Grandpa Rosie's Recipes #2: Sausage Soup

This recipe is pretty much all prep. The cooking is just to dump everything into a pot, and the pot does all the work for the following 90 minutes.

With the last recipe, I also made some homemade white bread. I didn't make anything new this time because I had a couple of leftover corn toasty muffins from a meal I made the previous week. Can anybody tell me what a corn toasty is? It was for a Rachel Ray recipe, and I couldn't tell what the difference was between these and cornbread. IS it different?

My cocktail with this recipe was a Wild Irish Rose, which I made with Jameson Black Barrel. This might be the smoothest whiskey I've ever had while still being very flavorful. I've had some smooth Canadian whiskeys, but those were not at all very flavorful. This is a bottle that could do some trouble on me. Using it with this drink however was just a waste of good booze. With the inclusion of the lemon juice and grenadine, you really loose any of the whiskey taste; those other two flavors fully take over.

As mentioned, this was a VERY simple recipe. Slice/chop/cut what needs to be sliced/chopped/cut, and combine it all. The recipe says to cook slowly for about "1 to 1 1/2 hours." I brought it to a boil then brought it down to medium heat and covered for 90 minutes.

This was SO good. The smoked sausage I bought had the slightest bit of a kick to it, and it really worked when combined with the other flavors. The recipe only made about half as much as the mushroom/sauerkraut recipe, so it's not quite enough to feed an army. There was enough for me to have for dinner and two lunches, and I gave some to my sister (check out her Instagram hashtag #treasuretrunkdiner) and parents, just about a serving each.

What You Should Have Eaten #59

Ricotta Pasta with Sausage

Here’s number two in a series. Last week it was grape tomatoes, peas, and basil. This week it’s sausage.

 Browning the sausage is the only prep work involved in this, at least the way I made it. No onions to chop, and only dried herbs instead of fresh ones.

The drink was a Toronto, with Canadian whisky (Canadian Mist for me), Fernet Branca, sugar syrup, and Angostura bitters. I’m not the biggest whisky fan, I tend to enjoy the clear spirits, and this drink is almost half bitters, so it’s a bit of a face wrinkler. I can’t see myself making this again unless it’s on a dare.

The addition of the sausage and the subtraction of the veggies made this meal a bit heavier than last week’s. It was good, though. To me, pasta will always be better with meat and cheese.

Out of the five different ricotta pasta dishes I’ve made in the last five weeks, this is the one my kids liked the most. I guess, since it didn’t have any veggies in it, it was the least weird looking.

What You Should Have Eaten #56

Super Marsala Burgers

There’s quite a bit going on here, things I changed and/or added to the recipe/meal.

First off, I had a coupon for Johnsonville Italian Sausages, and they were on sale, so I decided to pick up a pack. The kids are a little iffy about burgers sometimes, so I figured some good “hot dogs” on the grill would go over well. I wasn’t wrong.

My local Kroger Marketplace had neither ground chicken or veal, so I opted for turkey. I never have a problem with it until I eat the leftovers later in the week, then my stomach seems to disagree with various choices I’ve made.

I cut out the shallots and onions, and I went with dry herbs/spices that I’ve already got in my pantry. I actually did have a McCormick’s grill seasoning in there, but it was for chicken, not steak. I thought it would work well since I was using ground turkey, not beef. I also didn’t buy any Fontina cheese since I had some perfectly good Sargento (bought on sale with a coupon) in the fridge.

The marsala was the biggest expenditure. The liquor store I frequent had two bottles, both by the same maker. One was sweet and the other was dry. The guy at the counter suggested I go with the dry since I was cooking with it. At $15/bottle, I was planning on enjoying a glass or two while cooking and eating this grilling feast. After the first sip, though, I knew the first glass would be my only one. I did not like it. The dry was too sweet, so I can’t even imagine what the sweet would have tasted like. The bottle is in my fridge waiting to be used in a recipe again. I can’t bear to just get rid of it. Maybe I’ll have a glass on the rare occasion when there isn’t any beer in the fridge.

For the sausages, I boiled them in beer (one bottle of Blue Moon Agave Blonde Ale, one bottle of Blue Moon Belgian-Style Pale Ale, and a bottle of water) then put them on the grill with the burgers. The burgers were good, but these were damn tasty. For the fries, I dumped them on a cookie sheet, sprinkled some Lawry’s Seasoned Salt on them, and popped them in the oven.

I forgot, again, to take a picture of the recipe, so click on the title and you’ll be taken to another blog with the recipe. In the book, there’s also an arugula-tomato salad that the link doesn’t provide. If I remember correctly, it’s just arugula, plum tomatoes and some olive oil.

This dinner was a winner. Really, how can you go wrong with burgers and dogs on the grill with fries and salad? Sure, the marsala was a bit of a stumble, but a bottle of Blue Moon set me straight, and it complemented the sausages!

What You Should Have Eaten #24

Mother’s Day Brunch

Yay, I’m back to blogging! Did you miss me? I know you did.

I hope that my first meal posting after the hiatus isn’t too disappointing. My kids wanted to do breakfast for their mom for Mother’s Day this year, but since that wasn’t an option, we did breakfast for dinner instead. They made the menu, I did the cooking.

I had originally planned on using a pancake mix from a box, but I didn’t have enough, so I decided to make it from scratch. Had a bit of a hiccup early on. I wanted to double the recipe, but forgot all about that after doubling the flour…and only the flour. When I added the egg/milk mixture, I ended up with a nice lump a dough and realized what I had done. It was a simple fix, though.

The big thing for me during this meal was the bacon. We usually have a quick breakfast for dinner during the week: scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, toast and some fruit. Since I was able to take my time with this dinner, I wanted to do something special with the bacon. First off, I wanted to use REAL bacon and not the turkey imposter that I normally use. I was going to fry it up on the stove (I usually use the microwave since it’s quicker and easier to clean up), but, after seeing the gang over at Epic Meal Time cook all of their bacon in the oven, I wanted to do it that way. And seriously, if you haven’t seen any of EMT’s videos, PLEASE click on the link. These guys are my new heroes.

I found a simple recipe on the Internet which consisted of lining a cookie sheet, putting the bacon on it, then cooking it at 400-degrees for 20 minutes. I had only a flat cookie sheet, so I used a broiler pan. I then doctored the bacon up with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, then I drizzled some maple syrup on it. I ended up cooking the bacon for at least a half an hour, but it never got crispy and I was getting impatient, so I ended up putting it in the microwave for a few minutes. Worked out just fine. I wonder, though, why I had such a difficult time in the oven? Was the pan too thick, or did I add too much stuff to it? Eh, it still tasted incredible, and I had a couple pieces left that I’m going to put on some burgers I have left over from Saturday.

So the meal consisted of pancakes, bacon, sausage and fruit salad with a red velvet cake for dessert. My kids come up with some pretty good ideas for dinner every now and then.

 

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.