I love getting spiced butternut at restaurants so when I decided to make some this ended up being a good base. I took some advice from previous reviews and made these changes: 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1/2 teaspoon all other spices No russet potatoes--- instead 1 yam and 1 apple Silk brand of Almond milk instead of half and half and 2 cups Only 4 cups of chicken broth I like a lot of spice to my food so upping the spices was just a hands-down-must. Going with the yam and apple just seemed to be a favorite of people on here and I went that way. I used almond milk since I'm lactose intolerant and it is still fairly thick (Silk brand that is) and taking that to two cups smoothed it very nicely while only four cups of chicken brother helped bring down the liquid. I baked the squash, but then cut everything and put it in my slow cooker for ten hours while stirring it occasionally and using my hand blender at the final hour mark. For this size of the recipe using a 6+ quart slow cooker would be ideal. With these variations I LOVE it!