Wallpaper Woes...

So we built our house about 8 years ago. We never intended to stay more than 7 to 10 years. But now with the economy and the housing market we decided to just hunker down for a few more years.

When I first started to decorate the downstairs I was really into the whole "French Provincal", reds, yellows, and blues. In my kitchen there is a weird shaped wall which holds the pantry. I decided to paint it red. It balanced the room with the red drapes I made in the living area.

3 years later...tired of the red. I found Barefoot Contessa and her fabulous East Hampton home and I wanted that east coast casual feel. I changed the red drapes with oatmeal color linen and found a wallpaper in a wonder tone-on-tone green(working for Waverly is very dangerous)which was like the wall in Ina's kitchen. Even though the wall is really small it was not a fun task hanging the wallpaper.

Another 5 years...regretting the wallpaper(still loving the color). I didn't think about splashing and stains that would occur and not being able to clean it off. So here is the step by step process of removing the wallpaper and painting stripes the exact color as the wallpaper. I should have done this from day one. If you can believe this was an easier project than hanging wallpaper. My suggestion if you want a stripe wall, paint!

Roasted Winter Vegetable Soup....

Cold snowy day, there is nothing better than a good bowl of soup. I had bought a butternut squash a couple weeks ago and need to use it, so I had to decide what to make. Then I remember Ina had a recipe for a roasted veggie soup. Voila...dinner!

Veggies...butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

Roasted veggies....pureed

The end result! Yummy!

Ingredients

3 to 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 quart Roasted Winter Vegetables, recipe follows
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In a large saucepan, heat 3 cups of chicken stock. In 2 batches, coarsely puree the roasted vegetables and the chicken stock in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pour the soup back into the pot and season, to taste. Thin with more chicken stock and reheat. The soup should be thick but not like a vegetable puree, so add more chicken stock and/or water until it's the consistency you like.

Roasted Winter Vegetables:
1 pound carrots, peeled
1 pound parsnips, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 small butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and seeded
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut the carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash in 1- to 1 1/4-inch cubes. All the vegetables will shrink while baking, so don't cut them too small.
Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on 2 sheet pans. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

Yield: 8 servings

Copyright 2002, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, All Rights Reserved


There were a few changes I made to the recipe. I used a good store bought chicken stock then added about 1/2 cup of half & half, a little nutmeg and cinnamon. Then I topped with some creme fraiche. If you want to make this vegetarian use vegetable stock or the water.