Sausages how I love thee...

So we made our first sausages. (Boo rah to KitchenAid)

We attempted English banger style sausages and let me tell you they were the best sausage I'd ever eaten.
We followed someone else's recipe with a few minor adjustments and they turned out yummo. Got to show them off too. My brother Pat showed up on Sunday to surprise my mom on her birthday. Near everyone ended up at my house so I made brekky. Homemade bangers, scrambled eggs and toast.

So here's the recipe we used

http://www.3men.com/sausage.htm#English%20Bangers

and the tweaks were

We used a 10 lb pork shoulder roast instead of pork loin (deboned and deskinned and denasty bitted)
For the bread crumbs we used an 8 oz french loaf which we dried and crumbed and that was about 1 3/4 cup of bread crumbs
Because we had more meat than the original recipe called for we upped the seasoning to 4 1/2 tsps
and finally we used an entire can (just shy of 2 cups) of chicken broth

Followed his directions and stuffed the whole mess into casings.

Even though we ate some that night (Bangers and mash) we discovered the taste and texture was considerably better the next day.

Then we decided to make more sausages on Tuesday and come up with entirely our own recipe. So we did

Chicken and Mushroom Sausages
Seasoning
2 Tablespoons Durkee Chicken Grill Seasoning
1 Tablespoon Greek Seasoning
Mix together

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes (partially frozen works best for grinding and cubing)
1 8 oz loaf of fresh french bread cut into cubes
1 15 oz can of chicken broth
1/3 cup dry sherry (not cooking sherry)
4 teaspoons Seasoning

1 lb button mushrooms roughly chopped
2 large onions rougly chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sherry
A pinch of salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms, garlic and salt and pepper and cook slowly until all the juices are nearly evaporated and the onions are very tender. Add the 1/3 cup sherry and continue cooking until almost all liquid is evaporated. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Mix together chicken, bread cubes, seasoning, chicken broth and sherry. Allow to sit for a few minutes to allow broth to soak into the bread. Using the coarsest setting put mixture through a meat grinder. Combine the ground chicken mixture with the mushroom mixture and any leftover broth. Mix well and stuff into casings. Allow to sit overnight in the fridge before attempting to twist into links.

And in fact these were the best tasting sausages I've ever eaten. (Though the bangers were a close second)

Other ideas we've got floating around
Chicken Florentine-with spinach, mushrooms and swiss cheese
Country Chicken-chicken, sage, celery and onion (sort of classic stuffing flavored)
Chicken Fettucine-chicken, mushrooms garlic, parmesan and maybe orzo for fun
Beef Vindaloo
Pork solely seasoned with Greek Seasoning
Lincolnshire sausages

Truffle Oil...big, fat, culinary hoax...

Ever seen the episode of Happy Days where Richie and the guys are all hyped up to go see the strippers? They get there and discover there's nothin' much to see. Yet when someone asks they all talk it up to be bigger than it really was.

White truffle oil...yes truffle oil. That divine, expensive, pig found fungus conveniently infusing extra virgin olive oil. Definitely a cheaper route to go especially if you're just getting your feet wet in the truffle tasting world.

If you'd never had a truffle and were going to hazard a guess as to it's taste and aroma what would you say? Earthy? Deeply mushroomy? Heady? A lot like garlic chives?

What?! a lot like garlic chives? How can this be? I spent eight bucks on this! (Which, trust me is a good price.) Granted it was tasty, but not the lush decadence I'd been led to believe. So I'm refusing to pull a Cunningham. Maybe black truffle oil is the good stuff but for anywhere from $8-35 a bottle white truffle oil ain't worth the money.

Indianapolis...

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this town? (Go Colts!)

Karl and I decided to drive up and stay overnight to celebrate our anniversary. We left directly from work Monday night and got to Pat's a little after 10.

Pat cooked us dinner (yummy spaghetti) and we all settled down for the night. The next day Karl and I started our prowling with plans to meet up with Pat and Janice after Pat got off of work.

We hit Tienda Morrello #1, International Market, Meijer and International Bazaar. Mushy peas, curry paste and rose petal jam. The jam is going to be the filling in a cake I think.

P and J met up with us right as we finished in International Bazaar. Together we drove to 86th St. and Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is one of my favorite places. Three Buck Chuck and This Fig Walked Into a Bar are just one of the many delights that await you. This trip yielded two loaves of bread, Canadian White and Shepherd's Loaf, Comte sheese, goat brie, greek style yogurt, dried navel oranges, dried white peaches and dried black currants, pistachio nut meats, several sauces including a Thai Yellow Curry and a Masala Simmer Sauce. Other various bits and sundry and the triumph of the trip, White Truffle Oil. I can't wait to use it. My first plan is to pan roast the peruvian purple and yukon gold potatoes with a touch of truffle oil and sea salt. Who knows where I'll go from there...

From TJ's we ended our shopping at Saraga. Janice had never been there before and watching her delighted reaction was almost as good as the shopping. This trip yielded 6 more pounds of my favorite sea salt, honey powder, tofu noodles, udon noodles, soup noodles, carrot noodles, maybe some other kind of noodles, Idris Fiery Ginger Beer, coconut water, cuttlefish crackers and vegetarian crackers. We also bought this incredible double sided griddle pan.

We finished up with dinner at Buca di Beppo and headed home. It was an absolutely lovely day and I love Karl in general and for convincing me to go even though I was being a whiney baby.

I love you babe, happy anniversary.