Category Archives: Food & Entertaining

Blend up a No-fuss, Festive Recipe for Holiday Entertaining

(ARA) – The holidays are here. For many that means it’s time to pull out the best serving platters and the tastiest recipes for entertaining special holiday guests. Does contemplating your holiday party or dinner menu make you anxious? Don’t fret. Today’s technology is making it easier for you to quickly and easily prepare festive recipes that will bring good cheer to your guests.

Since you’ll likely be spending a great deal of time in the kitchen baking cookies and preparing delectable feasts for the holiday season, you’ll want to have the right tools on hand. Why not save precious time and energy with a high-performance blender that can do it all? Entertaining can be easy this season with the Vitamix Professional Series 500.

Featuring three convenient pre-programmed settings for hot soups, smoothies and frozen desserts, the Professional Series 500 makes hundreds of recipes and helps home chefs make gourmet meals like the pros. The machine’s superior pulse feature offers greater control in processing to create a variety of textures, and its full-range, variable speed control allows for flexibility and creativity.

The Professional Series 500 is much more than a blender. It can actually replace several appliances in your kitchen, saving valuable countertop space. This multi-functional kitchen essential is easy to clean and is equipped with a commercial-grade 2+ peak horsepower motor that generates blade speeds up to 240 mph.

It really can be simple to cook for the holidays with very little stress or mess. With a simple and tasty recipe, a festive and scrumptious holiday celebration is within reach with just the flip of a switch.

Holiday Squash Soup
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 5 Cups

Ingredients:
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 buttercup or butternut squash, cooked, peeled or 2 cups cooked squash or pumpkin
1/4 small onion, peeled
1/4 medium apple
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:
To cook butternut squash easily, split the squash in half vertically, scoop out the seeds and place flesh side down on a lightly greased baking pan. Pierce the skin and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Cool and scoop out flesh.

Place all ingredients, except the heavy cream, into the high-performance blender in the order listed and secure lid. Blend until smooth. Add in heavy cream and blend an additional 20 seconds.
Note: This recipe can be reduced by half and made in smaller containers.