A Busy Winter and Spring

Wow, I cannot believe that summer is just around the corner.  I haven't written in a long while and in looking over my past posts, I see that I completely forgot to post at least two of my blog writings.  My bad!  From teaching to research to applying for a full time position, I just let go of blogging times.  But it did not mean that I haven't been focused on food.

From smoking various cuts of meat to trying out new recipes to ordering "something different" kinds of meats to cleaning out the freezer, I have been busy.  Unfortunately, I never took the time to take some photos and I think the lack of photos led to a lack of blogs.  Not good. 

I followed acookblog, grand winner of A Year of Charcutepalooza, on his grand prize winning journey to France and have followed his blog ever since.  I still follow a number of the Charcutepalooza bloggers in a year of making charcuterie that I will certainly never forget.  Because I also can the produce from my garden every year, I have become a faithful follower of Mrs. Wheelbarrow as well as others in the canning trade.  I have become a walking/talking advertisement for two Charcutepalooza sponsor/blog supporters, Food52 and PunkDomestics, and I just placed another order to D'Artagnan, another Charcutepalooza sponsor.  D'Artagnan offers some great cuts of wild boar, an animal, if it lived in my neck of the woods, would turn me into a hunter in seconds flat.  I love the flavor of wild boar!

For my birthday, in April, my dear bff and talented chef, Mark, helped me make my birthday dinner.  Yes, I usually make my own because that is my birthday gift to myself.  But I miss cooking with Mark so for a birthday present, I asked him to help me.  We made an absolutely delicious tropical fruit stuffed pork loin that was a big hit with everyone.  We added a corn, tomato, and arugula salad which was sooooo good.  We served it all family style and also added fresh, roasted vegetables to the menu.  Finally, we topped it off with my homemade yellow plum ice cream, served in tuile cups, and topped with a blackberry/cabarnet sauce.  It was so delicious!  Everyone was blissfully satiated.

The Charcutepalooza smoking challenge made me realize that I really needed something better in a smoker and I went with the Bradley Smoker.  One of my favorite smoked food items is fish, especially trout.  Because trout are popular with fly-fishing fanatics in our local rivers, I decided to become a fly-fishing woman.  My husband taught me to fly fish years ago, but it became forgotten knowledge until recently.  My cousin, Mike, in Maine, a certified fly fishing instructor and Maine guide, sent me a fly-fishing rod and reel for my milestone 60th birthday.  Now I have to do it, especially since my Bradley Smoker beckons me daily to smoke some fish!  Luckily, I have my local friend, Red, who is an expert and I can't wait to wade into the Moyie River to fly fish with her.  Our mutual friend, Steve Jamsa, took this great photo of Red fly fishing in the Moyie, and I think it should be the poster for fly fishing in the West.  What do you think?



What with fly-fishing, an early, wet spring, and a garden that, at the moment, looks like a rain forest, I expect food to focus large on the horizon.  Given that I'm still just a part time instructor at the local community college, I'll have lots of time to give to cooking, food, and all the beauty present in my neck of the woods.

Bangers And Mash

Bangers and Mash



Well, it wasn't just any sausage, it was my garlic sausage.   And, of course, I also changed the mashed potatoes by adding a bit of parsnips.  For sweetness.  And, I'm addicted to mashed potatoes and parsnips.  Finding a British beer in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, was nothing short of a miracle.  Bass.  At Safeway.  Wonders will never cease.  So began my multiple usages of stuffed sausage.

Given my weakness for sausage,  my first four different sausages didn't make a dent in my freezer so I decided to go for even more.  Top left is Charcuterie's Smoked Andouille recipe.  Below is Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Merguez Sausage.  On the right, both coiled and in links, is Charcuterie's Venison Sausage.  I feel like I'm on a sausage mission, trying more and more kinds of sausage-making, but maybe I'm just filling a junk food addition.  Be that as it may, as long as I had extra minutes in the day, a love of sausage loomed overhead.

At first I wasn't crazy about the Andouille, so I used and froze it without smoking it.  I figured I could smoke some of it, if I wanted, after defrosting....  I may be completely wrong but I had no choice because life is like that....  I didn't think it had enough pepper a first, but after freezing and then defrosting a few links, I changed my mind and really liked the flavor. Andouille Sausage is really good whether smoked or not, and it lends itself to many different dishes.  I used it in a risotto and it turned out very well.  I also made a cream sauce with peppers, onions, and zucchini and served it over egg noodles, as shown above.  Now I think that smoking it would really bring out the flavor even more.


Garlic sausage and peppers

So, every summer I look forward to the County Fair in late August (and yes, that is way too early).  I often enter some of my canned goods and have won a number of blue ribbons.  But what I really look forward to is the food booth from Coeur d'Alene because they serve coils and coils of homemade Italian sausage.  I can smell the sausage and pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano mix on the grill before I even see the booth.  The server cuts a long chunk of the coil, sticks it into an oversized sausage roll, covers it with the pepper mixture, puts it onto some serving paper, and hands it to you.  And, in a truly disgusting fashion, I also put yellow mustard on top - it must be some childhood thing.  Occasionally, throughout the year, I try to emulate the flavor, and although I didn't add the disgusting yellow mustard to the above sandwich, it came close to county fair memories.

I've used my sausages in a number of ways.  For dinner one night my husband and I had rigatoni with chicken sausage and peppers in cream sauce again.  I love how the cream absorbs the flavors of the peppers and sausage as well as the changing herbs that I add.  To me, it's comfort food.  I also made a risotto with my chicken sausage removed from the casings and I added some cut up broccoli.  That was delicious!  The hint of tomato from the sausage blended well with the broccoli, onions, and garlic.  My own chicken stock just added more flavor.

I haven't had the venison sausage yet.  I'm thinking I'll like it more in winter....  However, once those root vegetables come up in the fall, I may be tempted to serve them with venison sausage.  Hmm, what kind of beer would go well with venison sausage?  Maybe on a gusty, windy fall day, red wine would match the sausage better.  So many choices!  And tomorrow, a new Charcutepalooza challenge!  I'm ready!

Sausage, Sausage, And More Sausage

Four different fresh sausage

I am wearing a huge smile on my face.  Just the sight of those beautiful sausages makes me happy, brightens my day, and makes my taste buds tingle.  Top left is my fennel sausage; underneath, garlic sausage; in the middle, Italian sweet sausage; and both those babies on the right are Merguez sausages.  The casings for the Merguez had a hole so I had to stop, tie off, and finish with a smaller sausage.

This is my first time making sausage.  I never knew it could be so easy.  Actually, stuffing them, with a Kitchen Aid, is not easy without help.  That is one lesson I learned.  It's difficult trying to guide the sausage casing with one hand while stuffing in the meat with the other hand.  Also, pushing the meat into the sausage stuffer has to be somewhat continuous or the sausage becomes lumpy and filled with air pockets.  Of course, maybe that problem is related to oiling the worm.

Another lesson learned is that there is a very good reason for oiling the worm well, because otherwise the meat sticks to it, which means stopping and washing everything in the middle of making sausage or building my own arm muscles by forcing more meat to go through the stuffer.  Well, I have another batch of meat ready to go so I'll see if I learned my lessons.

Keeping the casing in lukewarm water before threading it onto the stuffer also helps. Otherwise, it's hard work and provides potential for the casing to tear.  So, having someone to help stuff the sausage, oiling the worm, and keeping the casings wet were my three most important lessons.  They were techniques I had never known before.

As for the recipes, well, I borrowed freely and must give proper due to the providers.  So far my favorite recipe is from Mrs. Wheelbarrow whose Merguez sausage recipe is soooo goooood!  She mentioned the merguez in this month's grinding challenge, but I first saw her recipe as a Food52 winner.  After seeing the comments that others left, I decided not to change anything.  Mrs. Wheelbarrow's spice mixture is incredible and I'm sure it will find its way into other dishes.  I don't know what harissa she uses, but I had some DEA harissa that I had picked up at The Basque Market on a trip to Boise.  They don't seem to have it in their online store but I've noticed that Amazon carries it.

Well, I did kind of change one thing.  I added about 1/3 c. of my pork shoulder butt to the lamb because I didn't want to end up with dry sausage.  I only had ground lamb left in my freezer because we had eaten all the lamb shoulder and I wasn't sure of the fat content, so, in went the pork.  In order to honor Moroccan tradition, I probably should have added oil or maybe duck fat in respect for the pork taboo.  Impulsively, however, I threw in the pork.  And to make it worse, I did it again in the second batch I have waiting to be ground.  I'm not sure what a good pork alternative would be.  I'm not crazy about lamb fat - it just isn't tasty. 

I borrowed the Italian sweet sausage and the garlic sausage recipes from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie.  I did add a bit more hot pepper to the Italian sausage recipe, and, after frying a taste sample of the garlic sausage, decided to throw in some garlic granules in order to satisfy my garlic cravings.  Both of these are very good but next time I would toast and grind the fennel for the Italian sausage and double the amount of garlic for the garlic sausage.

Finally, the fennel sausage recipe came from Joyce Goldstein's The Mediterranean Kitchen.  This recipe called for toasting the fennel and it was delicious in the sausage!  She also has recipes in there for other sausages including Portuguese Linguisa, Greek Loukanika, Spanish Chorizo, and Calabrese Lucanica.  Wow, the Lucanica combines both pork and lamb!  I have found a match that I have to try!  I can see this is going to be the summer of sausage.