Easy Lunches with Easy Women: Lil Miss Lixx and Leah Alice!

Last week I had a fabulous lunch with two lovely ladies.  I think I'm going to make a point to have at least one sexy woman over to my house for lunch every week.  I'd love to have beautiful women in my kitchen everyday, but I take what I can get.  So, I'm starting something new, Easy Lunches with Easy Women!

Last week I had Lil Miss Lixx and Leah Alice over. We got the gossip out early, then talked about books, movies, and of course a lot about sex, drugs, and rock and roll!  For the first of these lunches I decided to go with something simple.  So here's what I made:

Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger Shrimp

SOUP:
1 large Butternut Squash- peeled, seeded and chopped into smaller pieces
2 shallots chopped (about 1 cup)
3 star anise
2 cloves garlic minced
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
cilantro for garnish

SHRIMP:
1 lb. large shrimp deveined and peeled
3 tablespoons ginger minced
salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

For the Soup: sauté shallots, garlic, and star anise in 2 tablespoons butter until shallots are tender. Add butternut squash and sauté for a couple minutes. Add stocks and cook until squash is tender and falling apart.  Remove star anise.  With an emersion blender (you can use a regular blender as well, just so it in batches) blend soup until thin. Add salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, marinate shrimp in ginger and salt.  When soup is ready to be served.  Heat a pan with olive oil and add shrimp to hot pan.  Cook until slightly browned and pink. (only a couple minutes)

Serve soup in a bowl, add shrimp to soup and garnish with cilantro.