Pumpkin & Potato Soup

I'm glad this cold rainy weather waited until after the weekend, Its so miserable out, I don't even have the slightest urge to get out and run. Which is good, because I'm still pretty sore from the marathon on Sunday.
Yesterday the grape juice finally got up to temperature (around 70 degrees). It has been cool recently and I've had to break down and turn on the heat. So to get the juice up to temps i had to put them next to the radiator and bundle them up.

For the Gewurztraminer I added some yeast nutrient, tartaric acid (to increase acidity), and Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast.

 Next for the De Chaunac I add the grape skins, peptic enzyme, yeast nutrient, oak and the Lalvin RC-212 yeast.

Then i sealed the buckets up, and placed airlocks into the holes on top. This will allow gasses to escape while not allowing air to get in.

I was trying to decide on what to make for dinner and figured i would make some kind of soup since it was a cold and rainy day. I had some cans of pumpkin so i thought I'd try a Pumpkin and Potato Soup.
I chopped up 3 leeks, which gave me about 2 cups and sauteed them in olive oil. Then added 6 cups of vegetable broth, about 6 cups of chopped potatoes and cooked until soft. Then added the leeks, broth and potatoes to the blender and blended to desired consistency. I like my soup smooth but you can leave chucks if you like, you may need to get a second pot as all the soup will not fit in the blender. After everything is blended and back in the pot I add 2 cans of pumpkin, 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard and some hot pepper flakes. I simmer for about 10 mins and its ready to serve.

This is a very easy soup to make and tastes so good. This is also the same way I make my Potato Soup, just minus the pumpkin.
This morning the buckets of juice were just bubbling away, I opened up the two De Chaunac buckets and stirred up the skins that form a cap on top of the juice. You must do this twice a day so that the skins get the maximum amount of exposure to the juice. The tannins in the skins will give the wine its dark red color and bolder flavor, more so than if you were to ferment the juice with out the skins.

This process will be repeated for the next week and a half until the primary fermentation is done. Then its time to get the next batch of juice.