Table Talk: Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage



 This week it was Talesha's turn to pick.  I never would have made this recipe if it weren't for this group and I really, really liked it!  That's the best part of the baking group, unexpected finds!

I figured making sausage would be hard.  But it wasn't really.  I thought it was odd that the recipe called for cooking part of the sausage first...

I used my favorite cast iron skillet instead of a non-stick pan to cook u pthe 1/4 pound of turkey.

It browned up nicely.

Once it was done I got started on the rest of the recipe.  It called for fresh or dried sage. 

I had rubbed sage... I don't know if that is the same as dried sage but I used it like it was.  The recipe also calls for buttermilk.

I used powdered buttermilk.  I mixed it up so it could be used to soak the bread...

I let the bread soak while I got the rest of the ingredients together. 

The rest of the turkey (3/4 of a pound), sage, maple syrup (I used the fake Mrs. Buttersworth), garlic, salt, pepper and thyme.  Then I dumped in the soaked bread, the cooked sausage and got to work mixing and shaping my sausages.



I ended up with 18 instead of 16.  They weren't very dense either, not like traditional link sausage.

I cooked them up in two batches.  They cooked up quick (about 10 minutes).

I forgot to take any pictures of them other than the first piece that came out... Oh, well.

The flavor was really good!  I was surprised by how much I liked it.  Jonathan even liked them.  The book says that they are only 110 calories for two links.  I did the nutrition information for the whole recipe based on 8 servings (2 links if I had ended up with 16 total) and got something a bit higher.



 Either way they are pretty low calorie sausages.  But they taste just as good (if not better) than traditional pork sausage.  I'd really recomend these. 

For the full recipe check out Talesha's blog. 

Chocolate Blizzard Bars

I've had this recipe printed out for a while so I could make it.  It looks really good but the taste is just average.  Good but not good enough to end up in my dreams so it's not likely I'll be making it again...  But I'm glad I tried it.

The recipe starts with 12 oz of chocolate chips.  I used semi-sweet but you can use whatever you prefer.

I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave and then added the peanut butter.



Once the peanut butter was well mixed in I let that sit while I got the rest of the ingredients together, rice crispies, marshmallows, and M&Ms. 

After the chocolate had cooled for about 5 minutes I added in the rest of the ingredients. 

I mixed all that together and then dumped it into an 9x9" pan.  Then I dumped the rest of 8 oz bag of M&Ms I had bought on top of the dish.

I stuck the pan in the frig to let it set up quicker.

I like the marshmallow with the rice crispie texture contrast.  The bars are very rich.  I figure cutting this dish into 16 pieces is probably about reasonable given how rich they are.  So that's what the calories below are based on.  But my first piece was one ninth of the dish... very tasty, never had a hard time eating sweets... but even I felt a bit sick after I ate that much of it.

Vampire Chicken

I've had this recipe forever...  It's a big favorite in our family.  The name is actually Midwinter BBQ Chicken, but I can't get my family to call it that.  The first couple of times I made this they kept calling it Blood Chicken.  Yuck!!  Vampire chicken is a compromise...  I much prefer Midwinter BBQ but...

This is a really easy recipe and can be easily doubled, tripled, whatever you need.  The recipe below works well with a 9x9" pan.  You can put as much chicken in the bottom of the pan as you can fit.  You might have to increase the cooking time if the chicken is too squished in there.  Doubling the recipe works well with a 13x9" pan. 

Start with the sauce... 3/4 cup salsa, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup brown sugar & 1 Tbls Worchestershire Sauce (or as my father-in-law would say, "What's this here sauce?").

I use my magic bullet to mix it all up, nice and quick.  Plus it gets rid of some of the "chunks" in the salsa which Jonathan doesn't like.  Then I cut up the chicken in smaller pieces and put it in the bottom of the pan.

This pictures is actually of pork (shh... don't tell Jonathan).  I was out of chicken but had pork.  I have to say while it worked just fine with pork, it's much better with chicken.  Then I just dump the sauce over the meat.

I just try and make sure the meats all covered with sauce.  Then into the oven it goes for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

All done!  Cooking it this way ensures that the chicken is always moist and tasty.  My favorite way to eat it is with baked potato with sour cream and the red sauce all mixed together with the meat cut up in bite size pieces. 

May not look very appetizing but I love it.  The red sauce and sour cream really go well together.  Jonathan doesn't particularly like the sauce so he just pulls it out and tries to leave the sauce behind.

The calorie details below is based on 5 oz of chicken and about 1/4 of the sauce.

Spinach, Mushroom & Hash Brown Casserole

I changed the name of this recipe because I changed up the ratios quite a bit.  So the eggs and hash browns aren't the dominate flavors any more.  Plus since I'm not a huge fan of spicy food I toned down the spiciness quite a bit too.  Also, I doubled this recipe to get 8 servings...  It turned out really well!

I started with eggs - 6.

I mixed them up right in the dish I was baking it in (9x13").  Then I just dumped in the rest of the ingredients (except the cheese).

The spinach and the hash browns were still frozen.  I did a full bag of spinach (6 cups) but only 3 cups of hash browns.  Then I added 8 oz of sliced mushrooms (baby bellas).  This next part was the hardest part... mixing it evenly.

About five minutes later it still wasn't very well mixed.

After about ten minutes (or more) I decided it was mixed well enough.  I splashed a couple of drops of hot sauce on it, but it's barely noticable.  Then I topped it with 1 cup cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.

I covered it with aluminum foil and put it in the oven for 25 minutes.  Then I pulled the foil off and cooked it another 20 minutes or so. 

I let it cool for a bit and then split it into servings and stored it in plastic containers for eating later in the week.

I've had it a couple of times now for breakfast.  It reheats really well.  I was worried about the huge clumps of frozen spinach.  I really didn't want big bites of just spinach.  But once it was reheated I just mixed it up a bit and got an nice blend of hash browns and mushrooms.  The spinach and mushrooms really go well together.  The hash browns cooked up nicely as well.  The eggs are pretty unnoticable... I think it just gave it something to hold things together.

Bake 52 Rewind Week #8 - Peanut Butter Cookies

I've decided to skip one other recipe in my quest to repeat the first of last year - traditional pizza crust.  Since I did the deep dish pizza I decided I wasn't going to do something that was so similar to another dish I'd made. 

So this weekend I jumped ahead to week 8 - Peanut Butter Cookies.  You can find the recipe on Jennifer's blog.  This recipe is labeled "great for beginners" so it's pretty straight forward. 

I read through the recipe and saw that I needed two cubes of unsalted, soften butter.  So I started there...

That's a lot of butter!

 

Then I got the dry ingredients measured and mixed together.

 Then I measured out the peanut butter.  I used Adam's (just what I had on hand).  The recipe called for extra chunky peanut butter.  But I don't like cruchy peanut butter and I wasn't going to buy a jar just for this recipe.

 Last thing to prep was the peanuts.  It took me a lot of chopping to get them this fine. 

Now I was ready to start putting it all together.  I creamed the butter with the two kinds of sugar.

Then I added the vanilla, eggs (one at a time) and finally the dry ingredients. 

 Last in - the chopped peanuts.

I used my disher to scoop out the cookies.  It must be right about 1.5 tablespoons, because I ended up with almost exactly double the number of cookies the recipe calls for (47 instead of 24). 

After putting the cross hatches in all the cookies I put them in the oven.

Ten minutes later I had cookies!  I didn't bother to let them cool on the cookie sheet because they were thin enough and smalle enough I figured they'd end up over cooked.

For the secound half of the batch I decided to add in chocolate chips.  Sounds like something I'd come up with, right?  But this time it was Jonathan who suggested this modification.  I must be rubbing off on him!

 For the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies I didn't put in the cross hatches.

 But I had to cook them a little bit longer since I didn't flatten them at all. 

I should have put in more chocolate chips... You couldn't really taste the chocolate.  If I were going to make them again I would have left out the nuts and put in a full bag of chocolate chips.  To tell the truth I liked the regular ones better than the ones with chocolate chips.

The nutrition info is for the regular recipe (no chocolate chips) and getting 47 cookies out of the recipe. 

Special Potatoes

This is a favorite potato dish in our family.  This, with meat loaf and green beans, is one of our traditional meals at our annual snowmobile trip.  There are several short cuts you can do to make this recipe faster (like use hashbrowns rather than boil potatoes and shred them yourself or use pre-shredded cheddar) but it does change the consistency and flavor a bit.  I like it either way but prefer it with the traditional ingredients. 

I started by boiling my potatoes in heavily salted water.  I think it's important to make sure the potatoes are well seasoned.  The best way is to do it while they are cooking.  But I've also seasoned them after I grate them into the pan.  I made half a recipe, since there were only four of us eating. 

I also don't cook the potatoes until they are completely done.  If you do I end up with mushed potatoes instead of grated potatoes. 

Next I diced up the green onions while the pototoes cooled off.

I grated the potatoes into a 9x9-inch pan since I was making a half recipe.

Then I heated the soup and butter until it was melted and combined.  Since I was making a half batch I actually weighed out half of a can of soup...

Anal, I know.  I also used cream of chicken because Jonathan doesn't like mushrooms and claims he can taste them when I use it.  But I like cream of mushroom a lot more.  Also, I always use the healthy choice soup - there is plenty of fat in this recipe.  :-)

Next I spread the yummy goodness over the potatoes.

Next the cheese.  You really want to use a good quality sharp cheddar cheese with this recipe.  You really need the sharp cheddar to off-set/compliment the very mild, creamy sauce that tops the potatoes.  We used to always use Cracker Barrel but I can't find that down in California.  So it was Tillamook this time.

This is another recipe that you can make ahead.  I've never tried freezing it (and I wouldn't recomend that) but I've made it up to a week in advance and refrigerated it until I was ready to eat it. 

I covered it with aluminum foil and stuck it in the frig.  The night I was serving it I couldn't get home from work in time to get it in the oven in time for dinner but all Jonathan had to do was turn on the oven and stick the dish in about an hour before we were eating. 

Yum!

Special Potatoes

Ingredients:

6 to 7 potatoes, peeled                                                 1 bunch green onions

1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of mushroom                       1 container (16 oz.) sour cream

¼ cup butter                                                                      10 oz. Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Boil potatoes and allow to cool.  Dice green onions using whites and light green part.  Set aside.  Grate potatoes into a 13 x 9-inch cake pan.  In a saucepan, heat mushroom soup and butter.  When butter is melted and stirred into soup.  Take the pan of the heat and mix in the green onions and sour cream.  Mix well.  Pour the mixture over the grated potatoes.  Grate the cheese and cover the top of the potatoes.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake 45 – 60 minutes.  Serves 8 -12. 

The calorie details below are based on 18 servings but these are so good, it take a lot of self-control to have that small a serving.