Brats!

No, I'm not talking about the children, I would never call them that.* I'm talking about dinner! Delicious, humongous bratwursts from U.S. Wellness Meats, to be exact.
I was really tired tonight, after a long afternoon at our weekly homeschool park day, so I made the Grill Geek ply his trade for dinner. I chopped up some veggies for Sidedish (this time it was red potatoes, a small sweet potato, a lot of mushrooms, and half a red onion) and he did all the rest. A large scoop of real sauerkraut (with all it's lovely probiotics intact) and a dollop of coarse mustard were all that was needed to complete the meal.

Now, those brats probably look pretty big to you... and you're probably sitting there thinking "how on earth could she eat TWO of those things? She must be a pig!" Well, first of all, Smarty Pants, pigs don't eat pig, and these were pork brats. So. There you go. And secondly... I was really darn hungry after a light pre-park lunch and no snacks. And third... well... see for yourself.



I didn't eat all of it. Almost. But not quite.

* I prefer to refer to them as pirates, or perhaps "scallywags" on a bad day.

Everything Awesome

... roasted together in one pan. That's what I had for dinner tonight. What'd you have? Frozen pizza? Mac-and-cheez? I'm sorry for your loss. Oh, did I mention that the active time it took to prepare dinner was less than 15 minutes? I'm just rubbing grease in your wounds now, aren't I?

I apologize for the snarkiness above. It would seem I have a taunting reaction to meals loaded with yumminess.

I will have to wait to upload the photo evidence of tonight's ambrosia, as I am away from home and without my camera cable. (I actually thought to myself, while packing, "no, there's no reason I'd need that.") Little did I know that I would soon be seized once again with the urge to blog.

Without further nonsense... tonight's dinner. As usual, I don't know what to call it. It's based on a Nigella Lawson recipe (love her!) simply named One Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage. That's a heck of a name. Accurate. But long.
And I need to make it even longer, because I tweaked it. I added to it. I am pathologically incapable of following directions, it would seem. But I can't name it One Pan Garlic and Onion Chicken and Sausage with Potatoes and Tomatoes. That'd just be wrong.

So, in lieu of that, I'm considering Everything Awesome. Because that's what's in it. Take a look... I think you'll agree. Leave a comment and let me know.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
6-10 (or more) peeled garlic cloves, whole but smashed a bit
3-4 tablespoons bacon fat (was out of olive oil, this was definitely a yummy substitution)
1tablespoon mustard- Nigella calls for English, of course, I used spicy brown, because that's what was available
1 tablespoon dried sage or herby blend
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins is gluten-free)
Freshly-ground black pepper
4-6 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
About 1 pound sausage, cut into 3-inch lengths, if necessary
Some small red potatoes, cut into fourths (wedges)
A couple handfuls of fresh-picked homegrown cherry tomatoes (yeah, now I'm just bragging)

Mix all the seasonings and grease and onions and garlic in a ziploc, squishing it around. Add the chicken, squish some more, and refrigerate overnight, or at least a little while if this is a last-minute thing.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Plop the ziploc ingredients into a big baking dish (I think I used a 9x13 Pyrex), nestle the sausage pieces in, and add the potato wedges. Try to coat the potatoes with a bit of the saucy goodness, or at least stick them next to sausages, to share the fatty love. Bake/roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turning the sausages over halfway through. If the potato wedges look woefully dry, add some juice from the pan, or drizzle a bit of bacon grease over them. (Tip: if you keep your bacon fat near the back of the stove it'll be liquid after 45 minutes of the oven being on. Easy to drizzle that way.)
Add the tomatoes, whole, near the end, with 15-20 minutes left.

Dig in. Serve with a salad, if you feel guilty.

I forgot to take a picture!

I can't believe I forgot.

Ok, I believe it. I just... I was at the mercy of a late dinner (that smelled REALLY good while cooking) and a second glass of wine (on an empty stomach)... and I flat forgot.

I don't even know what to call this, but it was plate-licking delicious. And I am not kidding. I licked it. I offered my plate to the Grill Geek, but he had already moved on to contentedly digesting.

Bekki's Whatchamacallit

2 large pork sausages, the spicy kind with removable casings. Since they can be removed... remove them. Ew, don't they look weird?
1/2 a large onion, sliced
Some fat... olive oil, bacon or duck fat, whatever

Soften the onions in the fat, then add the crumbled sausage. When the sausage is browned, add:

1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 to 1 1/2 cups sprouted beans and lentils (I didn't measure)
About 2 cups chicken stock (once again, didn't measure... just make sure there's plenty of liquid)

Simmer about 45 minutes. I thought sprouted beans would cook quicker. They didn't seem to. Oh, the torture! But, they finally did cook, and I served the whatchamacallit over rice, with a side of sliced summer squash sauteed in butter.

Recent Eats

I hate it when I don't post punctually... but... life happens. So, once again, a montage of recent meals.

Saturday night I made this riff on a traditional German dish of sausage and cabbage. The original recipe calls for apples, but I wanted a more-summery version.

Grilled pork chop, grilled asparagus, and Rainbow Sidedish. Which was grilled. I love grilling, because all I have to do is prep. Then the Grill Geek takes over. I loved this version of Sidedish. Normally it contains potatoes, garlic, and onions, with olive oil or butter, and salt. (Wrapped up in heavy duty foil and cooked while the grill heats up for the main course, about 30 minutes.) This time it was red onions, orange bell pepper, yellow squash, and zucchini, with herb butter. Fabulousity.

Sort-of-Chili, on a grilled, bacon-wrapped potato, with salad. The chili (made with leftover grilled pork and leftover veggie-heavy marinara) didn't thicken. So, it was soup on a potato. Weird, but tasty.

Quickie Supper

We went to the Farmer's Market today... and despite living in a large city, this was an errand on the level of "expedition." First of all, it was in another city, an hour away. Secondly, I had completely forgotten that Earth Day was coming up, and that it might be celebrated more-conveniently by some today... right next to the Farmer's Market. Thirdly, we have kids. 'Nuff said.

I had pulled a flank steak out of the deep freeze yesterday, to "do something with" for dinner today. Yeah... never good to leave it so vague. By the time we got home, got things put away, and caught our breath, it was too late to start the necessary marinating for a chewable flank steak. Oops.
And with all my food allergies, just ordering pizza isn't an option.
The kids both had a light lunch and really needed something that would stick to their ribs... some protein. What on earth do I do?

I thawed some sausages (in hot water in the sink), made some rice, and threw together a salad.

Turned out to be one of the best dinners I've had in a while. And we eat good 'round here.

The sausages were duck, pork, and fig... French-style if not actually French. We love these... they are fabulous beyond reason. I first got some at Exotic Meats (which is local for us), but bought some on sale through a website . The Grill Geek grilled them... took about twenty minutes, during which time I tossed together a salad. I've mentioned before that we get local produce delivered every week, thanks to Greenling. Well, one of the lovely surprises this week was pea tendrils. I think they are simply the young shoots of the pea plant (cut off in it's prime, poor thing). They taste like... well... peas. Quite possibly the best salad I've ever had, which really isn't saying much, because I'm generally a very lazy salad-maker.

Pea Tendril & Spinach Salad with shiitakes and bacon

1/4-lb bacon
3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps quartered
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon coarse-grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz fresh pea shoots
4 oz baby spinach leaves
1 bunch fresh chives, cut into 1-inch lengths
6 radishes, cut into matchsticks

Cut bacon into 3/4-inch-thick matchsticks and cook in a heavy skillet over moderately low heat, stirring, until crisp but still chewy, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Pour off fat from skillet and add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden, about 8 minutes, then cool.

Whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large salad bowl until blended.

Add pea shoots and spinach to dressing and toss to coat. Add bacon, mushrooms, chives, and radishes and toss again.

I used a kohlrabi instead of the radishes, and didn't have any mushrooms... so just skipped that part. I also used some red leaf lettuce instead of all spinach. I'm not a big fan of spinach. It was so, so good!

Lamb Sausage Ragout

Wow... that sure sounds fancy. It's surprisingly-simple, though. Start with the Fabulous Foursome (garlic, onion, celery, and carrot) and... you're more than half done.


I based it off this Emeril recipe, but (since I'm pathologically incapable of following a recipe, even my own) I made a few changes. First of all, I don't get all futzy and measure things. I used two smallish carrots, two celery stalks, and a bunch of lovely, local green onions. I had regular onions, but... wanted to use the green onions before they went bad. They were so big, too, that I figured they had plenty of oniony goodness. I only used one pound of lamb sausage, because I'm not cooking for a crowd... cooked that up in a dab of lard (hee hee... I love using lard because it's SOOO "wrong"), took it out of the pan (because I was short on space) and tossed in the veggies. When they were ready, I added 2 cups of tomato puree, about 1/4 cup of wine, 3 shakes of red pepper flakes (which was too much!) and 1/2 teaspoon thyme.

I didn't have the mushrooms, so I just put it on pasta and had the Grill Geek grill up some asparagus.

Low Country Boil

I found the "recipe" for this when I was living in South Carolina, where it is called Frogmore Stew. Not because it contains frog legs, it doesn't, but because it was supposedly invented in Frogmore, SC. Don't bother looking it up, it no longer exits. One of those coastal towns that has faded into oblivion. Except this one had a dish named after it.
You might notice that this is incredibly similar to a great many dishes designed by coastal people. Oh, well. There's a reason for the popularity- it's fabulous and easy.

The "recipe" for Low Country Boil:

Bring a big ol' pot of water (with 1/4 cup Old Bay added) to a roiling boil.
Plop in (ok, don't plop, boiling water hurts) about 2 pounds small red potatoes.
10 minutes later, add halved ears of corn (however many y'all want to eat) and about 2 pounds of sausage (smoked, kielbasa, summer, whatever), chopped into 1 1/2-inch lengths.
10 minutes later, or when the potatoes are tender, add about a pound of big, fresh shrimp, shells on. Cook a few minutes, until they curl up.
Drain.
Serve on a big ol' platter, or to be more-authentic, on butcher paper or paper grocery bags. Forks and plates need not apply. Make sure you've got plenty of napkins, and some butter, salt, Old Bay, and cocktail sauce.

Oh, and quantities can easily vary. We pretty much ignore the potatoes, but our picky kid turns carnivore for sausage, so we put in extra.

Easy

Tonight's dinner was easy. I had reason to think I wouldn't be feeling well, so I planned ahead and had dinner be completely grilled.

I love foil-packets. I just ignore the whole aluminum thing... I know it's not good, but I am fairly sure my overall aluminum risk is low, so I can handle a few foil packets every now and then.


This was a bit of white potato, a sweet potato, not-quite a quarter head of cabbage, about 1/4 thinly-sliced onion, and then 1 1/2 cheap smoked sausages. Per packet. Well... hubby's packet was a lot more white potato and no sweet potato, cuz he doesn't dig on the orange tuber.

I added about a tablespoon of olive oil, same amount apple cider vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Then the Grill Geek worked his magic.

Delicious!

Gone Cajun Again

Or, perhaps Creole. I don't know. The fact that I was inspired by an Emeril recipe implies it's probably more Creole. I am not one to pick nits. I just want it to taste good.

Tonight's dinner was brought to us by unthawed stew beef. I must keep the fridge too cold.... So, no beef stew. It really wasn't beef stew weather, anyway. Thanks to my efforts to warm the house the morning, and the sun's efforts to remind us that we live in San Antonio, the house was plenty warm, thank you. I wanted the cooking to take place outside. The only meat in the fridge that wasn't frozen or promised to another meal was some boudin sausage. It was an impulse purchase at the commissary, mainly because they actually had it and I was surprised. There were a few questionable, vague ingredients that might cause me allergy problems, but I chose to ignore them. We'll see if that turns out to be a wise decision!

So... boudin (which I've never had before and am not real sure how to cook), plus my desire to not heat up the kitchen, plus my requirement of working with ingredients already on hand... I googled a recipe. I came across this snooty-sounding one. Sounded like my best shot, but I had a few adjustments to make. I've mentioned Sidedish here before... basically potatoes, onions, and garlic in a foil pack with some sort of fat, grilled until charry. Lacking the futziness necessary to do individual parchment packets, I decided to do dinner as a Sidedish Supreme. As usual, I have no idea what to call this.

Cajun Sausage Grill Packets ??

Start with one big ol' piece of heavy duty foil. Bigger than you think you'll need.

To one side of it add:

1-2 onions, in 1/4-inch slices

3-4 garlic cloves, smashed, chunked, depends on size

However many little red potatoes you need, cut in fourths

1-2 T olive oil, drizzled over all

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp rosemary

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp Emeril's Essence (make your own, he gives the recipe)

about a pound of boudin sausage, cut into 3-inch (or so) sections

Seal the foil up really well, grill 15 minutes on one side (start with onion side down, sausage side up), flip and grill 10 more minutes. The Grill Master says to use "high" on a gas grill, and to put it on as soon as you light the charcoal, if using that... 20 min first side, 12 the other.

Dinner is served. We had salad, too. With an awesome lemon-garlic vinaigrette. Gotta have some veggies!