So I had peppers, I had onions, I had sausage. It seemed like a sausage and pepper sandwich might be in order. But what I didn't have has bread.

I decided to take the idea and instead make a pasta sauce (because what I did have was a package of fresh pasta).

Here's the ingredients:

4 hot Italian chicken sausages
1 red bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced
1 onion, peeled and sliced
6 clove garlic, sliced thin (I forgot these in the photo)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
red pepper flakes to taste
2 Tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock, or water (also not pictured as it was a last minute addition)
1 pound fresh fettuccine
6 leaves fresh basil, julienned
grated Parmesan cheese

To start I fired up the grill and cooked the sausages through. Once they were cooked through and then rested for a couple of minutes I sliced them, then set them aside. Now if you are not a winter time griller like me, the sausages could be fried up inside or the sausage could be removed from its casings and browned in the same pan just before adding the peppers.

While the sausages were on the grill, back inside I heated a little olive oil in a large saute pan.

When it was hot, I added the peppers and onions (and I should have added the garlic, but I forgot)...

...and let this cook until the onions were cooked softened and translucent, which took just under 10 minutes.

I added the garlic, oregano and pepper flakes and cooked while stirring for about thirty seconds.

Next I added the tomato paste and cooked this for another minute or so (this caramelizes the tomato paste just a bit, making it sweeter).

Finally I added the white wine and the chicken stock...

...and the cooked sausages...

...and let the whole mixture simmer gently for about fifteen minutes.

While it simmered I cooked the fettuccine according to the package instructions. When it was cooked I drained it, saving a bit of the pasta water and then added the cooked pasta to the sausage mixture. It seemed a little thick so I added a few tablespoons of the reserved pasta water.

I portioned out the mixture onto a couple of plates (with enough left for a hearty lunch) and then sprinkled each with a little basil and Parmesan.

This came out pretty good. Sweet and spicy. The husband picked out all the garlic (without even trying it, hmph) but he said he liked it too. I wouldn't have minded a few more pepper flakes, but over all I really enjoyed this. It's definitely going on the to be made again list.

Labels: pasta, peppers, sausage

I've had an acorn squash sitting in my pantry for a couple of months (luckily squash are forgiving when it comes to going bad). Now, I love squash so I'm not sure why it has been sitting there taunting me for so long, but that is just the way it goes some times.

I decided that it was finally time to cook the thing. And since it had been waiting patiently for me to cook it, I decided that I wanted to try something new and maybe a little special.

Here's the ingredients:

1 cup rice, cooked (I used a brown and wild rice mix, but any old rice would work)
2 chicken sausages, casings removed (I used a hot Italian variety but another kind of sausage would work too)
1/2 onion, diced
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 clove garlic, minced
4-5 leaves sage, chopped
2-3 sprig thyme, chopped
2 Tablespoon Alfredo sauce (yes, I could have made a little bechamel sauce here but I had half a jar of sauce leftover from a lazy/tired night of cooking dinner, so I used that instead, and it worked great, so why go to the extra effort)
1-2 ounces Parmesan cheese, plus a little more for the top
1 acorn squash, cut in half with the seeds and what not scooped out

To start, I cooked the rice in my rice cooker. While that was going I browned the sausage along with the onion, then after a couple of minutes I added the mushrooms, garlic, sage and thyme (some rosemary would have been great too, but alas, the super cold week we had here killed off my rosemary) and continued to cook the mixture until the onions were translucent and the mushrooms were browned. I removed this from the heat and stirred in the cooked rice, Alfredo sauce and Parmesan cheese. At this point I cooled the mixture down and stashed it in the fridge (I had a big spurt of cooking energy so I cooked this filling while I made a different dinner), but I could have easily continued on at this point.

A couple of days later I continued on with my cooking. I stuffed the rice mixture into the cavity of the squash and then piled some more on top for good measure. I made a couple of rings out of aluminum foil and placed each of the squash halves on each of the rings so that they couldn't roll around while they were in the oven.

I covered this loosely with a piece of aluminum foil and popped it in a 350 degree oven. After an hour of cooking, I took the foil off and added a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. After another 20 minutes the squash was cooked through and the rice mixture was nice and bubbly.

I served the stuffed squash alongside a pear and romaine salad.

This turned out really good. With each bite a little bit of rice, a little squash and a little sausage, yummy. The husband really liked it too, a lot. And he is not a huge squash fan so that surprised me a little. I can imagine a few variations on this meal (different rice, different meat (or no meat), different cheese) and I can hardly wait to try them.

Labels: rice, sausage, squash, winter

This weekend the husband and I went camping. It was our first camping trip of the year after having a previously scheduled trip canceled because I was sick. We were lucky to have beautiful weather all weekend.

I like to have tasty food when I camp (technically I always like to have tasty food) but I also don't like to have to put in a lot of effort cooking once I am there. After many years of trial, I have designed a menu that is tasty but also involves minimum cooking/cleanup effort (in fact dishes only have to be done with breakfast).

Here's what I make:
Friday night dinner - Sausage Stew
Saturday breakfast- Grits with Cheese and Bacon, Donettes (I only eat donettes when I'm camping so it's quite the treat)
Saturday lunch - Hot Dogs (or Polish Dogs) cooked over the fire, chips
Saturday dinner - Beef Stew
Sunday breakfast - Scrambled Eggs with Cheese, Home-style Hash Browns with chopped Bacon and Onion, more donettes
Anytime there is a fire - Smores (made with Peanut-Butter Cups)

I like to do all my prep work before I leave home. I chop the onion for the hash browns and the hot dogs, chop and par-cook the potato for the hash browns and assemble both of the stews.

For the sausage stew, I use a lot of the ingredients, and flavors, that I use for a crab boil, just minus the crab.

Here's the ingredients for the Sausage Stew:

1/2 of a kielbasa, cut into large chunks
2-3 good size red potatoes, cut into eighths
2 ears of corn, each cut into four pieces
4 green onions, chopped
2 Tablespoon butter
Cajun Seasoning

I tossed all the ingredients together.

Then wrapped them in 2-3 layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil.


Here's the ingredients for the beef stew:

8 tiny carrots, scrubbed and chopped (the skins are really thin so they don't have to be peeled)
8 small red potatoes, quartered
12 small crimini mushrooms
20 frozen pearl onions
12 cloves garlic
3/4 pound beef stew meat
2 Tablespoon tomato paste
4 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves stripped from the stems
12 sprig fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
truffle salt (cause that's how I roll)
black pepper

I combined all the ingredients except for the liquids, sealing my packet on three sides.

Then I added the liquid.

And completed the packets.

I made sure to label them, because the two stews look an awful lot alike.


For either of the stews, I wait until the fire has some nice embers, then place the packets near/in the embers turning them (being careful not to poke a hole in the packets) every fifteen minutes.

Usually, the sausage stew takes about 1 1/2 hours and the beef stew takes about 3 1/2 hours. However, this time, because of the weird set-up for the fire (it was open on two sides and I just wasn't used to it) both stews could have used more time.

To eat, I borrowed the husband's Leatherman and sliced open the packet. The packet turns into a bowl for the stew.

With both meals, the potatoes were not quite cooked through (but they were cooked enough to eat). And most everything else was delightful.

The only exception was the garlic in the beef stew. It was still really hard (which is sad because I LOVE the creamy flavor of the roasted garlic) but it still provided a great flavor to the stew.

Overall, I was delighted with all the food for the weekend (and the husband was glad that he didn't have to do too many dishes).

We had a great weekend. Unplugged and enjoying nature. The only downside, just look at the dirt on this dog.

Here's a closer view.

That is just not right.

Labels: beef, camping, sausage, soup