What You Should Have Eaten #14

Fancy-Pants Bangers ‘n’ Mash

I’m excited about this dinner. For one, it’s meat and potatoes. Nuthin fancy about it, despite the title. Two, it’s sausage and mashed potatoes. The kids have GOT to eat that, right? Third, I think this weekend was the first time I actually bought anything directly from the meat counter instead of getting something pre-packaged. Granted, I did get a pack of Johnsonville Beer Brats, but I also picked up some awesome looking maple flavored sausages out of the case. And they’re huge!

But first, an exchange from Arrested Development:

Makes me want to do an entire Constitutional devoted to AD, but I’d just end up posting ALL of the episodes. I loved that show.

I chose this bottle of Merlot because of the price. $6.50 and 10% off of that. For the price? Not bad at all. Smooth, and tastes good. I’m not a wine person, so that’s all you get.

First off, there will be no red onions. I’ll be leaving onions out of any recipe, so it looks like I’ll just be sautéing up some minced garlic and a couple of spice. I’m very okay with that, though.

The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I’m skinning the potatoes. My oldest likes mashed potatoes, but the last time I made a similar dish, he wouldn’t eat it because of the bits of skin. So I’ll through the trouble of skinning them if it means he’ll eat them. I’ve also got a smidge more than two pounds. Gotta have enough for leftovers!

I’ve got a brand new Pyrex measuring cup that I found on clearance at Kroger Marketplace yesterday. It’s exciting. It’ll put the old plastic one I’ve got to shame.

I love cream cheese. Love it love it love it. There’s a good chance that the rest of this tiny brick will be eaten…plain…by the end of the week.

The tiny sausages are Johnsonville Beer brats, the bigger ones are Purnell Maple Flavored pork sausages. Those were, I think, my first purchase at an actual meat counter. Aaaaand I just realized that I already said that. Oh well. Looks like I’ll also be using a grill fork with the sausage; I’ve apparently tossed my tongs. I seem to remember them getting a bit rusty. Next time I’ll spring for some higher-quality ones.

Every Sunday, my cooking day, I like to have my sister over for a nice meal with her nephews and niece. And me, too. If she’s unable to come over, like tonight, I make her a serving and give it to her when I drop my oldest off at her apartment on Monday morning (she takes him to school). I’ve also decided that I’m going to take an extra serving to work, so a few of my co-workers can fight over it on Monday. It’ll be entertaining for me, and delicious for them. And it feeds my ego.

I’m not 100% sure that the utensil pictured with the mashed potatoes is actually a potato masher, but it works wonderfully.

Wow, I could tell a big difference between the meat counter sausages and the Johnsonville Brats. First, the JBs were more mild; there was a bit of spice to the maple sausages. Second, the JBs were just better. Let’s see what the kids think. The oldest has half of a sausage, while the two youngest are splitting a brat.

Well, Little Man and The Princess ate all of their sausage. Big Man didn’t touch a thing, despite saying how good everything looked. I loved it all and can’t wait to have leftovers for lunch most of the week. By the end of the meal, I was eating the bangers WITH the mash. Very tasty. Oh, and the wine pairs wonderfully with the dinner. It really balances out the spiciness of the sausage.