Yellow Squash Soup and Asian Lettuce Wraps

I recently had some odd cravings. Well squash soup made sense since my co-worker kindly gave me more organic squash and since I had stir-fried it last time, it needed a new medium in which to appear. I followed a simple recipe of 30 oz. of chicken broth plus 20 oz. of water that was salted and peppered in which I cooked one de-seeded and peeled yellow squash plus half an onion. A dash of rosemary was also used to flavor the concoction.

The recipe said to simmer for 45 minutes, but 15 minutes more than sufficed to produce translucent squash and onions indicative of their tenderness. The whole mix was cooled in the fridge for 10 minutes and then pureed in a blender. The puree was then warmed and cream added to give a thicker texture. As you can see, the soup is still quite thin and in order to thicken it, I haphazardly added some cornstarch.

What I realized later is that the recipe called for 3 apples. I had decided to take these out and stick to straight squash, not recognizing that the thick consistency of the soup would not be maintained without increasing the number of squash in the absence of apples. What you will see below is the next day when I cooked two additional de-seeded and peeled yellow squash in the soup and pureed them in a blender. The yellow color shows the increased thickness of the soup to the expected consistency.

Heat and serve with parsley as a decorative addition:


Now the part where the odd craving comes in...the very same day I decided I wanted asian lettuce wraps. Of course they don't mix well with squash soup, but none-the-less I made them. Basically the filling consists of ground beef with garlic cooked in a sauce created from soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, sherry, and sesame oil. Unfortunately, I didn't have ginger, green onions, or water chesnuts, which I would recommend adding. To create the wrap, wash iceberg lettuce leaves and fill with the stir-fried meat. Wrap and enjoy!

(They tasted really good despite not looking as enticing as they could have been with the additional ingredients!)

Showcase on Side Dishes

Some side dishes I have made at different times throughout the past month.

Sauteed organic squash with garlic and parsley

The squash is from my co-worker who owns a farm and grows most of her own vegetables! I made it for a fourth of July dinner at Hayley and Jason's.

Side dish also made for fourth of July dinner - cucumber, tomato, and onion salad marinated in an oil/vinegar based dressing also containing basil, garlic salt, and sugar:


What would I do without fruit?? Fruit is pretty cheap at the Strip District in Pittsburgh, which is where most of this fruit is from.

Berries with dark chocolate stick (called "Pocky for Men" because of its bitter nature :P)

Bruschetta, Shrimp and Green Beans

The bruschetta actually started out as pico de gallo for tacos I had made the other night, but I had so much left over that I decided to make it into bruschetta. Basically cut bread into small slices, added a little bit of olive oil to the tops and baked for a few minutes until slightly browned.

The topping consists of tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and garlic salt.

Together they are quite tasty :)

Next I made green beans with toasted almonds. First add a little bit of oil and add slivers of almond. You only need to leave them in for about 1 minute until they are browned. In my case, I left them in too long until they became blackened shards! The green beans were stir-fried in oil and lightly salted then mixed with the almonds.

Last was the shrimp stir-fried in a lemon, parsley, white wine, honey sauce that I completely improvised. Still need to work out the balance of components, but I would leave out the honey and use fresh lemon next time.

All in all though, the meal tasted pretty good. This is the final dish:

Watercress with French Tarragon Chicken and white rice

This meal is similar to the previous one and doesn't require much explanation. Here it is: