Sausage and artichoke soup

Breakfast sausage is so versitile! I love to use it in place of other meats when I am feeling creative, or when it is the only thing in the freezer. This started out as a soup based on two things I couldn't use up in the freezer, artichokes and breakfast sausage, but turned into a soup that I love making and eating. It is super easy and serves as an uncommon twist on vegetable soup.

Start with chopping a standard soup base of celery, carrot and onion. Then cook your sausage in your soup pot. I like my sausage to get pretty brown and crispy, then add the celery, carrot and onion to saute for a bit, and then remove the excess fat. Add your stock (if using canned artichokes, you may hold them out until a little later so they don't fall apart).

Add the spices of your choice (I like basil, parsley, allspice, Cavender's and pepper) and then bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 20 or so minutes, add your artichokes if you left them out, check your spices, and then simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

Ladle yourself up a bowl (maybe with some Fiesta cornbread!) and warm up with some awesome soup. The veggies are so tender and somehow the sausage seems to fit so much better than chicken or beef!

Tupelo Honey biscuits

One of my favorite breakfasts is biscuits and gravy.  My beloved Wheatfields makes a mean biscuits and gravy but I only go home once or twice a year so I have to make my own.  I first had a Tupelo Honey biscuit when we met up with some dear friends in Asheville.  I had the fried chicken and biscuits and damn near wept at how amazing it was.  Flaky, delicious biscuit, perfectly fried chicken and luscious milk gravy over the top.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go back.  I asked for the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook for Christmas and obviously the first recipe I wanted to make from it was their biscuits.

I think these biscuits are deliciously awesome but I'm still on the fence about grating the butter.  I want to make them again the traditional way, by cutting the butter in with a pastry blender.  But I have the KitchenAid attachment that grates for me so it's not the worst thing in the world to have to grate the butter.  And because I never have buttermilk on hand, I use this substitution all the time and it works great.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sour cream
3/4 cup salted butter, frozen
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and sour cream in a large bowl.  Grate frozen butter with the large holes on the grater and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter.  Add buttermilk and mix until just combined.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle 1-inch thick.  Using a pizza cutter, score the dough into 6 equally sized pieces and put in the oven.  Bake on the top rack for 15 minutes or until light brown and remove from oven.  Let sit about 10 minutes before splitting and serving with sausage gravy.

Very slightly adapted from the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook

Quick Cassoulet

We call this dish "meat stew" 'round our house because that's basically what it is.  Pork, sausage, bacon (when I have it) and tomatoes and beans and some red wine all combine to make a warm and earthy stew.  It's perfect for the rainy, 40ish degree weather we've been having.  I like mine with a fresh from the oven baguette and lots of butter.  I like the La Brea Take & Bake baguettes in the bakery section of the grocery store.  

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds pork chops, cubed

1 medium onion, diced

1 tsp Italian seasoning

12 oz smoked turkey sausage, sliced

3/4 cup red wine

2 cans Great Northern beans, drained

1 can diced tomatoes with basil and garlic

Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Brown the pork with onion, salt and pepper and Italian seasoning, stirring until pork is no longer pink.  Stir in the sausage and cook for a couple of minutes.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the wine.  Simmer for 4 minutes.  Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for another 3 minutes.  Stir in the beans, let simmer another minute or so.  Serve with warm baguette.

Adapted from Family Circle

Five Meat Soup/Pork Marinade

The last 2 weeks have been full of excitement, mainly the awful kind. I was sick with strep and some terrible sinus something for all last week, then it snowed about a foot twice within a week. Spending an entire week at home because of snow and sickness was supposed to create an opportunity for wondrous new dishes, but instead it created an inability to go to the store.

I did a bit of planning ahead when I was invited to see Nick Offerman (Ron! Swanson!) live with some friends. In his honor I decided on a many meat soup! Sadly my infirmity prevented me from seeing the show (saddest face ever) but I went ahead with the meal.

I settled on five meats:
Crawfish Boudin
Pork Carnitas
Pancetta
Sway Fish
Grilled Chicken

I sauteed the boudin and the pancetta, and the pork was pre-cooked and just needed to be shredded. I made a dark roux, threw in some onions and a few cups of stock, the meats and some frozen artichoke hearts and asparagus.

The result was kind of gumbo-like... partially because I did put some file and creole spices in too.

It was pretty good at first. WARNING: this soup may become toxic after 3-4 days. I ate it on Thursday, and both Si and I ate it on Saturday and we were fine, but then he had a bowl on Sunday morning and his stomach started making terrible noises. I felt pretty bad, but I have no idea what happened. I don't know if one of the ingredients deteriorated quickly or there was some weird chemical reaction and the chicken tried to reanimate or what.

So that was traumatic.

Today I wanted to do something with the rest of the pork carnitas and made an impromptu marinade from orange juice, brown sugar, chipotle powder, a tiny bit of molasses and chicken stock. It was delicious! However, I didn't take any pictures, so instead, here is some snow!

Fettucine with Sausage, Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

I love pasta.  Love it.  Dave does too so if I come across a recipe like this one that combines our favorite things with pasta, it's a no-brainer that it's going to get worked into rotation.  It isn't super saucy but the noodles, sausage and spinach all get well coated and it's an excellent weeknight recipe because it comes together pretty quickly.

Ingredients:

12 oz box of fettuccine
1 tbsp olive oil
12 oz hot Italian sausage, casings removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz jar of roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp chicken Better than Bouillon concentrate
2 handfuls of baby spinach
3/4 cup pasta water

Cook fettuccine according to directions on box.  While pasta is cooking, brown the Italian sausage over medium heat for 4-5 minutes.  Add garlic to browned sausage and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.  Add the red peppers, bouillon concentrate and heavy cream and simmer on low until sauce thickens, about 8-10 minutes.  Drain the pasta, reserving 3/4 cup of the water and add the water to the sauce.  Add spinach to the sauce and stir until it begins to wilt.  Combine the pasta and sauce in a large bowl and toss using tongs.

Adapted from Elly Says Opa