Pumpkin Curry Soup

Ingredients

a couple of tablespoons cooking fat (I like bacon grease; butter would probably be the next best choice)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 15-oz or 1 29-oz can pumpkin
1 cup milk
sour cream and grated Parmesan cheese

In large saucepan, saute onion in fat until clear. Add garlic (add it when the onion is about done--it doesn't take as long as onion to cook, and there's hardly anything worse than burnt garlic), curry powder, salt, and cayenne; cook one minute. Add one cup broth; then, before it gets too hot, put the onions etc in a blender and liquify. (Most recipes tell you to do this at the very end, but it's hard to pour a lot of very hot soup into a blender. And what if it splashes out of the top when you turn the blender on? Needlessly dangerous and more difficult.)

Return liquified onions to saucepan, add the rest of the broth, and simmer gently, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in pumpkin. (Most recipes call for only one small can, but the results just aren't pumpkin-y or thick enough to suit my taste.) Cook five minutes, then add the milk. (Most recipes call for half & half, but I'd rather the thickness come from extra pumpkin. Also, skimping on those few calories helps me feel slightly more justified in the garnishes.)

Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan. If you want to reheat it, do it on the stove rather than in the microwave--less likely to overheat or scorch the milk that way.