Archive for the ‘Meat’ Category

Thanksgiving leftovers

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Spending Thanksgiving with my family is fun for a variety of reasons beyond what you would expect.  1) Food.  My menu is determined by my imagination, not my budget, since my mom is always happy to pay for ingredients that she doesn’t have to prepare.  2) Cable.  Specifically, food network.  This afternoon, I caught a bit of this episode of Rachael Ray’s.  I was inspired.

Nate has taught me a thing or two

After a bit of time catching up with a good friend, I hit the local grocery store.  Herb and garlic seasoned pork loin, sweet peppers, bread crumbs (I’m a little embarrassed that I actually bought this), and cream cheese.  Before hitting the Dickens Festival in downtown Fayetteville, I mixed feta with the cream cheese.  I cut off the tops of the peppers and scraped out the seeds.  Stuffed the peppers with the cheese mixture, and into the fridge they went.

3 hours later, back from the Dickens Festival, I roasted the stuffed peppers.  When they were done, put in the pork loin and some asparagus we didn’t cook for Thanksgiving.  Then the fun part…

I pulled out leftover sweet potato casserole, rolled it into balls, covered with bread crumbs and pan fried them.  The sweet potato “croquettes” went amazingly well with the rest of the meal.  Time spent in actual preparation for the whole meal: definitely under half an hour.

All in all, the meal was a success!  I want to make it again tomorrow.  Even my little sister who hates feta was grabbing seconds of the peppers.  Alas, the sweet potatoes are almost gone…

Sausage Week – part 2

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

This post is long, perhaps too long, and I hope you’ll make it to the end. Trust me; it’s worth it.  I spent the past weekend in Charlotte with Quentin’s family.  My trip was not without a food adventure or two.  Pictures will come.  I promise.  In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe for Sausage Week. I also hope you prepare for Thanksgiving with these mini pumpkin pies. You can make them in typical pie fashion, but they’re not nearly as much fun.

Italian Sausage Paninis

These were absolutely delicious! Italian sausage, sauteed red peppers and onions, spinach, and provolone. I love food!

Italian Sausage Panini

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Blind Date

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Our favorite pasta recipe went out last night.  It seemed only fitting that sausage would be the highlight.  I browned the sausage and then placed on a paper towel lined plate.  I then cooked the onions and garlic in the same pan.  The recipe went on as usual, only I added broccoli and sundried tomatoes when I dumped in the pasta.  The tomatoes were plumped up nicely, and the broccoli cooked perfectly.  I threw in the sausage at the last minute.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

All in all, a success.  No extra seasoning… no fuss.  I highly recommend it.

… some kind of day…

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

I rushed out of the house without breakfast this morning.  I didn’t realize until I was halfway to work, but didn’t stress at all because there’s a cafe in the lobby of my building.  I figured I would just grab a bagel or something.

When I arrived, I parked my car, and enjoyed walking to the building in the rain.  I had an umbrella, and I felt quite sophisticated today.  My hair was doing something nice; I was wearing my favorite coat for the first time this season; and I was wearing my favorite pair of pants which are super comfy but also do very kind things to my body, I think.  And then I stepped in a puddle.  My ankles were soaked, my shoes water-logged.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t look too sophisticated then.  The cafe was closed “due to illness”, and I grumpily made my way to the elevator.  The elevators in our building have mirrors on all four side, and the last thing I need at 8 a.m. is that much Jenny to look at.  Today, I didn’t expect it to be so bad, until I saw that I totally forgot to put on mascara this morning.  That’s right, dark eye liner, no mascara.

The day progressed rather similarly, with huge projects that hurt to think about for too long and a constant balancing act between being critical enough to help people improve and not making them angry.  I was bummed to miss the “5:20 funny” on the radio, even though I was in the car by 5:18.  I also unintentionally made a rather inappropriate gesture at work this evening – thank goodness only my office mate was around and brought it to my attention.

Somewhere in the midst of this day, I decided I needed “comfort food”.  Biscuits, for sure, how about macaroni and cheese too?  And what if there were sausage in the mac ‘n’ cheese?  And some brocoli? And so a meal was conceived.

Nathan Clendenin does not take credit for this photo

Nathan Clendenin will not take credit for this photo

I’m much too ashamed to tell you what is in it.  All I can say is that this was one of the heaviest meals I’ve ever had.  Surprisingly so, too.  I got turkey sausage and whole grain noodles.  It was quite delicious, nonetheless, and definitely hit the spot.  As with anything I make, there turns out to be about 4 times more than I intended, so I’ll be eating the leftovers for days.  Yikes!

... nor this one

... nor this one

Still, it was loads of fun to make, and even more fun to eat.