SAUSAGE-FRUIT KABOBS

Try to find good melons, tomatoes, peaches, plums in our winter climates....the list goes on and on of foods we will have to wait months to get....

One thing we can all count on is apples. This is a great meal for kids who love apples and with this sweet marinade it's perfect. It also makes a great appetizer for your winter party. I serve it as a main course and replace the bread with rice. You can add more veggies or pineapple too.

When cooking with apples be watchful which variety you choose. Cooking apples include; Braeburn, Fuji, Gala and Granny Smith, while Red Delicious are better served raw.

Ingredients:

4 tbl Dijon mustard

4 tbl honey

12 oz cooked smoky sausage cut on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick

1 apple, cored and cut into 1/2 inch wedges

1 zucchini halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices

6 oz crusty bread cut into 1 inch pieces

Olive Oil

Try to use metal skewers so they won't burn, but if you use wooden make sure you soak them for about 30 minutes in water before using. Preheat your broiler. In a bowl combine mustard and honey. On four skewers, alternately thread pieces of sausage, zucchini and apple. Leave a bit of space between pieces. Reserve some of the honey-mustard mixture. Brush remaining mixture over the skewers and place on an unheated broiler pan. Broil 4-5 minutes. Then thread bread on the remaining 4 skewers and lightly brush with oil. Add bread skewers to the broiler pan. Turn sausage skewers. Broil 3 minutes more until sausage is heated through and bread is toasted on all sides. Serve with remaining honey-mustard mixture.

HOPE THE KIDS LOVE THEM!

ENJOY!

SIMPLE PASTA WEEK - SAUSAGE MANICOTTI

The great thing about this simple manicotti is that so much can be made ahead of time. The sausage cheese stuffing mixture can be made a day ahead, and you can cook and stuff the manicotti about 2 hours, so when guests arrive all you have to do is bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Choose your sausage from mild or sweet to fennel spiced to hot depending on your taste.

Ingredients:

1 lb Italian sausage (I use sweet and add spice later)
1/2 cup chopped shallot
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
1 (28 oz) San Marzano whole tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup white wine
1 (15 oz) whole milk ricotta
1/4 cup fresh provolone cheese diced into cubes
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1-1/2 cups fresh parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
olive oil
crushed red pepper (optional)
1 lb manicotti

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Slit the sausage to release fat while cooking and place in a pan with a tbl olive oil, shallot and garlic. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Turn sausage and cook another 5 minutes. (turn heat down if onion and garlic start to brown). Add the wine and cook uncovered until it reduces and shallots begin to brown. Remove from heat.

Puree the tomatoes in a food processor and strain seeds if you want...I leave them in. If you are adding red pepper add it here. Pour tomatoes into pan with sausage and simmer over low heat until the tomatoes reduce to about 2 cups....This should take about 1 hour to 1-1/4 hour. Add basil and simmer for 5 minutes. Take sausage out of the pan and season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Place the ricotta cheese in a bowl with the provolone, 2 tbl parmesan and a pinch of pepper. Cut sausages into cubes and add to the cheese mixture.

Cook manicotti 3/4 of the way or about 7 minutes. Drain and cool on a lined baking sheet. Stuff with the sausage and cheese mixture. In an olive oil greased 13 x 9 pan, add a layer of sauce and line stuffed manicotti in a single layer. Spoon remaining sauce over the top of manicotti. Add about 3/4 cup parmesan on top of sauce and bake until sauce bubbles about 20 minutes. Let rest for about 5 minutes.

Manja!
ENJOY!

TAILGATE DAY - SAUSAGE SHRIMP SKEWERS

We are only hours away and you have plenty of time to make these delicious kabobs. You can certainly add any other vegetables or fruit you would like to these. I use Italian sausage because I love the spice, but pork sausage is great too.

Ingredients:

1 lb Italian cooked sausage cut into 16 pieces

16 large raw shrimp cleaned and deveined

1 sweet pepper (any color, red, orange yellow) cut into 16 pieces

2 shallots cut into 16 slices

1 zucchini in 16 pieces

1/2 cup olive oil

4 tbl sherry vinegar

4 garlic cloves crushed

2 tsp smoked paprika (or regular paprika)

1 tsp cumin

pinch red pepper flake

16 sage leaves

salt

pepper

Whisk oil, vinegar, garlic, paprika and cumin in a bowl. Add sausage and shrimp and marinade at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Drain and reserve marinade. Skewer shallot, shrimp, sage, sausage, pepper and zucchini on skewer...repeat. Season with salt and pepper.

Grill on medium- high basting frequently with reserved marinade. Cook time about 6-8 minutes until shrimp cooked through. Serve alone as an appetizer or with a side of rice for dinner.

It's The Playoffs!

ENJOY!

SLOW COOKER WEEK - SAUAGE POTATO CHOWDER

This is a week with recipes for busy, busy people to just combine ingredients in your slow cooker and come home from work with DINNER DONE!!! These recipes work especially well in winter, because most of the recipes are just great warm comfort foods.

Always be careful handling chili peppers, they are so spicy. Either wear gloves when chopping them or wash your hands right away. Trust me I have made the mistake to wipe my eye first....not pretty!

Ingredients:

1 lb sausage, casing removed

1 lb red potatoes chopped

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 green and red pepper chopped

1 jalapeno pepper seeded and chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

3 cloves garlic minced

1/2 tsp pepper

28 oz reduced sodium chicken broth

Shredded sharp cheddar cheese for garnish

Canned shoestring potatoes for garnish

In a saute pan, cook sausage until brown and drain fat. In your slow cooker, combine sausage, potatoes, onion, peppers, cumin, oregano, garlic and pepper. Stir in chicken broth. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

While hot, top individual servings with cheese and shoestring potatoes. If you want to make fresh potatoes for topping, cut potatoes into matchstick size and cook in canola oil until brown. Remove and salt while they are still hot. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

It's What's for Dinner!

ENJOY!

EGGPLANT AND SAUSAGE STUFFED SHELLS

I love stuffed shells..so much easier to stuff than a manicotti or cannelloni noodle. You can stuff them with just about anything. In this recipe you could substitute chicken or beef for the sausage and it calls for spinach and you all know I don't like spinach. I use finely diced or shredded zucchini instead. As always try what you like!!!!

Ingredients:

4 tbl olive oil
3/4 lb Italian sausage meat (no casings)
4 large shallots chopped
4 tbl minced garlic
1 large eggplant chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
salt
crushed red pepper
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
2/3 cup spinach (thawed and drained well) or shredded zucchini
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 pkg large shells (about 18-20)
28 oz can San Marzano crushed tomatoes
3 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped basil
4 oz grated fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a saucepan heat 2 tbl olive oil. Add sausage saute until cooked through. Add half the shallots and the eggplant (If using zucchini instead of spinach add it here). Season with salt and red pepper flakes. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Add half the garlic and cook one minute. Remove pan from heat and let cool.

Add mascarpone cheese, spinach and half the parmesan cheese to the cooled vegetable mixture. Cook shells according to package directions but not quite el dente. They will cook more in the oven. Drain and pat dry. Grease a 13 X 9 pan. Stuff shells with vegetable mix and place in the pan like the picture above.

For the sauce, heat remaining olive oil in a pan. Add the rest of the shallots and cook until soft. Add the rest of the garlic. Stir in tomatoes and season with salt and red pepper flakes. Add the heavy cream and reduce the sauce by about 1/3 - about 20-30 minutes. Add basil to the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the shells and sprinkle them with parmesan and fontina cheese. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 15 more minutes until bubbly and the cheese and sauce are light golden brown. Let is rest for 10 minutes and serve.

A nice garden salad and some crusty bread - PERFECT!!!!
ENJOY!

MY UNCE JOHN'S TUSCAN WHITE BEAN AND SAUSAGE SOUP

What an amazing day I am already having!!!! I was searching for my usual Friday cocktail to blog and getting a headache..which might have something to do with my night out last night.....so I decided to forget the blog for a second and check out what was happening to all my facebook friends this morning....

I opened facebook and there was a message waiting for me. It was a note from my Uncle John with this recipe attached!!!!! So great!!!! It was such a great surprise not only because it looked sooooo delicious, but I loved that Uncle John thought of me and my blog. Thank you Uncle!!!

Anyone who doesn't know Uncle John needs to know he is Italian through and through so definitely try this. So here it is:

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cup dried cannellini beans (or great northern)

8 ounces mild Italian sausage, casing removed

8 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 tbl extra virgin olive oil

4 tbl tomato paste

1/3 cup chopped carrots

1/3 cups chopped onion

1/3 cups chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped garlic

3/4 cup small pasta, farfilline, dry

salt

pepper

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Cover the beans with water at least two inches higher than the beans.

In a non-reactive heavy sauce pan or soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery and stir until all the vegetables are glazed with oil. Add garlic and cook, stirring about 2 minutes or until the vegetables are softened but not brown.

Crumble the sausage and add to the pan. Cook stirring and breaking the sausage apart about 4 minutes or until sausage is thoroughly cooked.

Drain the beans and add to the pan with the chicken broth and tomato paste and stir well. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally. Cook about 45 minutes then add the pasta and cook an additional 30 minutes or until the beans are tender and the soup has thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Makes about 12 cups.

To spice it up a bit you can substitute hot Italian sausage either by completely replacing the mild or some portion thereof. You can also add 1/2 tbl of chopped fennel.

Love, Uncle John

Thank you very much, Love Julie

ENJOY!