for no good reason and you can’t sleep, make soup. Making soup is like doing laps. There’s no big thinking involved–you just have to remember to breathe and keep going til it’s done.

Turn the oven up to 375 degrees. Whack a butternut squash in half, and scrape the seeds out with a spoon. Drizzle it with olive oil and a little salt. If you’re not sure about your olive oil, use a few dabs of butter instead. Drop the squash halves onto a sheet pan and til tender. Try not to eat it; you need it for the soup.

Cut up a shallot and a small red onion (or no worries–one medium yellow onion is fine) and saute that with a whole clove of garlic, a few red pepper flakes, or a small pepperoncino, a few sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, a sage leaf and about a third of a piece of bacon, cut into bits. Let all of that go until it’s completely tender. Stirring and letting your mind wander over nothing is good for you. When you keep taking tastes because it’s so delicious, add two little peeled and finely chopped potatoes. Let them stick to the pan and then add water, vegetable or chicken stock. It’s best when you make stock yourself–if you don’t have any just use water.
When the potatoes are soft, peel the squash from it’s skin and add to the soup. Let it simmer away a little longer and give it a tiny grind of nutmeg. Taste for salt. Shove your immersion blender in and puree til nearly smooth.
Have a bowl of that and I guarantee you will be on your way to better.