Creamy Pumpkin Soup

When I was first planning my wedding I would spend a lot of time on a wedding planning website called The Knot. The website was great for information sharing among people in your geographic region, you could post questions about florists, photographers, tailors, pretty much anything wedding related, and get feedback and advice from local brides and brides to be. I knew that I would get a lot of information about wedding planning from this website, what I didn't know was that three years later I would still be talking to some of these women on a weekly basis. We don't communicate on The Knot anymore, we have our own little MSN group now and we lovingly refer to ourselves as The Beanies, because we were all Beantown brides. I'm not sure how many Beanies are currently in our MSN group, but I'm particularly close with a handful of the girls. With the crazy schedules all of us keep it's hard to get everyone together, but last night some of the girls came to my house, to eat, drink, share stories, and laugh. It was great.

I made my pumpkin soup last night; I've made this soup every year for the past three years, but I made a mistake with it last night. I used 100% pumpkin when I usually use pumpkin pie mix, so it wasn't as sweet and aromatic as it usually is. Had I realized this I would have just added some cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice into the soup, but I forgot. So, I wasn't as happy as I usually am with this soup, but when made correctly it's a real crowd pleaser.

And when you're two bottles or so deep in red wine, do you really taste the difference anyway, Huh?

Creamy Pumpkin Soup
16 oz can pumpkin (100% pumpkin or pie mix depending on if you want it sweet or not)
14 oz can chicken broth
1 large onion diced
2 carrots shredded
2c half and half or evaporated milk
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt

In pot combine broth, onions, carrot, baking soda, salt and pepper. Simmer 10-15 minutes. Add pumpkin and milk/half and half, simmer until hot. Serve.