Potatoes Ogg Rotten (3 Star)

Have you ever heard of "Potatoes Ogg Rotten" before? Aka, "Potatoes Au Gratin". Around here "Potatoes Ogg Rotten" is our little joke. My boys love this meal (except my second-born, of course). I add in a pound of browned homemade sausage and they love it even more. This time I also added in a couple of sweet potatoes and some carrots (it was worth a shot), but those got picked out so I'll probably skip them next time.



I use Pioneer Woman's recipe, and while it tastes great, I am irritated about the fact that the milk always curdles. I think it's because I use 2% milk with no cream. I read that milk with lower fat content curdles more easily. Bummer. I was trying to lessen the calories but maybe I should just go with the cream next time. (Any suggestions?) Or maybe just not worry about it since I'm the only one aware--the boys love it how it is. But it's not too pretty. Or creamy. Oh well!



Click here for the recipe.

Pork Fried Rice (3 Star)

Pork Fried Rice is one of my old standby recipes. It is a great meal to get those loathsome veggies into the kiddos. Most of my kids like this and the veggies are so small that they are too difficult to pick out or even taste separately, so down the hatch they go. Fried rice takes some prep work but it comes together really fast like a stir fry. So have all the elements ready and waiting before the eats meet the heat. (Like my rhyme?)



This recipe is from my "Minute Meals" cookbook and supposedly only takes 20 minutes to make but it always takes me at least double that time. I think I'm just slow. I am including the recipe here with my changes (because, of course, I made some).

Pork Fried Rice

1 lb trimmed pork loin diced into 1/4 inch cubes (I have also used pork roasts or chops or ribs [all boneless] with great success here. But currently what I use is my homemade fried rice sausage.)
2 medium to large carrots, finely chopped
2 cups broccoli florets, finely chopped
3-4 Tablespoons chopped ginger root
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons prepared chili paste (I use Korean gochujang available in Asian markets)
1/2 cup chopped scallions
3-4 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons water
4-5 cups cooked rice (I use brown)
2 cups frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Line all foods and condiments up in the order in which they will be added to the pan. Heat a large wok or heavy skillet over high heat. I don't have a wok and I find a 12 inch skillet too small so I use a large electric skillet.

Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and when hot add the pork. Cook until no longer pink, about three minutes. Stir the meat only occasionally so that it will caramelize and brown. Add the ginger and chili paste and stir fry for 30 seconds. Pour the pork mixture into a bowl and set aside. Place the pan back over high heat. If using my homemade fried rice sausage, just fry up the sausage, scrambled fashion, until browned. Omit the ginger and chili paste and proceed with pouring the meat into a bowl when finished cooking.

Add 3 more Tablespoons olive oil to the pan. When hot, add the carrots and broccoli and stir-fry until not quite tender, about 1 minute. Add the scallions, 1 Tablespoon of the soy sauce, and water and cook until it is almost evaporated, about 1 minute.

Add the rice, corn, peas, and pork to the pan, toss to mix, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with more soy sauce to taste. Add more oil or water around the edges if the rice sticks. Add the sesame oil and toss to combine. Mound the fried rice on a platter and serve.

This recipe makes a lot--around 12-13 one cup servings.

Dutch Oven Sausage and Potatoes and Roasted Pineapple (4 Star)

Yesterday we went "camping" (just a super quick evening trip up the canyon for dinner) and we made our favorite dutch oven meal. It is our very favorite, and to be honest, I've only made one other meal in the dutch oven because we all love this so much that there hasn't been much incentive to try anything else. So here it is, Sausage and Potatoes. It is amazingly simple.

Dutch Oven Sausage and Potatoes

2 pounds of your favorite sausage, sliced into chunks if it is links (I used my homemade Sweet and Spicy Sausage this time. I've also used different kinds of Aidells sausage with awesome results. The sausage can either be raw or pre-cooked--this meal cooks long enough to cook raw sausage through and pre-cooked works just fine, too.)
15-20 peeled and diced medium potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick of butter (margarine=blech, butter=awesomeness)
1-1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (to taste)
6-8 quart dutch oven (I can't remember what mine is! But one of those two, I think.)
50-60 charcoal briquettes

Heat the briquettes in a pile as per charcoal briquette instructions. When they are ready, place about 20-25 coals in the place you plan to cook with the dutch oven, enough to cover the bottom of the oven. Place the oven on top of the coals and allow to heat for several minutes.

When hot, put 2-3 Tablespoons of the butter into the dutch oven and swirl it around. It should sizzle. Dump in the onion and stir around a bit. Then put in the sausage and break it up if it is loose sausage like I used. Allow it to heat and sizzle a bit and then dump in the potatoes. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and cut the rest of the butter into small chunks on top.



Place the lid onto the oven and put enough briquettes on top to cover. We had about 30 on top. Allow to cook for 15-20 minutes, then lift up lid and stir. Break up any large chunks of sausage, if necessary, and be sure that it is cooking properly. It should all be sizzling along nicely. Replace the lid and give it another 15-20 minutes to cook and then check. Cook longer if necessary. Ours was done at this point, the potatoes nice and soft. Give it a stir and serve.



This makes a fairly large amount, but we put it away so easily that we ate about 2/3 of it, leaving a little for the next day. Even my most pickiest boy had seconds.

Why does food cooked in a dutch oven in the woods taste so amazingly awesome? I think there's more to it than just slow, even cooking. Cast iron dutch ovens are like magic. So is a campfire in the woods.



Oooh, baby!



We tried something new this time--we roasted pineapple over the fire. We just used plain pineapple cut into spears and skewered on a roaster and roasted like hot dogs until they were a little blackened.



They were so good, even without any sauce, and a great accompaniment to the sausage and potatoes. We were thinking that for next time it would be fun to try a fruit kabob comprised of pineapple, banana, and peach, roasted over the fire. What do you think?

White Bean and Sausage Chili (3 Star)

This chili was so incredibly good! I found the recipe here on Enlightened Cooking and copied it below with my changes. This was the perfect recipe in which to use my homemade chipotle salsa.

White Bean and Sausage Chili

1 1-pound package bulk sage sausage
1 15-ounce can white beans, drained
1 and 1/2 cups canned solid pack pumpkin or butternut squash puree
1 cup chunky-style chipotle salsa (I used my homemade chipotle salsa )
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup crumbled goat cheese (I didn't have goat cheese--and feel a little scared of it--so I didn't use cheese at all and this was still excellent.)

In a large saucepan cook sausage over medium heat until brown and no pink remains, stirring to break up meat; drain fat. Stir in drained beans, pumpkin or squash, salsa, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Serve topped with goat cheese. Makes 4 generous servings.

Homemade Sausage (4 Star)

Homemade sausage is so good! It is also fairly easy to make. (I go the easy route and make loose sausage. Stuffing it into casings is way too intensive for me and the taste is no different.) I like to make my own because if I buy the meat on sale, it is quite inexpensive. I also like to be able to control what is in the sausage--most store-bought sausage contains MSG and cancer causing preservatives. Additionally, even though I have not specifically made an effort to purchase low fat meat, the meat that I have bought has always been low fat enough that no fat gathers in the pan when I fry the sausage. So many benefits!

A couple of weeks ago ground chicken was on sale for a great price so I bought about 45 pounds. I have also used ground pork with great results and both have been very low fat, as I mentioned before, but not low fat enough to have to add fat. (Sausage does need some fat to prevent dryness.) However, I prefer the chicken because there is a slight flavor to pork that bothers me a bit. Texture-wise, I think that the chicken and pork are comparable.

I make the sausage in five pound increments. First, I measure all of the spices onto a cookie sheet.



Then I add the meat and mix by hand. Mixing by hand is necessary because otherwise it is very difficult to incorporate the spices uniformly. I wear examination gloves on my hands because the spices and meat irritate my hands after a while and I also don't like meat under my fingernails.



I then spread a sheet of plastic wrap on top of a food scale and measure out one pound of the sausage and wrap it up.



Then I put the wrapped sausage into gallon freezer bags and keep them in our deep freeze until I'm ready to use them. I fry sausage for breakfast about once a week and use the other sausage in dinner recipes.



The finished product can either be shaped into patties to fry or, if you are as lazy as I am, just fried up scrambled fashion.





Here are my favorite recipes:


Breakfast Sausage

5 pounds ground chicken or pork
5 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup brown sugar or real maple syrup
1 Tablespoon sage
1 Tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


Chorizo

5 pounds ground chicken or pork
5 teaspoons sea salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1 Tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
4 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons sugar
5 teaspoons liquid smoke
1 teaspoon allspice
1 Tablespoon parsley
1/4 cup dried onions


Sweet and Spicy Sausage (Adapted from Prudence Pennywise's Spice Rubbed Chicken.)

5 pounds ground pork or chicken
5 teaspoons sea salt
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon chipotle powder
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons coriander


Fried Rice Sausage (I created this for use in a fried rice recipe that I love.)

5 pounds ground pork or chicken
5 teaspoons sea salt
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
5 teaspoons hot red pepper paste (Korean)


Bratwurst

5 pounds ground pork or chicken
5 teaspoons sea salt
4 teaspoons sugar
1 Tablespoon ground coriander
1 Tablespoon ground sage
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Some of these recipes were adapted from recipes found here.

My Current Favorite Chili (3 Star)

This is a hearty, thick, rich chili with some kick but not enough kick to make Brandon and I even close to uncomfortable. It was a tad too spicy for our little guy (even though I had already toned it down from the recipe), but he still ate it with lots of chips and water and exclamations of "Hot! Hot!" Three out of the four boys liked this. The recipe I used is here, from Allrecipes, called Boilermaker Tailgate Chili.

As usual, I made some alterations (for personal taste and also because of what we had on hand) and here they are:

Instead of the recommended meat I used:
1 pound of homemade sausage and
1 13 oz can of beef, undrained (the beef broth taking the place of the beer)

Omitted the beer.

Instead of the chili beans:
2 cans drained pinto beans
1 can drained black beans
1 can drained white beans

Instead of the canned tomatoes:
28 oz pureed frozen tomatoes (from our garden)

Decreased cayenne pepper to 1/4 tsp.

Increased sugar to 1-2 Tbsp and used brown sugar.

Added 1 Tbsp cocoa powder.

Added 1+ cup of homemade salsa that I happened to have in the fridge.

The first time I made this I cooked it in the crock pot on low for about six hours and it was great. The second time I cooked it on the stove because I didn't plan so well, and it turned out great, too, but it was better in the crock pot.