It’s slow here at work, so I figured we could discuss what wonderful things we’ll be making or plan on eating (if you’re going out) tonight.
I’m having some people over, so before I left for work, I started some delicious red beans and rice in the slow cooker. I used this recipe, along with all the exciting cajun seasonings I got on my trip to New Orleans in November. Much to my utter shock, the little trashy grocery store closest to my house actually had the proper kind of sausage (Andouille), so I’m hoping this is delightful. I’m also making corn bread and beignets.
I do have one dumb question, though. I cut up a few links of sausage and tossed them in the slow cooker, so that’s good to go. I have three links left and I was thinking of slicing them in half and cooking them up to go along with the meal (this is how I got it in Nawlins anwyay). But. . . I’ve never, ever cooked sausage before. What do I do? Just slice them in half, oil up a pan, and fry them? I mean, that seems like it would be the case, but I don’t want to poison everyone.
So, anywho: what are you making or eating tonight?
Yep. Poke a few holes in them first so the grease can run out, and cook them fairly slowly so they cook all the way through before they brown too much. Another way is to simmer them in liquid such as beer or wine until cooked through, then brown them quickly.
You can cut them into 2 or 3 chunks before you cook them, and then they won’t curl up so much and you can brown more of the surfaces, but sometimes the interiors start to squish out a bit. I’m sure you didn’t mean to halve them the long way, right?
It does take awhile for them to cook all the way through.
I did, because that’s how they were served to me in Louisiana. The sausages are kind of firm- when I sliced them into chunks earlier, nothing squished out of 'em. They held their sliced shape, possibly because I took them straight out of the 'fridge.
I bought this cool gadget at Tuesday Morning called a Soup-a-Chef. It’s a blender/cooker thing. You put a bunch of stuff cut up in chunks in it with liquid and it turns it into soup.
So I put in half a butternut squash, half a rutabaga, half an onion, an apple, some celery leaves, some baby carrots, some peanut butter, soy sauce. Pushed the button. It’s done. Tastes fantastic!
Yes the gadget was unnecessary, but I love 'em. Gonna have the soup tonight with a whole bottle of Asti Spumante all by myself.
I cut my smoked/polish sausages in half lengthwise and fry them, maybe a little bacon fat added. If your sausage is firm slicing in half should be fine.
Smoked fish, chopped liver and bialys are all on the menu. Yum. We also have sparkling cider, fresh raspberries and chocolate dipped nuts to welcome in the year.
Eating out tonight - my choice from the NYE menu will be coffe-rubbed pork tenderloin served with smoked gouda mac& cheese (it’s too damn cold not to go for the comfort food option).
I keep forgetting that it’s NYE and I hadn’t thought about dinner. The only thing I was planning for tonight was finishing season 4 of Doctor Who and playing WoW with my boyfriend. Now I have to figure out dinner as well?! Damn. I wonder if I can convince him that he wants to order out tonight.
It’s true that the thing purees the hell out of everything. I guess if I want unpureed stuff, I’ll have to add it at the end.
That combo of ingredients just came to me- I made it up.
Last week I made a soup in there with the rest of the rutabaga (wonderful vegetable, often misunderstood), cabbage, onion, carrots, beef broth. Out of this world.
I just had leftovers - stewed beef and dry pasta. Not really exciting, but it needs to get eaten up. :] That’s the thing about cooking for one - lots of leftovers.
I made Hoppin’ John. Being a lifelong California boy, I’d never even heard of Hoppin’ John until I saw a recipe in the newspaper last week. It was a vegetarian recipe–the only reason it caught my interest–with the notation to the effect that “some people add bacon to their Hoppin’ John, but this version really lets the beans shine through.” Subsequent research reveals that probably everyone else in the world considers bacon or hamhock integral to the Hoppin’ John, but I like the stuff I made just fine.
Bif, I ate it for years with no meat, in my Vegetarian Period. Now, I do like it with a bit of a hock. Usually I just save a little ham and toss it in.
Tonight, we had lasagna. I made it for my husband’s birthday, which was last week, and I just go around to baking it.
