Alumni Dinner

Ohhhh....my head...just another alumni dinner at the Beta house in Toronto...
On Thursday, me and another up and coming chef that I live with, put together a little something for the actives and alumni of my house. Two nights of prep later we had a meal fit for a Beta, 70 Betas to be exact. To start, we had a simple salad with a vinaigrette, nothing too fancy. The next course, the soup, was the dish that took all of time to prepare. We made an Apple and Squash puree that was amazing. Few of the 60 year old alumni decided to forgo their spoons when they were nearing the end of their course, in favor of their tongues to lick the bowl clean. I think it was a hit among them all. The next course was baked chicken with a 3 mushroom sauce, brown sugar glazed carrots and garlic mashed potatoes. To finish the night we had a tipple layer espresso angle food cake with whip cream, blueberries and strawberries.
I'm fairly impress that Dodge and myself were able to throw this together for the members of my house. Seeing as we had never done anything like this before. All in all, it was a fairly impressive meal with an even better crowd.
I, on the other hand, decided to celebrate a little to soon after the last course was out. On that note I decided to drink a whole bottle of wine to catch up with all the others. Bad idea. I spent the whole day over a stove and then I spent the whole night over the toilet. Poor sportsmanship on my part.
With that I'm going to leave the recipe for the soup, since it seems that people thought it was the most impressive part of the meal.

Theta Zeta Apple and Squash Alumni Soup

4 Peeled Apples (Red Delicious)
3 Acorn Squash
3 Butternut Squash
3 Cups of Chicken Broth
1 L of Half and Half
1/2 tbs of Cinnamon
1/2 tbs of Pepper
1/2 tbs of Chili Flakes
2 tbs of Chopped Walnuts
1 Leek Leaf (Finely Chopped)
1 tbs of Chopped Garlic
3 tbs of Butter

Pre-heat the oven to 375 and put on a pot of chicken broth (if you don't have any broth just have some bullion cubes at hand). While the oven is warming up take your apples and cut them up into bite sized chunks. Put the squash into the oven once it has hit the correct temperature and let them bake for and hour or until the squash is tender enough to scoop out with a spoon. Once they are done baking scoop out all the squash into the same bowl that you are storing your chopped apples (it will just be easier to transfer them later)
Put a stock pot on the burner over medium head, enough to melt the butter but not burn it. Now add the leeks and let them simmer for 5 minutes. After they have simmered add the garlic. Now it is time to add the apples and squash. After they have been added turn the heat up to medium-high and let them cook a bit while your stir the pot, say for about 5 min. After then, add everything thing else: cinnamon, pepper, chili flakes, walnuts and the half and half. Stir in everything for about 10 minuets over the medium-high heat.
Now you need to transfer all the contents of the pot into a blender and puree it until the texture is smooth.
Transfer the puree back into your stock pot and let it simmer for 40 min over a low head. Once this is done you are ready to serve. The final presentation should be the soup with a cream (or half and half) drizzle over top and some walnuts in the center.
This soup may be fitting for the Autumn, but it is also good for those cold and rainy spring days. Just what you need to warm yourself up.
Cheers!