Pumpkin Soup

This happens to be one of my wife Kendall's favorite meals.  It works best pared with a grilled cheese sandwich, and a cold fall evening.

3 lbs fresh pumpkin peeled and sliced, and roasted in oven drizzled with melted butter for 45 minutes to one hour

1 onion chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

2 carrots chopped

1 ancho chile seeded and

5 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

5 cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup grade B maple syrup *

1 cup heavy cream

In a large dutch oven sweat the onions, carrots, and celery in butter with cloves, ancho chili, and cinnamon.  Add stock, roasted pumpkin, nutmeg, and maple syrup.  Cook on low temperature for one hour.  Puree soup in batches in your blender.  Be careful to only fill your blender jar half way if you are pureeing hot liquid and use the lowest setting.  Have a firm grip on the top of the blender lid otherwise it will all end up on your ceiling.  Put back into the pot and add cream.  Serve hot and enjoy!

*Grade B maple syrup is the second tapping of the tree.  The tree needs to work harder to produce the sap for this, so it pulls more nutrients from the ground and a more intense maple flavor is the result.  Grade A will work, but use real maple syrup and not the Mrs. Butterworth's Please.