therapy.
Here is a little back story before I spill my guts about yesterday. All throughout college I have been a babysitter. I am a great babysitter. I love children, I think they are the breath of life. They say the funniest things and when they run as hard and as fast and crash in to you its one of the best feelings ever. When they put their little hands on your face and talk to you, you feel so respected and loved. Someday I can't wait to be a mommy with John.
So, yesterday I was babysitting two kids. They are 3 and 5. In order to protect those involved I will not disclose the genders and names of these kids. I was doing my job picking them up from school and as soon as I got the one kid the kid flipped out and told me "I'm going to be mean to you and I don't want to be your friend anymore. I'm going to put you in jail" OUCH. So, I tried to talk to the kid to see what happened at school. Then things escalated (I'll spare ALL of the HORRIBLE details) and lets just say I ended up being spit on twice, hit, and scratched. I called the parents immediately because I had never dealt with anything like that before, ever. It made me so sad.
On the way home from work I called my mother crying. I felt like the worst babysitter in the world and all of the sudden so very incapable of doing something that I have always been good at. But I know I handled that very sensitive and difficult situation the best that I could. It was so scary and I tried to control it the best I knew how.
So, when I got home I let out my frustrations and sadness on some cooking. Being in the kitchen is my therapy. Cooking makes me feel so calm and I know it is something that I am good at, and at that point I really needed to feel confident about something.
I made:
Creamy and Sweet Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Croutons
Here is what you'll need:
3 tablespoons brown sugar
15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 cans chicken broth, 14 ½ oz each
1 cup chopped onion
5 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
whole wheat bread loaf (bread cut into cubes)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 tablespoon white pepper
1/4 tablespoon white sugar
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Mix together 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Dip bread cubes in the mixture and place on baking sheet with buttered side up and bake for about 8 minutes or until the bread is toasted.
Sauté the onion in the rest of the butter in a saucepan until tender, then add half the chicken broth. Stir the mixture well, bring it to a boil, then cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
Process the broth in a food processor or a blender until it is smooth, then put it back in the saucepan and add the other can of broth, the salt, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, white pepper, pumpkin puree, and black pepper.
Stir the mixture well and bring it to a boil.
Cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let the pumpkin soup simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring it occasionally.
Stir in the cream and warm it throughout without boiling.
Ladle the soup into 6 serving bowls and top each one with some yummy cinnamon croutons.
On another note:
You have until Monday October 25th to enter our GIVEAWAY! We are giving away A CUSTOM MADE GUITAR STRING RING and 4 ANTHROPOLOGIE LATTE BOWLS
12 comments:
looove your bottom picture!! quite hilarious. i will send you an email on my feelings on the beginning of your post: i can only say been there, its horrible, and i'm sorry.
and this looks amazing. this recipe is NOT in my pumpkin recipe book, so i cannot wait to try it.
and i always call my mom to tell her about my rough times.
still so excited for your giveaway! obviously. :)
I teach tennis and I work with children everyday. It is definitely hard when they go through their own issues. I am sure you handled it amazingly.
On a side not, the kitchen is my comfort when I am stressed out too....that pumpkin soup looks so good! I am gonna try it.
the kitchen is also my safe place. I love it there and feel so comfortable. :-) Gonna have to try your pumpkin soup recipe! i have been looking for a good one!
THAT ALMOST EXACT THING HAPPENED TO ME TODAY WHILE I WAS BABYSITTING. If only I found this recipe earlier.
My goodness, I want your cooking skills! I want to make the frosting right now, actually.. chocolate frosting is my super-bad-for-you junk food of choice on a bad day.
I wish you could babysit my kids! You'd like them! :)
I made peanut butter bars last night (recipe on the dinner blog) and ate them until I was SICK!!
WOW!!! I can't imagine what could have prompted that child to act that way towards you!!! I'm SURE it was NOTHING you did wrong!! Sounds like he/she is having some pretty serious issues elsewhere in his/her life that are causing these outbursts. I hope the parents address it asap!!
And OMG. fabulous recipes. Love your pictures, like always!! :)
I have some babysitting horror stories. The worst one being when a boy chased me around his house with a huge knife trying to stab me. I was scared and couldn't wait to go home. It was horrible.
@ Ashley- Oh My GOSH! A KNIFE?! That is unreal! I just really don't like this job anymore. Im torn between needing the money but wanting to be safe...
I can't wait to raise children under my rules and love. Its just going to be so different. I really hope I'm a good mother.
aww, that's awful! yikes. and icing always makes everything okay :)
adorable blog, i love finding new ones to read! and you sing? i am so jealous of your musical abilities. hehe
-jenn
I can relate to your babysitter story. I had been this litte girls main babysitter for about a year. (Her family was really rich so it was the bomb! :) Then one day I went over there and she had her cousins over too. She completely bossed them around and treated them like dirt on her shoes. I let them play but when this 4 year old girl pushed her cousin into the wall, I told her she needed to apologize and that things like that were NOT ok. She got really mad at me and told me she didn't like me anymore. Her parents never asked me to babysit again. I hate thinking about that story because I always wonder what that little girl must have told her parents that I did. Sigh, I'm sure she'd never been told what to do in her LIFE.
Wow long story, sorry about that! But yes I can totally relate. Pass me some chocolate icing please?
This soup changed my life tonight. Thanks!
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