Autumn Vegetable Stew

I have finished my block exams! To celebrate, I'm writing a post on a dish I came up with a couple of weeks ago that I ended up really loving. I mentioned earlier that squash is one of my favorite things about fall, and I thought it would be interesting to integrate it into a soup/stew. I've had acorn squash soup before, but that's more or less pureed squash that's been heated up a bit with some salt and pepper on it. Delicious, but not what I've had in mind. Unfortunately I have no image for this one. I'll definitely be making it again, and when I do I'll post a picture.

**Edit: I've made it a second time, and it was once again awesome. Here's the picture, as promised.

Spicy Sausage Soup

When I made my last soup, I realized that soup is an outstanding way to make an easy, delicious, healthy meal. I had some stuff laying around this week and decided to see what kind of soup I could make from it. It's simultaneously pseudo-Italian and a little bit Hispanic. Importantly, it's all around delicious. It's nice and hearty. It would be a great thing to come inside to after a cool, crisp fall day. It even has all those lovely fall colors.

Liquid autumn.

Sausage and Broccoli Pasta

What follows may be one of my less inspired dishes, but it's absolutely awesome and it's really easy to make. And fret not, I put at least a little bit of a personal touch to it. I love the way the heat of the sausage works with the almost creamy texture of steamed broccoli. A bit of tang from some lemon goes a long way to round out a great flavor profile for this dish.

Broccoli and sausage make a phenomenal pairing.

Tomato Asparagus Soup

It seems I'm running out of food. My apartment's pantry is getting bare, and my refrigerator is looking more desolate every time I open it. I didn't really have many fresh ingredients sitting around, so I decided to use up as man of them as I could in a single dish. And that dish was a soup!

Can't beat soup for simplicity and taste.

Tasty Bratwurst, and Pasta with Bite

My German ancestors would either be very proud of me or hang their heads in shame. The standard accompaniment to bratwurst is a good hot potato salad and some sauerkraut. Although I adore both of those things, I didn't really have all the necessary ingredients for either one. No cabbage, no bacon, not a lot of potato action... truly a shame. But I really, really wanted bratwurst. So I improvised! Sauerkraut and hot German potato salad together bring three important things to the meal: sour, sweet, and starch. I got the sour and starch from a pasta dish I came up with, and the sweetness came from a lovely topping for the sausage. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty great meal.

Click it. It'll be outrageously satisfying.

Pseudo-Caribbean Chicken and Crunchy Bananas

So, I wanted to try making something with a bit of a Caribbean feel to it. Note that I don't really know anything about how to actually cook a Caribbean-ish meal, but I had a concept in my mind and had to work towards it. I went for a marinated chicken dish, and had a flash of inspiration and decided to do something interesting with bananas for a side dish. I couldn't figure out what else to do with the meal (No rice! No beans!) so I rounded it off with asparagus because, well... I just like asparagus.

The successful product of utter guesswork.