Side Note

How utterly hilarious is it that my son, 

Michael 

is married to

Michelle

and my daughter, 

Shanna

is dating

Shawn.

You can't make this stuff up folks. 

Sausage!

This is Shanna and Shawn's fault.

They told us Jamie Oliver's story about 

pink slime. 

I now need to grind my own meats.

But the up side to this is that I can control the 

fat, filler and salt in my ground meats.

That's good, right?

So here you have my first foray into

Ground Meat Land:

Italian Sausage

It smells amazing!

It is going to fulfill it's destiny in a Timbale tonight.

I cruised the internet, 

picked Maggie's brain and 

consulted with Chef Brian at Relish 

for sausage making tips.

Here is what I have deduced:

Fennel seeds, classic, toast them first.

There is a long list of herbs and spices to choose from;

parsley

basil

garlic

paprika

red pepper flakes

Anise

red wine

salt pepper

And that's just the assortment I wrote down.

I went with fennel,

garlic, fresh basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

You cut all the meat very small and mix it with 

your seasonings and refrigerate overnight before grinding.

I don't know why but that seemed to be a consistent instruction.

I cut most of the outer layer of fat away and then 

threw a little bit back in. 

The meat should be VERY cold before you grind it so I gave it 20 

minutes in the freezer beforehand.

Pork butt and pork shoulder are the same difference?

Not on me but I guess on a pig?

You grind twice, once coarse and then fine.

Oh, and one of these, 

HUGE!

Thanks to my sister who likes to get the biggest,

bestest of everything.

She and Dave will be our dinner guinea pigs, 

er, no, 

GUESTS tonight.

Shanna's Birthday

A day late.

But sometimes good things take time. 

Like 9 months.

So, alright, this post won't be as good as my

 9 month projects have been, 

but, you know....

Shanna is a stereotypical 

First-Born-Overachieving-Female.

I am not. 

It has been great fun to watch.

Shanna excels at everything she puts her mind to. 

One time in high school I told her to get a "D" in 

something just to see what it felt like and to show

herself that the world would not fall off it's axis.

She couldn't do it. 

I publish the following photo to prove a few points:

Shanna does not excel at EVERYTHING.

Shanna has lightened up a bit in her old age.

Shanna has learned to embrace

"less than perfect" and find the joy in 

"creatively unique"

(a term her mother lives by).

The earth did not fall off it's axis.

(However, she WILL be noting and flinching at every

grammatical and punctuational error in this post)

I love my Shanna.

That is all.

Cream Horns

Here's something I never knew existed

but it looks like the rest of the world knew about them.

They even make special forms for them.

Cream horns are little puff pastry cones filled 

with fruit preserve and whipped cream.

I don't know if the preserve part is traditional, I just

know that that is the way Maggie made them.

Some day I'll write about Maggie. 

She's the funnest friend I have who I have never met.

I have a whole theory of Facebook as the current

form of Pen Pals.

At least, that's what Maggie is.

But I digress, 

the Cream Horns!

 These are actually my second round of them. 

I learned a few things that really seemed to be more

technique than instruction.

Here they are fresh out of the oven on their little forms.

These are really easy but like I said there is a bit of

finesse you need to acquire so don't give up. 

I'll give you all I figured out thus far:

Roll a sheet of puff pastry to 14 x 8.

I brushed it with an egg wash and then cut into 

1/2 inch by 14 inch strips.

Oil the forms.

One sheet of pastry will make 12 horns, it's best to have 12 forms.

Start at the bottom wrap the pastry around the horn 

(be sure to overlap) , egg wash

side out and then dust with sanding sugar.

(or regular sugar)

Place on parchment lined sheet pan and refrigerate for 30 min.

Hence the need for 12 forms.

Bake 400 degrees 15 minutes.

Allow them to cool slightly but not all the way

and remove tubes. 

A little twist of the form while you gently

hold the pastry seems to help. 

After they are totally cooled you can fill them. 

You really do need to pull out the pastry bag for this.

You want to get a line of preserve all the way to the bottom

but then pull it up to the top and then fill with whip cream.

I tried the old "ziploc bag with a hole in it"

the first time and you just can't get the preserves

to run the entire length. I had a tip 

full of fruit and a top full of whip cream.

Maggie did a beautiful job of dipping the tops of 

some horns in chocolate.

 Mine did not look so great.

Mike and Shanna voted for the drizzle of chocolate over the 

whole thing so as to get chocolate in every bite. 

Maggie's whip cream also looked better. 

There is a trick to getting whip cream stiff enough

so that it will hold the lines from your pastry tip

but not so stiff that it becomes butter. 

As you can see, I haven't figured that tip out yet.

I'll keep you posted....

Skinny Pina Coladas

If you get up early enough in the morning

you can learn things. 

http://www.nbcchicago.com/shows/newstoday/Recipe-for-Skinny-Cocktails-123214363.html

Channel 5 has a 4:30 AM news cast.

Relax, it's still on at 6:00 when I tune in.

Today they were making "skinny" cocktails.

The first one was a watermelon concoction that Zorida,

the host, didn't seem too impressed with. 

However, when she tried the Pina Colada one her reaction was

such that I decided to give it a try. 

The funniest thing Mike has ever said to me was a few years back. 

It was 10 AM 

and we were on Grand Cayman Island. 

Someone asked him what time it was and he responded, 

"I believe it's Pina Colada time." 

If you know Mike, 

you understand how funny that statement coming 

from his mouth truly is. 

This is why I love to give my man a Pina Colada,
but those babies have about a bazillion calories.
And seeing as how he is not one to drink alone, he does not
get his pina colada on very often.

These were a cinch to make.
It's just equal parts frozen pineapple and coconut water, not milk
which is the part that will do you in.
We added some coconut rum and had us a little
taste of vacation right in balmy St. Chuck.

Now given this is what I learned at 6, 

imagine what sorts of things they are sharing at 4:30

Grilled Corn and Cheese Cakes

Smiley did it again.

And I mean "smiley" in the nicest way.

Don't you hate it when the pretty girl is more than just

pretty?

Giada made corn/cheese cakes this weekend.

I did too but neglected to photograph them. 

She did too. 

I was going to "borrow" her picture of them but, alas,

there is none. 

Mine actually weren't exactly ready for a close up.

We need to figure out how best to grill them without

smushing them. 

They are really easy to make. 

It's just corn, smoked cheese, bread crumbs, chives and a 

hit of sour cream. 

You coat the chilled cakes in more bread crumbs, 

brush with olive oil and grill.

We had them alongside burgers but they would be great with anything.

How fun to have a new side for grilling!

So, whereas Ina gives me the warm fuzzies,

pretty Giada gives me the good recipes.

I guess I can forgive her for being so pretty. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/grilled-corn-and-cheese-cakes-recipe/index.html

Refried Beans

I didn't take a picture of them.

They aren't particularly photogenic.

But I did take a picture of what I did with them:

I had a Mexican Lasagna production line.

The little individual ones are to take to a guy from church.

I made a big one for us and I am trying it in my small Crockpot.

It occurred to me that the crock pot was about the same size as the 

casserole I would make for us. It's hot out today so let's 

see if this works! It's better than heating up the oven.

But about the refried beans.

It's my understanding that the ones you buy in a can

 have a multitude of unhealthy things for you that 

they slide in there along with the beans.

I found this recipe from All Recipes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/refried-beans-without-the-refry/Detail.aspx

They cook in the crock pot and are too easy!

I've made them a couple of times and I've adapted the recipe a bit.

I use 1/2 pinto and 1/2 black beans.

I only use 2 cups of beans.

I use chicken or vegetable stock instead of water.

I have yet t have a jalapeno sitting around

but I do pretty regularly have a can of diced chilies around so those

are what I have used. 

And now with our low salt focus, I left ALL the salt out.

And know what?

Don't miss it!

There are so many good flavors in there that I 

think the salt is just unnecessary. 

So there you have it; 

Salt Free

Fat Free

and 

Heat Up The House Free!

Time well spent :o)