Maybe cassoulet

I was a vegetarian for close to a decade before my daughter was born. I really didn't fully venture back into the world of meat eaters until a bout with severe anemia left me craving bacon cheeseburgers.

I still resist cooking meat. Of all the meats to prepare, sausage is my dreaded least favorite. Gooey and gross.

But I work tonight and thought I'd fire up the crockpot again with something that resembles a hearty French cassoulet.

On the bottom of the crock pot:

- 1 large clove garlic, sliced

- 1 can petit diced tomatoes 

- 1 tiny can tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (all I had)

- 1 approximately 3/4 chunk cube of homemade chicken stock from my freezer

Next I browned a pack of sausage links. 

Being cheap, I put three in the fridge for later and sliced the other two, putting that and the dribbles of grease from the frying pan into the crock pot.

Finally I added:

- 1 can white/ Great Northern beans (bean slime rinsed off)

- 1 can whole potatoes 

- about 3 tablespoons parsley 

- about 1/2 cup frozen sliced mushrooms

Or maybe I dumped more parsley than that...

I plan to cook for seven hours on high. Adding water if liquid is needed. 

Even at first stir it looks great:

I did not add water, but after the first two or three hours I turned the heat down to low.

This was what my small bowl looked like:

My family enjoyed it. Daughter announced it was only a tiny bit less amazing than Saturday night's Kedjenou. I expected it to be more tomato soup-like but I'm happy to report that it's more of a savory stew. (I don't like tomato soup.) Success.

I wish I'd made a bigger batch.

Eggplant/Sausage Parm

I think I am possibly the least talented person alive when it comes to cooking eggplant. 

I started with an eggplant from my sister-in-law's garden. I peeled, sliced, layered in between dish towels and pressed under a big Le Creuset pot.

About four hours later, I breaded the cutlets sans egg with my own mix of homemade breadcrumbs. Fried in a mix of canola and coconut oil because I'm almost out of coconut oil.

We layered the eggplant with tomato sauce, chunks of tomato from my own garden, cheddar, Parmesan and chunks of bratwurst. (It was on clearance at Target). Seasonings included garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

Covered with foil and baking at 350 for 40 minutes. While I'm in the shower, husband will prep some sort of pasta with the leftover sausage.

The end product was fabulous on a bed of spaghetti, sprinkled with some more Parmesan. 

I haven't cooked a real meal in ages and this might make up for it.

Summary

Haven't made anything stellar in the last few days-- but used a pie crust to make this pastie like creation of sausage-meatballs and spinach dip filling. It was so good I got a small sliver of it, what I tasted to make sure it was properly cooked. The family ate it all before I got home from work.

Yesterday we had sandwiches. Mine was on a big hunk of baguette with turkey, vegetarian bacon, romaine, homemade apple butter and red delicious apple slices that I microwaved a few seconds to soften them.

Sausage chili

I got the last few coconut flour cornbread muffins out of the freezer and wondered what I could make to go with them. I had ground Italian sausage in the fridge, so I thought a chili with sausage might work.

I lightly browned the sausage in my big ol' Le Creuset skillet, with a little bit of coconut oil. I added a can of petite diced tomatoes (and yes I've read how now canned tomatoes are on the no-no list for many wholesome eaters, not only are they probably GMO but the cans are treated with... What is it? BHA? If I grow enough to can my own, I won't have to worry about it...)

Anyway, the tomatoes and meat are simmering away... I start tossing spices in, totally willy nilly as I've often seen Rachael Ray do. A lot of chili powder, some garlic, a few shakes of cumin, a few shakes of oregano, a little four color peppercorn, a pinch of paprika, and a good dump of cocoa. This is an operation done by smell. You want it very aromatic, because the beans will dilute it.

I added some water so it wouldn't stick and believe or not I piled about two cups frozen baby carrots on top. Stirred all that in. Then after 45 minutes or so of simmering on medium-low, I transferred it to the crock pot on high. I added one more cup water, 2 cans dark red kidney beans (reduced sodium, rinsed and drains), and the leftover black beans AND the leftover corn from the fridge.

I put it on high for an hour and then reduced the heat to warm for the rest of the afternoon.

Spaghetti and local sausage

- wheat rotini
- tomato sauce
- local sausage
- oregano
- garlic pepper
- Italian seasoning

'Nuff said?

Sausage and apple vegetarian waffles

I promised my family a pancake breakfast. I told the family they could pick the variety. They picked waffles. My husband suggested the funky French sausage waffles. When I started to gather the ingredients, I noticed something horrible.

We had one tablespoon of butter in the house.

HOW COULD SUCH A CATASTROPHE OCCUR?

So, we walked to Bottom Dollar and bought 4 pounds of butter at $2.09 a pound.

The waffle recipe is based on this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-sausage-waffles.html?m=1

But since there is a universal law that I cannot make the same meal twice, here is the new version.

Keep in mind this is based on a French gaufre recipe and I think gaufre might be French for "dripping with butter."


- 1 egg
- 1 single serving applesauce
- parsley
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1-2 cup diced apple
- 3 Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties, broken into tiny pieces
- 1-2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar

I think that's everything.

Best eggplant ever

So, eggplant is labor intensive. But for some reason I planted it. Now I have to cook it.

First, I washed and peeled the eggplant. Then I thinly sliced it and laid the cutlets on tea towels. I lightly lightly salted them, sprinkled them with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. I covered them with another tea towel and piled the tea towel with cookbooks and Le Creuset cookware.

Two hours later, I breaded them with egg and a mixture of my leftover crumbs-- bread crumbs, bagel crumbs, goldfish crumbs and everything pretzel chip crumbs.

Then I fried them in lots of oil.

Meanwhile, I browned some ground sausage. Added peppers and tomatoes also from my garden. And no salt added tomato sauce. And Italian seasoning.

Layered eggplant with the sauce to fill the casserole dish. Baked at 350 for an hour.

Margez

One of my favorite parts of travel to the Arab sections of French cities and to North Africa is lamb sausage, Margez.

This particular platter posted is from a café in the Tunisian resort city of Sousse, about 2.5 hours by train from the capital city of Tunis.

What's interesting about Franco-influenced Arab cuisine is the flood of bread with every meal, even more prevalent than in France. The North African region gives a basket of baguette slices its own twist-- by serving it with the chili pepper paste known as harissa blended with olive oil.

See the empty bowl in the background with red smears? That was harissa.

My travels have renewed my interest in checking out the halal butcher in my neighborhood.

Classico Sausage Skillet

I received a phone call from Target today at 10:20 asking me to cashier from 10:30 to 2:30. I made it there by 10:48 and spent the day running back and forth between lane 12 and making pizzas at the café.

With my daughter away at Girl Scout camp, my diet has consisted of burgers and Christmas cookies, eggs and corn chips.

So when I got home, I asked my husband to whip up the following:

Classico Alfredo Sausage Skillet

- 1/2 box whole wheat rotini
- 1 pound ground sausage
- 1 jar Classico roasted red pepper poblano Alfredo sauce (I think... I had a Target coupon to try it)
- grated Parmesan

Darrell prepared the pasta while he browned the meat in my skillet. Then he added the sauce, then the noodles and we sprinkled with the cheese.

The sauce had a small bite and a layer of sweetness so I probably should have added a pinch of fresh ground black pepper. And broccoli. But I was starving so...

Sausage Spinach Lasagna

I had a coupon for ricotta so I thought I'd make lasagne. I bought several cans of sauce for this lasagne only to find that by the time I got around to making it, my husband had used all but one can for pasta.

Ingredients
- one pound mild Italian sausage, ground
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- Italian seasoning, about a tablespoon
- 2 brown eggs
- 15 ounces ricotta
- 2 cups spinach
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan/reggiano
- 12 no boil lasagne noodles

Brown the sausage and add tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Let simmer.

In large bowl, mix both cheeses, eggs and spinach.

Layer into 9 x 13 Pyrex dish-- sauce, four noodles, sauce, think layer of cheese; noodles, sauce, cheese; noodles, remaining sauce.

I would have preferred double the amount of sauce. I didn't think to add garlic.

Cover with foil and bake for 60-70 minutes at 375. Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes to let crisp.

Let stand before serving.

Pasta with spinach in herbed lemon butter sauce

Since last week's pasta in lemon butter sauce was so popular I opted to try and repeat the experiment.

I started with the Le Creset skillet, a tablespoon of butter, 1/2 a clove of garlic, juice of one lemon, two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, handful of fresh parsley from the garden, and several tablespoons fresh chives from the garden. I stirred over low while it all cooked. I believe I added another tablespoon or so of butter to balance the lemon juice.

Next I added about 1.5 cups chopped spinach leftover from the omelet the other day and increased the heat. Then I added slices of Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples. Let that cook until the sausage browned and the liquid started to dry up.

I made some whole wheat rotini, put them back in the pan with another two tablespoons of butter and a trickle of extra virgin olive oil. Then I mixed it the spinach mixture from the skillet. Voilà, c'est prêt.

Leftovers in lemon-butter sauce

Today for breakfast we had raisin bran and I forgot to have my second breakfast. That made the morning challenging.

It's cold and rainy so my multigrain pizza crust didn't rise properly (still tasted fairly good and kind of like a soft pretzel). But the pan pizza came out nicely.

The perfumed pineapple, well, my daughter over perfumed it and I over-buttered the crumbs again so it was far from perfect but edible.

But I made up for all of this with dinner.

I started with some white rice in the steamer.
Assembled the following:

• Le Creuset skillet
• 1 clove garlic sliced
• extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed)
• butter
• lemon juice
• 1 crown broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces (2-3 cups?)
• 2 chicken sausages with apple (from Trader Joe's), sliced
• 1 chicken breast prepared "chicken frances" leftover from the diner last night, chopped
  
• leftover rice from the diner

• 1 slice garlic bread from the diner

Okay, so I started with two tablespoons of olive oil and a slice of butter in the skillet as I dropped the garlic in on low. I added the chicken, because it came out of the fridge and was cold. Then the sausage. Then the broccoli. Every time the liquid got absorbed, I pushed everything to one side of the skillet (now at medium heat) and added a couple tablespoons of butter and equal amounts of lemon juice and blended them vigorously. Then I let the sauce seep to the other side of the pan and mixed everything up again.

I probably made this little batch of sauce three times and then I added the leftover rice from the diner and two heaping serving spoons of white rice from my steamer. More vigorous stirring.

Then, when the liquid disappeared and the rice started to stick, I moved everything to the coolest side of the skillet, reduced the heat to low, and added another couple tablespoons olive oil and mixed it up one last time.

And served.

I put the garlic bread in the skillet (once I pushed everything to the side, again) and fried each side a minute to get it warm without getting it soggy. Who says you can't reheat garlic bread?

All in all, I used 3/4 stick of butter and equal amounts lemon juice for the sauce. I love lemon-butter sauce.

Veg Sausage Biscuits

My daughter slept late today and so my husband did not make us cream of wheat as he does most days.

My daughter had a small bowl of cocoa pebbles with whole milk when she woke. (A gift from her mimi, I didn't buy them.)

Then at nine a.m., I got two of my multigrain biscuits out of the freezer and two Morningstar breakfast patties (vegetarian sausage) and made little sausage biscuits with ketchup, served with a serving of 100% fruit juice and one of my oatmeal-dried fruit cookies from yesterday.

Sausage and rice with veggies

Tonight I prepared Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples (3 sausages) in my Le Creuset skillet with about 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 2 cloves fresh garlic. When the sausage finished cooking, I sliced it and added the broccoli from one broccoli crown and a couple cups of fresh chopped cauliflower. I let that sizzle for a while until the vegetable soaked up all the "juice" and then I added another tablespoon olive oil, the last of my French butter (probably three tablespoons) and about three tablespoons champagne vinegar.

And then I added the long grain white rice I had cooked in the steamer with garlic powder and four color black peppercorn. (It was 1.5 cups unprepared rice) And stirred it all up and let it cook until the rice turned a soft yellow (and wanted to stick to the bottom as I stirred. I stirred constantly.)

I was nervous about it because of the champagne vinegar, but it was good. Really good. I had two plates and I'd really like another...

Apple Sausage Waffles

For the gaufres:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

They suggest ham, roquefort & fresh parsley.

I'm adding:

• dried parsley
• 2 chicken sausages with apple
• some cheddar (about a cup)

And tossing it in the waffle iron.

WOW! The best waffles ever! Cooked to a perfect golden brown in five minutes flat!

Converted from a French recipe:
http://www.supertoinette.com/recette/1924/gaufres-au-jambon-en-amuse-bouche.html

Spaghetti and sausage

Easy dinner tonight. We went out to eat at Little Italy Food Center in Pohatcong last night. I brought home about 2/3 of the sausage in my spaghetti and sausage. So, since my daughter and I are heading to Philadelphia tomorrow and won't be cooking, I thought we could make our own spaghetti and add the leftover sausage. It was a hit.

Eggs and Trader Joes sausages

My daughter woke up starved this morning and helped herself to a Nature Valley granola bar. This meant she had no interest in breakfast, so we started a school project instead of eating.

At nearly 10, I realized I was dangerously starving so I made us both scrambled eggs with parsley and the leftover chicken-apple sausage from Trader Joes.

Lunch will be leftover pasta, and dinner depends on whether or not my daughter has girl scouts. My thoughts are vegetarian cheese steak wraps, blueberry pancakes, or parmesan-herb breaded pork with a side of fresh mango and steamed veggies...

Simplicity tonight: Trader Joe's Chicken-Apple Sausage

I found some mozzerella sticks in the back of the freezer, which I served tonight with popcorn cauliflower and apple-chicken sausage from Trader Joes. The original recipe for popcorn cauliflower is a favorite in this house.

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/04/popcorn-cauliflower.html

Sausage and rice

A very simple dinner tonight... We heated up some leftover white rice with spinach, mixed in some chicken sausage, the last of the stuff from the warehouse club with the asiago and spinach, cut into tiny pieces. And some imported French butter. C'est tout.

Sausage and egg noodles

So, I think my husband may be learning some new tricks thanks to our food experiments during the last year.

I worked late, so he cooked up a lovely dinner of, well, I'll write it as if it were on a menu.

Spinach-asiago chicken sausage and egg noodles with bite-sized broccoli and black beans in an olive oil sauce.

I don't taste any spices, no garlic or black pepper, but man, it's tasty.