Breakfast for Dinner Really Is the Best!

I love breakfast and all of the foods associated with it - hash, eggs, omelettes, waffles, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, grits, hash browns, home fries, toast, bagels, and let us not forget the beloved bacon and sausages - I'm drooling writing this!

Anytime I can make breakfast for dinner, it's a good night for me in our house. The hubs and I both rush out of the house in the morning, and while I do make a nice breakfast of egg whites or tofu to take with me to work, the hubs noshes on yogurt and fruit most mornings of the week. So having eggs and other breakfast deliciousness is not something we reserve just for weekend breakfast but weeknight dinners regularly.

There's a lot of recipes on the web for sweet potato and chorizo hash, and I just sort of winged the whole thing. In the end I ended up with a wonderful array of smoky goodness with the most wonderful creamy eggs on top and a sprinkling of our failed paneer cheese.

Sweet Potato & Chorizo Hash

From me.

2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and diced small

1 medium white potato peeled and diced small

ground chorizo sausage, as much as you'd like - I used two snack size storage bags full that were in our freezer.

1 onion peeled and diced finely

eggs

paprika, salt and pepper to taste.

Once your potatoes and onions are diced, heat a large nonstick skillet with a little oil and start to pan fry the potatoes and onions until brown and starting to get crispy but the potatoes are done. Then add in your chorizo near the end to heat. Sprinkle with salt, if needed - ours didn't need it - pepper and some smoky paprika. Top with poached or over easy eggs and a sprinkling of cheese.

Easy, delicious, hearty and filling!

More Sausage Making

The hubs made a Greek sausage a few weeks ago - we're going to enjoy it this week. We'll let you know the verdict.

We also enjoyed the Bangers he made and they were just delicious - It was so fun to have homemade bangers and mash without having to make the drive to our favorite Irish Pub (it is only 10 minutes away but still!)

The Hubs Makes Sausages

The hubs has been interested in making his own sausages at home for quite some time now. So for his Chribirthday (yes, that's Christmas Birthday), I got him all of the fun things he'd need to take on this challenge.

He has been grinding his own meat for a while now with the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment, so I outfitted him with the sausage making attachments and a sausage cook book.

His first adventures was in making Bangers. He used the recipe from the Home Sausage Making Cookbook by Susan Mahnke Perry & Charles Reavis. He really seems to be enjoying this book as it talks about techniques, has a ton of recipes and easily works its way from making fresh sausage to smoking and curing sausages.

He also tried the recipe for Chicken Bratwurst from the cookbook and while he admits that the casing he used was probably what made it a challenge, he does think making chicken sausages is harder than beef sausages.

And I can honestly say I'm enjoying his new adventure in making sausages. They are so tasty, cook up nicely and once summer grill season hits I know we'll be enjoying the sausages he's frozen even more.

Hard at work making bangers

So Proud!

YUMMY!!!

Oh Tyler Florence....

I must admit, while I enjoy watching you on tv, and your food always look great - I have never made one of your recipes until now. Please don't take it personally. It's not anything against you - I mean you're easy on the eyes and quite passionate and charismatic about cooking and how good food can be. It's just that you cook with a LOT of steps most of the time and, well, I just don't have the time or patience for that most nights.

However, when I went searching for a recipe for clams and pasta, this pulled in Google and well, let's just say you won the Google Search lotto that night!

Oh Tyler, why have I been denying your recipes and doubting bringing your recipes in to my kitchen? This could quite possibly be the best clam and pasta recipe we've ever eaten in our lives and, well, it's now October and we made this in August and we're still discussing how indulgent and light and delicious this meal was. Thank God we live someplace we can get good clams year round! This will be made again. And yes, maybe, just maybe Tyler Florence, I'll venture out to try something else of yours and be surprised with the same mouthwatering and indulgent results!

Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe, Clams and Sweet Italian Sausage

I'm not even going to post the recipe here but just link it - the only change I made was to use fresh broccoli instead of Rabe, since we don't like the taste of it. And I used shells, because it's the shape I had on hand - everything else - to the T and delicious!!

It's time for...

Our sometimes annual stuffed pumpkin!

I say sometimes annual because there are years that go by where we

just never end up having the time to make the stuffed pumpkin.

But this year, we did! We started this tradition our first year in Rhode Island after finding a white pumpkin at the pumpkin patch and figuring we'd do something fun with it. Now it's become a hunt for us to find the perfect sized white pumpkin each year for our annual dinner.

We try to either make this meal for Halloween if we aren't entertaining and it's on a weekend, or for our wedding anniversary - tonight, we opted for the pre-anniversary dinner stuffed pumpkin.

Each year I vary

it a bit on how I stuff the pumpkin - hell one year a picture of my stuffed pumpkin even made it to the now defunct Ugly Food Blog! But don't let that deter you - because come on, when have you ever made a stuffed anything that looked REALLY beautiful after you cut it open? I rest my case.

Tonight's stuffing was just kind of done on a whim, and we can honestly say one of the best to date in the past 7 years. This, we agreed, will be the new regular stuffing for the pumpkin.

This is the perfect fall dinner, and I hope I'm sharing it with you in enough time to make before Halloween or even to serve for Thanksgiving. It really would be a great side dish addition to your holiday feast!

Savory Stuffed Pumpkin

1 white pumpkin - about 5-7 pounds. Visually try and cut it in your mind's eye in to four slices, and if you think it's the right size, go with it!

2 boxes Wild Rice mix, made according to directions but omitting butter

2 apples diced

1 pound ground Italian sausage removed from the casings, cooked and browned

Salt/Pepper

Onion/Garlic powder - or fresh

Fresh Sage - about 3-4 T fresh cut ribbons

To begin, cut the top off your pumpkin, remove the seeds and innards. Save the seeds for roasting if you'd like! Once the pumpkin is cleaned out, drizzle the inside with some olive oil and sprinkle with about a 1/4-1/2 tsp. kosher salt.

Place in a square metal baking dish and cook at 375 - you will hear it sizzling a bit and that's fine - make sure the top is off though!

While your rice is cooking, brown your sausage and drain to remove the fat. In a large bowl, mix the cooked rice, the browned sausage, sprinkles of garlic/onion powder - maybe a half teaspoon of each. Then add in two apples, diced with the skins on. Add about 20 good fine cracks of black pepper, no more salt though - the rice is sufficiently salted already. Now if you have a spouse that actually likes dried cranberries, add them here. Otherwise leave them out. Toss in your fresh sage and stir to combine.

Remove the pumpkin shell from the oven, keeping the oven set to 375. By now the pumpkin should be tender but not all the way done yet - the rice takes about 30 minutes so it will have already had 30+ minutes in your oven. Stuff the pumpkin with the filling loosely - do not pack it down! It will expand even more during the baking process. Place the stuffed pumpkin back in the oven and cook for another 20-30 minutes, or until you can easily insert a sharp knife in the pumpkin and pull it out.

Carefully transfer your pumpkin with a flat spatula and a spoon to a large cutting board, preferably one with a well around the edge. let sit for about 3-5 minutes and then cut in to quarters and serve.

You'll find the sage combined with the rice and sausage adds a nice fresh flavor and the apple a bit of sweetness. Our pumpkin had a very spaghetti squash like texture and it just came together so well.

Delicious!!

*NOTE* realizing as I'm typing this I completely forgot I bought mushrooms to slice and sauté up to add to the stuffing mixture and forgot to do this step - so if you're a mushroom eater - go for it!

*NOTE 2* I have made stuffed pumpkins before with bread stuffing instead of rice - and I don't recommend it - it becomes way too dense and overpowering from everything else in the stuffing you make. Barley and rice both work very well!

Hail to the Chief and his delicious spaghetti....

I found this recipe on all recipes - and with a few tweaks - yeah, this is so now our new spaghetti sauce when we want something meaty and delicious.

And do know in advance that it has to simmer for about an hour, so leave yourself plenty of time to make this!

Thank you to hungryguy on All Recipes for this outstanding Camp David Spaghetti with Italian Sausage recipe. I did adjust a few things so I'll post how I made it here.

2 Italian Sausage links, casings removed

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic chopped

1 16 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes with juice

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 t dried basil

1 t. dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1 box spaghetti cooked

Parmesan cheese to top.

• In a skillet, crumble sausage and ground beef and brown together with the onion. Drain fat off of the mixture and return to skillet. Add in the tomatoes, sauce, seasoning and cover and let simmer for 1 hour - stir occasionally.
• Place sauce over cooked pasta and top with cheese.

Another Whole Foods Rave!

Thanks to the commenter - I've entered this in the Presto Pasta Night roundup. Thank you to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast and Abby at Eat The Right Stuff.




I grabbed this recipe off of the Whole Foods website and we adored this recipe. First off it was so easy to make. Secondly, it was so delicious as well - even the leftovers were tasty!

We used fresh roma tomatoes and basil from our garden. I used ground sausage as well. Otherwise it was the same thing and it was surely delicious!



Farfalle with Hot Italian Sausage, Tomatoes and Basil

Hot Italian sausage, sweet tomatoes and fresh basil are tossed with bowtie pasta in this easy, flavor-packed summer dinner. Try this recipe with classic Italian pork sausage or leaner chicken or turkey sausage if you prefer.


Serves 6 to 8


3/4 pound farfalle (bowtie) pasta
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound hot Italian sausage
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 bunch basil, leaves torn into pieces
1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
4 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved or shredded
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt and pepper


Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente. Drain and toss in olive oil. Set aside. Meanwhile, preheat a large skillet. Squeeze sausage from casing into pan, crumbling it into small pieces. Add garlic and cook until sausage is browned and cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Toss cooked sausage with pasta, basil, tomatoes, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Delicious Homemade Pizza

Another whole foods recipe this past week that was out of this world delicious.

I used a premade dough from the store that we always buy, and a full pound of italian sausage that I removed from the casing and browned up.

Quick, easy and so yummy - everything the hubby wanted.

Sausage and Artichoke Pizza

Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package (2 crusts) pizza crusts
1 (28-ounce) can Italian diced tomatoes with basil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
1/2 pound fresh lamb sausage or sausage of your choice, squeezed from casing, cooked and drained
6 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place pizza crusts on work surface. Brush all over with olive oil. Top crusts with diced tomatoes, onion, artichoke hearts and sausage. Arrange mozzarella slices on top. Bake 10-15 minutes, until crispy and cheese is bubbly. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes, if desired.

Gnocchi and Sausage and Beans, Oh My!

The other night I made up this recipe and it was so tasty good.

I think I'll call this...

Herbed Gnocchi with Loaded Goodness

1 package gnocchi

1 pound of Italian Sausage (removed from casings and formed into balls)

2-3 cups of green beans, trimmed and blanched

1/4 cup fresh sage

1/4 cup fresh oregano

4 cloves of garlic

olive oil

paremsan cheese

pepper

Place water in pot to boil for gnocchi.

Heat a large skillet over medium high and place sausage balls in the skillet. Brown the sausage until cooked through. Once it is done, remove from the pan and place the green beans in the pan to sautee until tender and lightly browned. Return the sausage to the pan and and the sage. Pt gnocchi in to cook. When it is done, remove from pot and drain and place gnocchi in the skillet. Stir. Add in crushed garlic and oregano that has been minced.

Toss to combine and serve with pepper and parmesan cheese.

Throughout the cooking process you may find you need to add some olive oil to keep things from sticking - go ahead.

Enjoy!

This was delicious! Hubs said it was by far his favorite meal we've had. Even as I was blogging this he went oh yeah this is so blog worthy!

Hey Mambo..

Mambo Italiano...

We have had some packages of gnocchi in the house for a while and Adam has had a hankering for the spinach ones.

I kind of made dinner up as I went along but it was so tasty and filling. Certainly one I need to add to the recipe mix on a regular basis.

This dinner is certainly one that shows how you can take real items from your kitchen and local stores and make an awesome dinner!

I think I'll call this Spinach Gnocchi with Sausage Meatballs

Ingredients

1 package (dry or frozen - we find the dried cook up fluffier) Gnocchi

1 Jar sauce

1 package ground Italian Sausage, without casings

Pour jar in to pot and season with pepper, garlic powder, and Italian Pasta Sprinkle

In a skillet, on medium high heat, brown the mini meatballs until just firm. Transfer to the sauce and reduce to simmer and cook until done.

Add gnocchi to boiling water and cook until they are floating and light and fluffy.

Top with grated parmesan cheese.

I'm a bean counter!

Tonight I made a fabulous stoop for dinner. Recipe taken from the package of lentils from TJs.

Super easy to make and ridiculously tasty!

Ingredients
Italian Sausage - either ground or removed from casings
1 3/4 cups black lentils, rinsed
1 box frozen corn
5 1/2 cups water
4 stalks celery diced
1 onion diced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large dutch oven brown the sausage. Once that is done add the vegetables and cook until just tender. Then add the lentils and water salt and epper. Return to a boil and then reduce to simmer and cover and cook for an hour and a half - stir throughout.

After an hour and a half, remove the lid and let simmer for 30 more minutes without the lid.

Serve

I did make some changes - Instead of corn I used about 3 carrots chopped up with the celery and onions and you know what I'm so glad I did it made a great contrast to the dark color of the soup with the black lentils and it also added some sweetness.

This was so filling and tasty!

Great Fall dinner last night

So yesterday before work I grabbed the crockpot and just kinda threw something together- and you know what it was really good!

Apple and Onion Bratwurst.

1 pacakge Johnsonville Brats - the raw ones (mine were frozen)
2 onions sliced thin
4 small apples sliced thin
2 T dried cranberries
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 bottles of beer
1/2 cup apple juice.

combine everything in the crockpot. Cook on low all day (mine was about 9 hours).
The sausages come out Very tender and sweet - not drippy greasy like you'd get on a grill. so just be prepared for that.

I served with some frozen peas and spetzle. The spetzle was a nice side with it and the onions. Mashed potatoes would have been great as well.