Roasted Breakfast Sausages and Grapes

It is Sunday and I like to think brunch on Sundays so here is a great brunch recipes.  Grapes are on sale this week at Fareways for 99 cents a pound.  Living in a small town, I guess I advertise for them a lot  for free don’t I?

2 pounds breakfast sausage with skins

3 tablespoons butter

5 cups seedless grapes

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Fresh crusty bread of your choice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

The original recipe calls for a red wine, but I think it is good without it.  Just use a nice balsamic vinegar of your choice.  It only called for 2 tablespoons of red wine if you wish to add it.

Parboil the sausages in water to cover for 8 minutes to rid them of excess fat.

Melt the butter in a large heatproof roasting pan, add the grapes, and toss to coat (you would add the wine here).

Add the parboiled sausages to the roasting pan and push them down in the grapes so the sausages will not brown too quickly. Roast in the oven, turning the sausages once, until the grapes are soft and the sausages have browned (about 20 minutes, 10 on each side).

Place the roasting pan on top of the stove over a medium heat and add the balsamic vinegar. Scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the roasting pan, and allow the vinegar and juices to reduce until they are thick and syrupy.

Pour the sauce over the sausages and grapes and serve immediately, accompany it with a nice toasted crusty bread you toasted under the broiler until browned.  Serve the toast with grape jelly on the side.  The toast is also good for soaking the juices from the sausage and grapes.  

Have a great Sunday brunch.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.   

Corn Pig

Here is a change up on the corn dog.  Try making it with sausage for a breakfast treat.  

Breakfast Corn Pig

1/2 cup corn meal

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup corn starch

8 cooked sausage links, cut in half (makes 16 pieces)

1 ½ quart of vegetable oil

Syrup

Skewers

Combine dry ingredients (minus corn starch), and whisk in your buttermilk. Mix well.

Heat up your oil in a deep pan (you want a good 3 to 4 inches of oil)

If your sausage links are dry, wet them a little with water. Dredge them in the corn starch and remove excess.

Stab 2 to 3 cut up sausages with your skewers (as many as you can hold in the hot oil at one time).  Dip them in the batter, fully coating each one.

Quickly submerge each battered dog in the hot oil for about 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat until each corn pig is cooked.  Serve with syrup for dipping.

Variation – For gluten free and dairy free use 1 ½ cups of corn starch or tapioca flour to replace the wheat.  Replace the milk with soy milk or almond milk.

Try making them with 'Lil Smokies or cut up rope sausage to your desired lengths.   

Hope you have a great Saturday.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Puddin' Bars

You will dirty a lot of dishes with this recipe, but it is easy and wonderful.  I love the fact that you can make it your own by adding the flavors you like best, like your favorite candy bar, your favorite fruit, nuts, texture or smooth.  You can also lighten it up if you like with diet puddings and light whipped cream. What ever your heart desires.  

Crust

1 cup pecans, chopped

3 tbsp white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

Cream cheese layer

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipped cream or cool whip

Vanilla pudding layer

1 package of instant vanilla pudding (5.1 oz.)

3 cups milk

Chocolate Pudding layer

1 package of instant chocolate pudding (5.1 oz.)

3 cups milk

Top layer

2 cups whipped cream or cool whip

Shaved chocolate or your favorite crushed candy bar

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Spray a 9 × 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Mix all the crust ingredients together and press the mixture into the sprayed 9 X 13 pan.

Bake it for about 20 minutes.

Prepare the vanilla pudding as per the instructions on the package. 

Prepare the chocolate pudding as per the instructions on the package.

Using a hand mixer add the room temperature cream cheese, powdered sugar and the cup of whipped cream. Mix until light and fluffy.

Let the crust cool. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust evenly.

Spread the chocolate pudding over the cream cheese filling, then the vanilla pudding over the chocolate.

Top with the whipped cream and sprinkle with your favorite crushed chocolate candy bar.

Refrigerate for a couple hours so that it sets.

Variations – You may change up on the puddings.  Try banana pudding and top with sliced banana keeping the chocolate pudding layer in or strawberry pudding and top with strawberries. 

Leave out the chocolate layer and flavor your vanilla pudding with a little cherry juice from Marciano cherry jar (replace some of the milk with the juice) and top with cherries and nuts. 

I love the texture of tapioca pudding.  Try a layer of vanilla and chocolate tapioca pudding and swirl them together for a marbled look.

Do you like mint?  Andes makes creme De Menthe baking chips.  Add a little mint extract to the chocolate pudding and then sprinkle the baking chips on the top.  

Walk the pudding isle and start looking at the flavors.  Create your own puddin’ bar. 

Jello makes:

Candy Cane

Ginger Bread

Oreo Pudding

Butterscotch

Coconut Cream

Sugar Free

Pistachio

Think of German Chocolate cake with coconut and pecans.   Think S’mores and make a graham cracker crust and put a layer of marshmallow fluff as a layer instead of whipped cream.

Try replacing the chocolate with butterscotch and drizzle the top with caramel sauce. Chop up a Heath candy bar and sprinkle on top.  My mind just goes crazy with the possibilities.  

Have a great Friday.  Weather is making want to be outside so that is my plan.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Catch of the Day Soup

It's what's for lunch today.  I have some frozen Tilapia in the freezer and want to use it up.  The nice thing about this recipe is that you can use what ever fish you have.

Catch of the Day Soup

2 lbs. filet fish for soup (I'm using Tilapia but you can use anything you have)

4 garlic cloves

1 onion

1 tsp. dried parsley or 1 tbs. fresh (I'm using dried)

1 tsp. dried thyme 

2 1/2 oz. tomato paste (you may substitute a small can of tomato sauce if you like)

5 tbsp. olive oil

Salt and pepper (to taste)

½ gallon water

  

Crush your garlic and chop your onion finely.  Sauté  the onion in a big pot together with the olive oil. Do this on a very low heat. The onions should become transparent, but not brown.

After 5 minutes, add the crushed garlic (I use the chopped in the jar to save time) and parsley and cook for another 2 minutes. Be careful not to let the garlic brown.  It becomes bitter if you do.

Add the tomato paste and mix well; cooking for a couple of minutes.

Add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the fish whole and salt and pepper to taste. Add your thyme.

Simmer on a low heat for about 1 hour.  Stir occasionally. The fish will melt away into the stock.  This is a very light broth.  If you wish it heavier you can add more tomato paste or sauce.

Serve with grilled crusty bread generously rubbed with some fresh garlic and sprinkled with olive oil.

This freezes nicely if you put it in baggies or plastic container.  Reuse in the next month.   It makes a big pot of soup, so you can always cut it in half if you like.  I only had 16 oz. of Tilapia, so I did cut it in half.

Variation - Try replacing the thyme with basil and add a little cream at the end of cooking for a creamy tomato basil fish soup.  You can also replace the fish with shrimp for a shrimp soup.  

Have a great day.  I hope to get outside and play in the dirt a little.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Cherries Desserts

Back in the late 60’s when I lived in San Diego, I worked for a short time at a restaurant on the top floor of the Broadway down town.  They served what they called a Cherries Jubilee, but it was not the traditional dessert with flames, etc.  It was a cherry bar.  I found something that reminds me of it a lot.  It is like a cherry dump cake because you can use a dried cake mix to make it.  See if you don’t like it as much as I do.  It calls up memories of San Diego for me.

1/2 cup cold butter

1 package of your favorite yellow cake mix

1 can (21 ounces) cherry filling

1 cup chopped walnuts

Whipped cream or ice cream, optional

In a large bowl, cut butter into cake mix until crumbly. Set aside 1 cup for topping. Pat remaining crumbs onto the bottom and 1/2 in. up the sides of a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Spread pie filling over crust. Combine the walnuts with reserved crumbs; sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes. Serve warm, with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Variation – Try making it with a chocolate cake mix.  It is just as good if not better. 

Here is another similar dessert  but a cherry crumble.  It is equally as good as the dump cake recipe.

Cherry Crumble 

Pour a can of cherries pie filling into a sprayed 8 x 8 inch pan.

Topping

Mix dry ingredients together in small bowl:

1/2 cup flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons butter

½ cup of almonds or walnuts 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Melt the butter in a pan.  Add dry ingredients to butter and stir together.  Sprinkle on top of the cherries.  Add 1/2 cup of lightly toasted almonds or walnuts to the mixture.

When mixture resembles the topping as it would be if the Cherry Crumble had been baked in an oven, scatter it over the top of the cooked cherries in the 8″x 8″ pan.

Press the topping down slightly into the cherry mixture so it will absorb some of the juices. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Let cool slightly and serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  

Both recipes are extremely simple and I love them warm.  They make an excellent recipe to go to for a quick and easy dessert that is tasty.

Have a great Wednesday, be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Orange Glazed Ham Balls

With it being Easter this weekend, Fareways had ham loaf on sale so I bought some.  Today I’m sharing my recipe for ham balls.  This is a large recipe, so you may want to cut it down if you are not feeding a lot of people. 

Meat

2 eggs

1 cup crushed graham crackers

3 pounds ham loaf

Glaze

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup orange juice (You may substitute tomato juice if you like but I prefer orange)

5 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon corn starch

Dash of hot sauce or some red pepper flakes (to taste)

1 teaspoon onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and cracker crumbs.  Add to ham loaf and mix well with your hands. Shape into walnut sized balls. Place on greased 9 × 13 baking pan. Bake uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large saucepan, combine the brown sugar, vinegar, orange juice and mustard. Bring to a boil; simmer and stir for 2 minutes. Mix one tablespoon water with cornstarch and make a slurry.  Add the slurry to glaze and boil until thickened.  Add your hot sauce, onion powder and salt and pepper to taste and stir well.  If you really like heat you can add a ½ teaspoon of pepper flakes.  Add your ham balls to the syrup glaze and let simmer until the balls are well coated with the glaze.  

They are great for bunch or a meat dish for dinner.  You can also serve them as an appetizer by sticking them with toothpicks and serving them on a platter.  They can be frozen and easily heated up for another meal.  Toss them in a crock pot and take them to a pot luck.  They go wonderful with a baked mac and cheese casserole. 

Have a great day, be happy and may God bless you and yours. 

Left Over Hard Boiled Eggs

What to do with leftover boiled eggs after Easter time is the question.  Of course, you can make egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, or potato salad but if you'd like something a bit different here are a few ideas.

First idea:  Garnish a good soup with sliced egg.  

Asparagus Soup

2 1/2 pounds asparagus, washed and woody ends trimmed

3 Tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

6 medium Yukon Gold potato

6 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 cup white wine

1/3 cup fresh dill chopped fine (or 2 tsp. dried dill)

1 Tablespoon dry mustard

2 cups cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2-3 hard boiled eggs sliced for garnish

Cut off the asparagus tips and save for later.  Slice the asparagus into small round pieces. This will cut up the fibers in the asparagus.  To determine what part of the asparagus woody part to toss, bend the asparagus and where it bends, cut off the end and toss.

Melt the butter in a large pot.  Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes and add the garlic and sauté for about 2 minutes.  Add the potatoes and asparagus, stock and wine and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft.  Add the cream, dill, mustard, salt and pepper to taste.  Using a hand blender puree the soup in the pot. Or use a blender or food processor and process the soup in batches. Make sure if you are using a blender, you do not over fill (about ¾ full) and put a cloth hand towel over the top so it does not spill out.

Heat water in a small pot until it boils.  Add the asparagus tips and cook them for 2 minutes. Drain and briefly cool in cold water and then set aside.

Serve the soup garnished with the asparagus tips, eggs slices and sprigs of dill if you used fresh dill.

You can do this on split pea soup or cream of broccoli soup also.   

Second idea:  Eggs in Meatloaf is another idea.  You can tuck several in the center of your favorite meatloaf and when cutting it open, it makes a very nice presentation.  

Third idea:  Pickled beet eggs.  Put a couple of eggs in your pickled beet juice with your pickled beats.  They turn the color of your beets.  Leave them in the juice for several days.  Serve them with the pickled beats. 

Forth idea:  I already shared the recipe for Scotch eggs with you just before St. Patrick’s Day but I’ll save you looking it up.  You have already got the first step of boiling an egg done. 

Makes 4 eggs

1 pound lean ground beef

2 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cups finely minced onion

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper

Flour for dusting the eggs

4 hard boiled eggs (Bring to a boil, turn off stove and put on lid and let it sit for 20 minutes)

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

Boil your water in a decent sized pot, once the water is boiling, add your room temperature eggs carefully with a spoon and set your timer for 7 minutes.  As soon as your timer goes off, remove the eggs and put them in a bath of cold water.  Crack them and shell them under cold water.

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, one of the beaten eggs, the olive oil, onion, garlic, sage, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put a small amount of flour into a bowl. Dredge the hard boiled eggs lightly in the flour and then dust off the excess flour with your fingers. Using about 1/4 of the “meat” mixture, pat the mixture around one of the eggs, completely enclosing the egg in the mixture. Set aside on a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs and then transfer the plate to the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour or more.

Place the second beaten egg and the bread crumbs in two small bowls. Dip the scotch eggs into the beaten egg wash and coat well. Transfer the egg to the bowl of bread crumbs and coat on all sides. Shake off the excess bread crumbs and place the scotch eggs on a nonstick or oiled baking sheet.

Bake the Scotch eggs in a preheated 350 F. degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown (you may want to turn the eggs a few times during cooking to ensure even browning.)

Idea five:  Make a Cobb salad or spinach salad.  You can also use left over Easter ham in place of the chicken.  I've shared my Cobb salad recipe with you also in the past but it is nothing more than making rows of your favorite salad ingredients on a bed of lettuce (eggs, avocado, chicken, shredded cheese, bacon, etc.).  I love this salad.

You can garnish any salad with boiled eggs by slicing them and placing them in your salad.  A spinach salad always calls for boiled eggs.

Hope you had a terrific Easter and have plenty of leftovers for the week.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.