Spaghetti with Pork Sausage Meatballs

This was the second time we used some local, breakfast-style, pork sausage to make meatballs.  Soon, we will be out of the sausage we've had in our freezer since the Fall, so look forward to a lot more vegetarian recipes in the near future.  

So, for all of you carnivores out there, don't forget that "breakfast sausage" is versatile and not just for patties that go on your biscuit.  We've used it on pizza, in casseroles, in split pea soup, and lots of other goodies.  It's all about dressing it up with the right herbs and seasonings...

Spaghetti with Pork Sausage Meatballs

For the meatballs:

1 lb. pork sausage

1 egg

fennel seed, dried oregano, and dried basil to taste

3/4 cup bread crumbs

olive oil

Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and form into meatballs about 1 to 1 and half inches in diameter.  Cook in a shallow frying pan (with a little olive oil) on medium heat, turning often, until cooked through.  

For the sauce:

1 large can crushed tomatoes (Muir Glen is my favorite!)

6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped and sauteed

about a handful of chopped fresh basil

black pepper

olive oil

Saute the garlic in a little olive oil until it sweats.  Add the tomatoes, basil, and black pepper and simmer.  Toss the cooked mushrooms in right at the end.  If you aren't using organic tomatoes, I suggest you also add about a teaspoon of sugar to your sauce.

Serve with organic whole wheat spaghetti, al dente.  Top with grated parmesan.  Swoon.

So, how do we look in white?

I've been frustrated with only being able to post tiny photos here, so I tried like heck to figure out how to just edit the template I was using before (loved it!), but I failed in doing so.  

Instead, we're trying this one on for a while.  I don't love the bright white, but I do love being able to post larger photos like these:

A Few Things Worth Sharing...

We've been trying some new things around here and, although I haven't really fully documented the preparation, I did snap a few finished product shots here and there.

I really, really, really love to use my slow cooker.  You may call it a crock pot (my Mom always has), but something about that name has always turned me off.  Maybe because the work 'crock' seems rather offensive and negative to me.  Either way, the slow cooker is such a useful kitchen tool because it does all the work for you.  I use mine for dried beans, chili, soup, you name it, but I had never tried something like stuff peppers before.  I saw a similar recipe for slow-cooked red peppers, stuffed with couscous, but I thought I'd try quinoa instead.  I also went with organic green peppers (capsicum) because they were available at my local co-op.  You can leave out the feta or use a vegan substitute to make this vegan.

Slow-cooked Stuffed Bell Peppers with Cannellini Beans & Quinoa

4 large bell peppers

half a cup quinoa

1 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 can cannellini beans or about 15 ounces cooked dried beans

6-8 mushrooms, chopped

half of a large onion, diced

2-3 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt & pepper

1/8 to 1/4 cup veggie broth (or water)

Cut off the top and stem of the peppers and remove the seeds and ribs.  If your peppers don't stand on their own, you may want to slice a little off the bottom, so they're flat and will stand up on their own.  

In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients and then stuff very generously into each pepper.  Stand stuffed peppers up in slow cooker and cook on low for about 5 hours.  

Another meal we've been wanting to try is something that we love at our favorite local Thai restaurant....Masaman curry tofu.  This was a HUGE success, so now we have the much cheaper option to make it at home.  All of the ingredients for this meal were purchased at two small grocers that we like to patronize in support of small businesses instead of massive grocery store chains (well, that and because we probably couldn't even find the Masaman paste anywhere else!).   Shout out to Fooks Foods and the Supermercado Jalisco!

Vegan Masaman Curry Tofu (this is enough to generously feed 4 healthy eaters)

2 bricks of tofu

1 avocado

1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts (most recipes use cashews, but we didn't have any)

half a bunch of green onions

1  14 oz. can coconut milk

1  4 oz. can Masaman curry paste

soy sauce

3 garlic cloves

1 thumb fresh ginger

2 cups jasmine rice

First cube and cook your tofu with some soy sauce and then refrigerate (this will give the tofu a better texture).  In a sauce pan, cook the chopped garlic and ginger with a little olive oil and then add the Masaman paste.  After a few minutes the paste will start to liquify.  Add the coconut milk and then bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and let the sauce thicken.  Add the cooked tofu to the sauce and then add the nuts and avocado at the very end (you don't need to cook these).  Serve over rice and garnish with green onion.  

Here's a little snack we've been fond of lately.  So simple, but really delicious.  Take some dried dates and split open to removed the pit and then stuff with really sharp cheddar.  You can take this even further by also putting half a pecan in there and then drizzling with a balsamic vinegar reduction!!  

Happy cooking!!

A Local Okra Valentine's Dinner

Sorry we've been so slack lately with posting.  It's not for a lack of delicious meals though, I can assure you.  We've been a little busy around here with all sorts of things, one which happens to be planning a wedding!  We've also had the pleasure of dining with friends quite frequently, which is always fun.  Thanks Michelle & David and Lauren & Shil!

Tore and I have a tradition to stay in on Valentine's night.  Right from the beginning we loved to cook together, so what better way to celebrate Cupid's commercial holiday!  We typically like to do hors d'oeuvres or tapas, small plates, whatever you like to call it.  This dinner was no exception.  We planned the meal around making one of our favorite dishes...gravlax.  Basically, it's Scandinavian cured salmon with lots of dill.  It's ridiculously easy to make, but it takes several days to cure.  

Menu

Gravlax with boiled egg and mustard-dill sauce

No-knead bread

Parsley pesto-stuffed cremini mushrooms with grape tomatoes

Picholine olives marinated with olive oil, pink grapefruit and fresh marjoram

Aged Vermont cheddar

Camembert

So, we obviously didn't make that cheese or get it locally, nor did we catch the salmon from a local stream.  BUT, we made the gravlax ourselves with wild-caught salmon instead of just buying it in the tiny little package at the grocery store.  If you like smoked salmon, you'll love gravlax, so try this out.  It tastes a billion times better and you definitely get more bang for your buck.

To make the gravlax:

Cut a large salmon filet in half

Rub (very generously!) both sides with a mixture of equal parts salt & sugar

Add black pepper to taste

Put the two pieces on top of one another so that the flesh sides are touching with a large bunch of dill between them

Cover tightly with foil

Place a brick, a heavy casserole dish, etc. on top of the foil and refrigerate for 3 days

You will want to pull it out and drain the liquid after the second day.  

To serve, just slice very thin pieces off the skin & discard.  

Mustard-Dill Sauce

4 tablespoons plain yellow mustard

1 bunch of dill

juice of one large lemon

2-3 tablespoons honey

3 -4 tablespoons olive oil

salt & pepper

This sauce could also be used for a salad dressing--just add some white wine vinegar.

Sunday Brunch: Sausage & Spinach Frittata

I love making frittatas--almost as much as I love eating them.  This was my first non-vegetarian frittata.  I usually make them with potatoes, but I've been known to just use whatever I have in the fridge.  This past Summer I made one with an eggplant that we grew in our garden and some local okra from the farmer's market!  For this one, we had a lot of local ingredients:  ground pork sausage from Full Moon Farm, bread from Luna Bakery, local eggs, and parsley from our very own garden.  

If you've ever been hesitant to try to make a frittata because it seems complicated, I hope this post/recipe changes your mind.  They can seem time consuming (especially when you wake up hungry like we do!), but they really are pretty easy to make.

Sausage & Spinach Frittata with Red Onions and Parsley

5 eggs

1/4 lb. pork sausage (you can easily substitute Morning Star sausage crumbles)

half of a large red onion

2 big handfuls of fresh spinach

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, cream, or milk 

1/4 lb. cheddar cheese (or just use what you have)

salt & pepper

1 large garlic glove

1 extra large slice of country bread (you can use whatever bread you have.  if using sliced bread, use two pieces)

olive oil

Start by dicing the onions and chopping the garlic and parsley; and then cut the bread into cubes.  Next, brown the sausage.  

Remove the cooked sausage from the pan and place on a paper towel to remove excess fat.  Add the red onions to the remaining pork fat in the pan.  Cook until they start to become transparent and then add the spinach and cook for a few minutes until wilted.  Remove from heat.  

In another pan that can be put into the oven (I use a cast-iron skillet), heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil and then add the garlic and bread cubes.  Cook these over medium heat until crispy on all sides, but not too brown.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs together with 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese (you can use cottage cheese, sour cream, milk, etc.), salt, and pepper.  

In a mixing bowl, combine the sausage, veggies, chopped parsley, and shredded cheese.  When thoroughly mixed, add in the eggs.  

In the same pan you used for the bread, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to coat the bottom--any garlic or bread remnants in the pan are completely welcome.  Heat on medium heat until oil is good and hot.  While it's heating, stir the bread cubes into the egg/veggie/sausage mixture.  Then pour the mixture into the hot pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes until a thin crust forms around the sides.

 

Now, put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the depth of your pan.  Check it after 10 minutes.  Just stick a toothpick in the middle--it's done when the toothpick comes out clean.

After letting it cool for a few minutes, invert it onto a cutting board and slice into wedges to serve.  We like to save the leftovers and serve them later in the day with a cup of soup or a small salad.

French Onion Soup with Home-made Country Bread!

We have been wanting to make our own bread for a long time, but the one and only time we tried, we ended up with 'flat bread'. It was tasty, but as you probably guessed, it didn't really rise.

Recently, we were introduced to a recipe for a 'no-knead' bread, so we thought we'd give it a shot. Big ups to Shane for the passing along the recipe and giving some helpful tips. See the recipe here.

The following modifications were made to the recipe, copied directly from Shane:

1) Use 1 cup of whole flour and two cups of unbleached white.

2) Put the water in the fridge for a few minutes, then do the mixing in a food processor with a metal blade before resting and rising the dough.

You can also make baguettes, which we will try next time once we get a pizza stone:

Cut the risen dough in half and form it into baguettes, & bake at 450 on a pizza stone for 22 minutes.

It really was easy, but you must realize that the most important thing is giving it time to do what it has to do. The only other problem is that it can get messy, as you can see here:

Recently we made some venison stock from some bones left over from a couple of roasts that we had. Since French onion soup usually calls for beef stock, I thought the venison stock would make for a very interesting variation. I used a recipe from a cook book that I have, but changed a few things along the way. The key to this soup is slow cooking the onions. Keep in mind that this isn't something that can be made quickly.

French Onion Soup with Venison stock and Beer

1 tablespoon olive oil

half a stick of butter

5-6 yellow onions

2 cloves garlic

1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon sherry

1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2/3 cup good beer, not a stout or porter (we used Sammy Smith's Winter Welcome!)

6-8 cups venison broth

salt

black pepper

Halve and slice the onions, finely chop the garlic, and remove the thyme leaves from the stems. Add the olive oil to a large heavy pot and then the butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the onions begin to soften and then stir in the thyme.

Reduce the heat to very low and then cover and cook the onions for another 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are very soft and golden yellow.

Uncover the pot and increase the heat slightly. Stir in the sugar and cook for 5-10 more minutes until they start to brown. Add the sherry and increase the heat again and continue cooking, still stirring frequently, until the onions turn a deep, golden brown--this could take up to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put your stock in another pot and bring it to a boil.

Stir the flour into the onions and cook for about 2 minutes, making a roux. Gradually and slowly pour in the stock. Now add the beer, salt, and black pepper and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve with crostini. Slice country bread and cover with grated parmesan cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bread is crispy.