Pumpkin Soup

First, a word of warning. I made this using real pumpkin, which can be kind of a pain in the ass. However, it makes at least four servings, so you'll have some leftovers.

Ingredients:
-Pie pumpkin (if you can find a Japanese pumpkin, which are green, definitely use that instead. I have slightly different pumpkin cooking instructions for the Japanese pumpkin, so let me know if you need them)
-1.5 C chicken broth
~1 C milk
-3 cloves garlic
-1 red onion, sautéed
-salt & pepper, to taste (I ended up needing quite a bit...like 1-2 tsp of each)
-couple pinches thyme
-couple pinches nutmeg

Steps:
1. Cut pumpkin in half. BE CAREFUL when doing this...you'll need a really sharp knife.

2. Scoop out seeds and stringy stuff. I used a pumpkin scooper leftover from a pumpkin carving kit. If you wanted you could save the seeds for baking.
3. Cut pumpkin into smaller pieces (I cut mine into eighths).

4. Put in a microwave safe container and fill container with 1 or 2 inches of water.
5. Heat in microwave for ~20 mins, or until pumkin rind is soft.
6. While pumpkin is microwaving, sauté your onion.

6. Let the pumpkin pieces cool a bit, then scoop out the rind. If it's done, the peel should pull off pretty easily. (I used some paper towels to pull off the skin to keep my fingers from burning.)

7. Add all of the ingredients to a blender.

8. Blend.
9. You'll probably need to heat it up on the stove. At this point taste your soup and see if needs more spices.

10. Serve with bread and butter.

Note: I've added white beans to this after I blended it, and that made it heartier.