This is a blog for people to discuss what they are eating. There is a theory that by journaling eating habits, people will eat healthier. I am trying to cook more at home and feed my family a wider variety of foods. People can just read or join as co-authors. Topics don't have to be recipes with nice photos. You can write about eating habits, special diets, culinary cultural differences, etc.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Another Cream Soup

If you put these things together...

1 pound beef smoked sausage, cubed
3 medium potatoes, cubed
1/2 a large yellow onion, diced small
1/2 a large (or one small) jalapeno pepper, deseeded, minced
2 stalks celery, diced small
1 carrot, grated or diced small
1/2 sweet/tart red apple, such as Gala or Braeburn, grated
1 quart water or chicken stock
1/4 cup blond roux
1 1/2 cup milk (I use 1% but you use whatever you have)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

... like this...

Brown the sausage in a tad of oil in a deep pot or dutch oven. When it just begins to brown, put in the onions, jalapeno, celery, carrot, and apple. When the onion and celery begin to get translucent add the water or stock and the potatoes. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat and let simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
While the potatoes cook make the roux in a small sauce pan. Let it cool in the pan until the potatoes are done.
When the potatoes are done, add the milk to the roux, a little bit at a time until it makes a thin slurry. Stirring constantly pour this slurry into the pot with the sausage and potatoes. Cook over med-lo heat until the broth is thickened to your liking. Finish with the black pepper.

...you get this...




Serve with a nice green salad and some crusty bread.


Enjoy.

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Breakfast Burritos

As most of my friends know, I'm not real big on breakfasts. Not in the morning, anyway. Breakfast for supper? Heck yeah! Breakfast for breakfast? Not so much. However... my guys are nuts for breakfasts. So, I usually make up a batch of this stuff for weekday breakfasts for my sweethearts:



As shown, the ingredients are few and fairly simple. You can adjust it to your taste:
Potatoes (diced or shredded)
Onions & garlic (minced)
eggs (slightly beaten)
breakfast sausage
Chorizo sausage (about 1/4 as much as the breakfast sausage)
Cheese (shredded)
peppers if you like

This is the way I do it:
I put both the sausages in the pan and get them browning. Once the pink is gone I add the onions, potatoes, garlic and peppers (if you are using them) I only used about half of the onion in the picture and I didn't use peppers in this batch but I do recommend them in this recipe. Once the potatoes are tender, add the eggs and stir them around until cooked to your liking. You can use however many you like, if you like it "eggy" use more, if you don't, use less. I usually use about 3-4 eggs in mine.






Notes:
I have been using the Jimmy Dean lower fat breakfast sausage and it's pretty good. Only thing is it doesn't come in "hot" so you have to spice it up yourself. It comes in a 12 oz roll instead of the usual 16 oz roll of regular breakfast sausage.

The chorizo I buy comes in little plastic tubes inside the larger package. Each tube is about 2.5 oz. You don't have to use this, but we like the flavor it adds. Plus, it's a little fatty so, it gives oil to the pan so you can brown the onions and taters without adding any extra. The low fat breakfast sausage leaves no extra oil in the pan whatsoever.

You can see in the ingredients picture that I use a lower fat cheese mixture. This brand is actually not bad and the hubster has gotten used to it and it's better for him, I suppose. So, we use it. Lately I have been adding a little Queso Fresco cheese to mine. But then... I'm addicted to the stuff, it's yummy.

My hubby likes this just as it is with cheese on top and a piece of toast on the side. My son likes it rolled in tortillas like a proper breakfast burrito. You can also use this mixture to stuff baked potatoes, large pasta shells, or if you leave the eggs out of the mixture you can use it to stuff omelets. Anyway, its pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.

Garnish with salsa, fresh tomatoes, whatever you desire.

Oh yeah, salt and pepper to your taste, if you must. Pardon me if I sometimes don't say salt in a recipe. I don't usually add salt when I'm cooking because the hubby just adds it anyway on the plate, whether it needs it or not, so... use your own descretion when adding salt to anything I post about here. :)

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