Sunshine & Sausage Making

Now that is an odd title I do admit but since my photos include a little bit of both I thought it fit *grin*.

The sun graced us today with its warmth and light and it felt so good after the last bout of rain we were soaked with. After lunch we bundled up and set out for a walk to burn off some extra energy from being house bound and searched for interesting finds along the way. We admired the snow still clinging to the highest mountain peaks, spied on little Sparrows and Spotted Towhees and at one point my 5 year old even ripped his boots off so that he could walk barefoot over a bunch of clumped moss along the roadside LOL. Now that would have made a good photo. Oh how I wish I had brought my camera with me!!

We have finally finished putting our cow into the freezer which is such a relief. It was two very long days of cutting and wrapping from morning till night and tired aching feet and backs but the sight of our freezer bursting to the top with those brown paper packages makes it all worth it.

Our favorite part of the whole process though is making sausage :)
I use a mix of 3/4 beef to 1/4 pork, fresh garlic and onions run through the grinder along with the meat and a bunch of spices mixed in to make our sausage meat. I don't add any extra fat or fillers, just the basics and then once its all mixed together Hubby feeds it into our grinder which has a handy little sausage stuffing attachment and I control the sausage casings, filling them uniformly for twisting into links later.

The whole process moves along quite quickly and if you ever need to buy a very economical meat grinder with a lot of punch I highly recommend Moulinex. We have a Moulinex HV6 and it has two plates for course and fine grinding, sausage horn and a reverse function in the even that it jams and we have been using it for the last 9 years. It has ground all our beef that has been butchered since purchasing it and we finally had to sharpen the blade this time around as it was a bit dull. I'm not sure if you can still get the HV6 but I see there is a newer model now available :)

So here they are all twisted into links and portioned into dinner sized amounts. They are drier than a normal store bought sausage understandably since we don't add any additional fat but they make up for it in taste and I know exactly what is in them :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Easy Sweet Pepper Pasta Sauce Recipe

I haven't posted a recipe in quite some time so I thought that I would share one of our favorite quick and easy pasta sauces that just takes minutes to make and is super yummy :)

You will need one large sweet onion such as a walla walla and one red or orange sweet bell pepper. Chop them up into large chunks and toss them into a sauté pan and cook for about 5-8 minutes until the onions start to get slightly translucent and soft.

Next toss your onions & peppers into your blender along with half a tomato and pureé. We like some spice to our sauce so for a little zip you can add 1/2 a tablespoon of chili spice and a few dashes of garlic tabasco sauce and give it a quick whiz in the blender. Don't worry though if you don't like it hot, this sauce is delicious just on its own to. I actually never add any salt to it as I think the natural flavors of the vegetables are so sweet on their own that it doesn't need it but feel free to salt it to your liking if needed :)

It's great on pasta topped with a little bit of cheese and it also doubles as a great sauce for homemade burritos to!

Enjoy :)
~ Rosina

Cheesy Onion Bread ~ Recipe

You just have to try this bread!! It is so delicious and they are fantastic for open faced sandwiches, dipping in soup or toasting with garlic butter on top :) They never last long around here so that is definitely a good sign that they are well loved *grin*.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 4 cups freshly ground 'spring red' hard wheat berries or you can substitute whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp wheat gluten (not needed if you use store bought whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese, seperated
  

Start by combining your warm water, yeast and honey and let sit for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. While your yeast is sitting you can finely chop and fry the onion in the oil until the onion is soft and transparent. Once your onion is cooked add the onions to your yeast mixture and add the flour, mustard, spices and ½ a cup of the cheddar cheese. You need to reserve the extra ¼ cup for the top of your loaves :)

If you are using an electric mixer you will want to let it knead your dough for about 5 minutes. If you are strong arming it *grin* and kneading by hand then you will want to work your dough for about 8 minutes as you're going to need a little more muscle power to get the same effect as the mixer :) When finished place your dough in a greased bowl, cover it and let it rise in a nice warm spot until the dough has doubled.

When your dough has risen enough you can turn it out onto a lightly greased counter top. I like to spray mine with a touch of Pam and then you can easily work with your dough, it won't stick to the counter and you won't have to add any extra flour which will toughen your dough if you accidentally add to much :)

Punch your dough down and divide it into two equal halves. You will then want to take each half and roll it out out into a long snake shape and place each roll into your greased french bread pans or a regular cookie sheet will work to if you don't have a french bread pan :) No worries!

Using a sharp knife slice some diagonal lines on the top of each loaf and and then sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese on top.Now for the final rise. Cover your loaves once more and set them in a warm spot to double in size again. As soon as they are finished rising bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 25 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap on them.

Enjoy!

~ Rosina