Leeky Sausage

I am a carnivore but I would definitely say I am not a meat fan.

Cold cuts are great. I will even order a double portion of turkey on my Cold Cut Combo at Subway at times. Any meat that aids sleep equals fantastic.

Chicken? I'm also a fan. I'm a Southerner, so fried is fine and cold on a sandwich or made into a salad with some ungodly high-calorie dressing, better.

It's when we get into ham and cooked meats I start making that uncomfortable face and making the "I'll pass" gesture.

Cold ham is fine. Cold country ham on a biscuit--I can handle. Then we start inching toward the hot ham and cooked sausage category and, while I can eat it without being repulsed, I'm not excited about it as if it were, say, goat cheese on a Triscuit. Goat cheese on a Triscuit will make me shove a small child out of the way. If it's paired with wine I may trample the child as well but he shouldn't have been drinking in the first place.

So when I saw the roasted sausage recipe, I wasn't thrilled. Adventurous me, however, had to make it work.

Preparing in advance has it's advantages. I was able to find a Johnsonville sausage coupon for exactly what I needed--4 chicken sausage links. Chicken links have %50 less fat and Johnsonville makes several varieties including Chipotle Montery Jack, Three Cheese Italian Style, and Chicken Sausage Apple. Seeing as I'm a cheese fan, I selected the Three Cheese Italian Style.

I would love to shop at our local meat market--Bedford Avenue Meat Shop--but by the time I get home from work, they are closed and it's difficult to buy an entire weeks worth of meat all at once. My second choice is our local Kroger since they often have fantastic Manager's Specials on meat and fish.

I buy my produce at Davis Farm Fresh Market. They have a lot of local produce and it's affordable. You have to be flexible when your values lie in buying local. I needed leeks for this recipe, but sweet onion is close enough and it was available.

In case you needed to know this is what a leek looks like. It's kind of like a sweet onion married a scallion and had a baby:

This dish is approximately $1.92 per serving. We were able to get the thyme for free, since the girl at the check out counter didn't feel like price checking the package. Thank you generous and equally lax check-out girl.

ingredients

2 small crisp red apples (such as Empire or Braeburn), quartered

2 leeks (white and light green parts only), halved crosswise and lengthwise

2 (about 1/2 lb total) yellow potatoes,  cut into 1/2-in.-thick wedges

8 sprig(s) fresh thyme

2 tablespoon(s) olive oil 

8 small (about 1 1/2lb total) chicken sausage links

kosher salt and pepper

directions

1. Heat oven to 425ºF. In a large roasting pan, toss the apples, leeks, potatoes, thyme, oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Roast for 15 minutes.

2.Stir the vegetables and add the sausages to the pan, nestling them among the vegetables. Roast until the sausage is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes more.

I personally thought the sausage was delicious. I saved a link for breakfast the next morning. 

The best part about preparing these meals is that you have breakfast or lunch the next day. If you factor that into the cost you're looking at $1.28 per serving. 

If only I could take pictures that reflected the success of slowly morphing a cheese fan into a meat fan.

Please Make Up a Clever Name for this Recipe, I'm Too Tired

Anyone can write blogs about recipes: I, however, teach you something in the process. Unless, of course, you are completely clueless like myself and have cooking skills out the proverbial wazoo. As I made dinner Saturday night I learned more than a few things while preparing my gingery grilled flank steak with cous cous salad.

The first thing you should know is that buying organic, humanely raised animals is worth it. This is why I buy my meat at Bedford Avenue Meat Shop. You should also realize that if you don't eat beef on a regular basis it can upset your stomach in a manner which is unpleasant to others.

(rubbed with fresh ginger)

Secondly, all this cooking and baking is truly an educational experience. I feel like I am becoming the person at the family gathering who will automatically know how to make the pudding from scratch or throw together a Macgyver inspired dressing at Thanksgiving using only baking powder and the dirt from Uncle Darrell's left shoe. 

While cooking flank steak in the pan (I was only able to get a grill as of today) I found myself wondering,"What IS flank steak? Is it the side of the cow? The leg?" 

Flank steak, I discovered, is actually a cut from the abdominal muscles of the cow. It's what they use for London broil and fajitas. Now if I want to make London broil or fajitas I will know what kind of cut to buy. Of course, if my friend Chef Preston Cravey was in town, I could have just looked at his arm since he has an entire cow tattoo with all the different types of meat. 

I would now like to take the time to discuss orange zest. You can actually zest an entire orange and keep it on hand for any number of things. I would have never imagined such a thing but the rumors are true. For this recipe, the zest went in the cous cous and the orange juice was used as a coating for the steak:

(This lady far more excited about zesting than myself.)

I love this whole use-stuff-for-a-recipe-and-then-save-the-leftovers-for-something-else-so-you-don't-waste-food-and-money thing too. I even cut a few slices of orange and put it in my homemade lemonade which I am now able to make at any time because of a recipe I memorized last year.

And I've always appreciated Kroger, but we were extra pleased that we not only found the cous cous there that we couldn't find at Walmart, but also that it was wheat free for Erik. God bless Lundberg, who even provides coupons on their web site. We love their risotto as well.

We are enjoying this recipe journey. We also feel so much better that we are making local choices and investing time and money into our health.

Oh, and please make up a clever name for this recipe. Not to be redundant, but I'm far too tired. 

Dinner Tonight: Fortune Cooking

I can understand why black-eyed peas bring good luck: they are low in calories and rich with a number of nutrients including fiber, calcium, folate, vitamin A, zinc, iron, and potassium. Southern culture may not have been the author of the new year superstition but they certainly have perfected the culinary sentiment. Those of us native to the region enjoy them with greens, cornbread, or other vegetables--and feel as proud as Paula Deen.

January's edition of Woman's Day clued me into local author (he's from our neighbor North Carolina) Rick McDaniel who celebrates this very dish in his book An Irresistible History of Southern Food: Four Centuries of Black-Eyed Peas, Collard Greens and Whole Hog Barbecue. His "Hoppin' John" recipe suggests salt pork and rice for the new year. I decided to go the healthier route with turkey bacon (which does not crumble as well by the way) and spinach:

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon

2 cloves garlic

15 oz can black-eyed peas

1/4 cup water

10 oz cup spinach (stems discarded)

salt and pepper to taste


Cook 4 slices bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Break into pieces. Add 2 cloves garlic (sliced) to skillet and cook until golden brown, 2 minutes. Add a  15-oz can black-eyed peas (rinsed) and 1/4 cup water and cook until heated through. Add one 10-oz pkg spinach, season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and cook, tossing, until beginning to wilt, 2 minutes. Toss with bacon.

This dish went well with my New Year's Day family meal which included pork chops with roasted carrots and oranges (pg 110 Woman's Day January--Easy Every Day Meals). This particular meal came out to a little more than $2.45 a serving because we made it for 6 and purchased additive and hormone free pork from Bedford Avenue Meat Market. The fillets were tender and juicy, only simply seasoned with salt and pepper:

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoon(s) honey
• ½ teaspoon(s) ground cumin
• 2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 1½ pound(s) medium carrots, cut into 2-in. pieces (halved lengthwise if large)
• 1  navel orange, cut into wedges
• 3  scallions, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup(s) fresh dill, roughly chopped (optional)
• 4  1-in.-thick pork chops, trimmed (about 1¼ lb total)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425°F. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, cumin, 1 Tbsp oil, ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper.
2. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the carrots with the honey mixture and arrange in an even layer. Nestle the oranges among the carrots and roast until the carrots are tender and beginning to turn golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Toss with the scallions and dill (if using).
3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining Tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the pork with ½ tsp each salt and pepper and cook until browned and nearly cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes per side. Serve with the carrots and roasted orange wedges for squeezing.

You'll remember my special dishes from Kemper Street Flea Market. I love using them for special occasions like this.

I don't usually like cooked orange vegetables (the only thing I will consistently refuse is fennel) but the roasted oranges and honey added a unique, distinct flavor to the experience. 

I hope good luck and quality food will find you in the new year.