Sausage Balls

While my roots and heart are in New England (I grew up in Massachusetts & Rhode Island before moving to the middle of America), there are some tasty takeaways I got from Oklahoma that I still love to this day. Sausage balls definitely qualify as a keeper!

This is a recipe I got from Jenezuela's mom on my most recent visit there (for Jenezuela's wedding). It couldn't be simpler! These savory bites are great for breakfast, brunch, parties, snacks, anytime! I like them best with the spicy sausage, but you could use mild/sweet just as easily. And no, I don't want to know how many calories/carbs/fat grams are in these babies!

12 oz packaged sausage (ie the late, great Jimmy Dean's brand)

10 oz packaged Cheddar cheese

¼ c. water

2½ c. Bisquick mix

Brown sausage, but don’t fry until crisp. Chop cheese and melt into sausage in skillet. Add water and mix well. Pour into mixing bowl, then add Bisquick. Roll into balls, place on cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from sheet, sprinkle with paprika or fresh chopped parsley if desired.

Brinner = Awesome!

A good while back now, I got the hankering for breakfast for dinner. My friends Inger & Rick call it 'brinner,' which I enjoy saying as much as possible now. I texted Kelli & Kwame and they were both game.
Kwame & I set to making the French toast while Kel made up the scrambled eggs. So. Good. It all came together in mere minutes....for pennies a serving!

For the French toast, I just tossed in a hefty dose of cinnamon (next time I want to try nutmeg!), real vanilla extract, and a super big splash of milk, which I mixed into 3 or 4 eggs. I sautéed the toast in my awesome cast iron skillet while Kel scrambled the buttery, soft eggs. I should have put the toast in the oven for a few minutes...next time! And oh, there will be a next time. Brinner is one of my favorite meals.

and it was delicious! Of course we added some bacon ;).

Are you a Brinner fan, too? I just love it....

and yes, that is raspberry syrup on my pancakes. Ohhhh sacrilicious....

Low-Carb Cheesecake Bites

While trying to avoid sugar as much as possible, at least at the start of my lower-carb livin', I still had a craving for something desserty. I turned again to George Stella for some help, and his Pecan bon bons recipe caught my eye. They're essentially bitesize cheesecake noms!

These tasty bites are scrumptious and SO easy to make. I was out of pecans, so I used chopped walnuts instead. The nuts, splenda, and vanilla came together before I added the cream cheese. Get your (clean) hands in there and start mooshing it together!

Then you put these babies on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer. While the freezer does its job, you make the ganache with baking chocolate, a bit more splenda, and some heavy cream or butter. I opted for butter (yum). I dipped the now-frozen bites in the ganache and put them back in the freezer for another 20 minutes (while I washed up the dishes I'd used). Pop them out, pop them in your mouth, and enjoy!

These are not calorie-free, but they're so rich that there's no way I could eat more than the three-serving size the recipe dictates. They're about the size of a marble, maybe slightly bigger, but so rich and filling that you'll take the edge off your dessert craving without derailing yourself!

Curried Chicken Salad

It's going to be a long, long time before I eat regular chicken salad again. It took my tastebuds actual DECADES to come to love curry, but the love is here to stay. I'd had curried chicken salad at a friend's bridal luncheon a good 10 years ago, but it's only been in the past few years that I've decided I really enjoy that tang. And not for nothing, but curry is pretty darn good for you!

After ABF's sandwich at Fika, I determined to make this, but I realized I have never owned a jar of curry. Ever! In my life! Until now (thank you, FreshDirect.com!)

It doesn't get much simpler than this: 3 boiled chicken breasts shredded with 2 forks, 3 stalks of celery, a few tablespoons of mayo, and 2 teaspoons of curry! I added the curry one tsp at a time to be safe. Next time, I just might add three. The curry gives it an amazing depth, a warm heat that is NOT spicy, and brings a lunch (and low-carb) favorite to new heights. In a word: YUM.

Vegging Out

I'll take just a moment to clarify my low-carb stance...I don't mean to suggest I'm sitting down every day to 3 steaks and a stick of butter. That's not my new awesome plan. I'm basically replacing starches and what I call the 'crap carbs' (white bread, flour, sugar), you know, stuff that doesn't really GIVE your body stuff it needs, and putting more veggies there. People with PCOS and/or insulin resistance (like yours truly) do not respond well to big insulin spikes, and the whole idea is to keep your body on a healthy, even keel. So...where I might have had a roll or some chips or even hash browns, I now have veggies. Lots and lots of fresh veggies.

I have even started working extra veggies into breakfast time. Not just in the omelet..but as side dishes. Why I didn't think of this before, I'll never know. But now my morning eggs, whether poached, over easy, or awesomely scrambled, come with a hefty dose of sautéed zucchini and onions. I love zucchini.. I love it raw, roasted, shredded, baked, sauteed, you name it.

What are some other ways YOU squeeze veggies into your meals?

Yakkety Yak (Burger)

I was looking for a lunch spot a while back with 2 of my lovely coworkers. We were on our way to a usual place when we came near Waterfront Ale House. We decided to take a chance on a new place.

It was just after three when we arrived, so the place was almost empty. We took a seat next to the popcorn machine (you can help yourself while you wait) and persued the menu, which boasts a lot of wild game, including ostrich, bison, and of course, yak.

There were so many choices on that menu that it took us a while to sort it all out for ourselves. Thankfully, we had a patient server.

By the way, if your are a condiment fiend, you are in the right place. More mustards than you can muster to eat, hot sauces of all levels of caliente, and scads o' ketchup and BBQ sauce (they make their own).

Honestly, the yak burger intrigued me, but the actual word 'yak' almost turned my stomach. I had to think about it for a few minutes, that whole mind over matter war I often fight. I mean, seriously, how often do you get the chance to eat yak. Outside of say, Mongolia? I decided to be brave and ordered the yak burger, and I opted for waffle fries.

I asked our server how the kitchen recommends it be cooked, and she said medium-rare (a touch more rare than I normally get my burgers). I dug deep, powered through, and said go for it!

That is one piiiiiiiiink burger. I took a deep breath before taking a big bite. The meat tasted almost, well, slightly sweet at first. The consistency was a little smoother than ground beef, and frankly, it was tasty. And somehow, I managed not to imagine this guy too much while chewing.

P ordered the Texas dip, which was sliced brisket with a heaping cup o' BBQ sauce, and sweet potato fries. I dipped a fry into the BBQ sauce and it was quite tasty. The fries were great on their own, but the spicy, earthy, not-sicky-sweet sauce was a delicious addition.

J ordered the chicken club and very happy with it. Her only complaint (and a mild one at that) was that the sandwich was so tall it was tough to take a decent bite. It looked sooo good, and for a second I wondered if I should have gotten that. Looking back, though, I'm happy with my choice!

The two things I didn't like from our visit: the waffle fries and one thing our server did. J ordered a glass of wine and thought it tasted 'off.' We both tried a sip and agreed it was not good. She returned it and got another glass--didn't drink another sip of the one she didn't like. When we got the bill, we saw the server left the returned wine on there. Really? I think we all felt that one should not have been on the final count. By the time we were ready to leave, though, it was getting quite hectic there and we just figured we'd tip less. We still left a decent tip, but we would have left a MUCH bigger one if she'd taken the returned glass off the bill. Oh yeah.. and the waffle fries were terrible--dry, nothing to them, and a waste of your time--skip these! Yak burger, yes, waffle fries, no!

All in all, the extra wine wasn't that big a deal--we never felt rushed and we all enjoyed our food. I think we'll hit this place again down the road for sure--if you're in the mood for something different, hit up Waterfront Ale House!

Foodbuzz Featured Tool: Mandoline!

Foodbuzz.com's special product today is the mandoline, which they're offering at 60 percent off!* I bought mine last year at the Williams-Sonoma outlet (how I heart that store!) and I love it! It's the perfect way to slice uniformly ribbon-thin or super-chunky pieces of food, from zucchini ribbons (like in my lasagna) to waffle-cut fries.

If you're someone who worries about cutting yourself with a knife, you might want to consider a mandoline. The blades are safely contained in the mandoline, and it comes with a food guard that attaches to the food itself, keeping your fingers far away from the razor-sharpness.

I sliced up the rest of my zucchini today for dinner. I decided to see just how thin I could get the veggies. These slices were so thin, I almost had to double up the pieces so the camera could focus on them. Sweet.

Do you have a mandoline? If so, what is your favorite food to dice, slice, or julienne?

*You do not have to be a food blogger to enjoy foodbuzz.com, just someone who loves food! :)

Low Carb Lasagna

I'm on a pretty serious low-carb kick these days, and by that I mean processed carbs and most sugar get the heave-ho, at least for a good long while. George Stella's cookbooks have been a standby for me, and I took his Meat Lasagna recipe and played around with it, adding more of some ingredients and less of others.

I browned a mix of ground beef and ground veal with some fresh garlic and a little bit of olive oil. Then as I layered that, I set the tomato sauce on the stove to simmer a bit with some spices.

Instead of noodles, which don't really give you much in the way of nutrition anyway, I cut thin slices of zucchini (loooooooove zucchini!) and used those instead. I layered the meat, cheese, zucchini, sauce until it almost bubbled over the top.

Oh! I forgot the fun part--I actually cooked the meat last week, seasoned it, yadda yadda, and then froze it, so putting this together took less than 15 minutes. It cooked for about 45, so I set about tidying up the living room while it baked.

I was pretty hungry, and it was getting late, so I didn't let it cool long enough (which is why it is a big, cheesy mess below on my plate). I steamed some broccoli as a side. This was pretty good, though I might season a bit more liberally AND add extra sauce next time around. I also froze more than half of it in individual portions and took one out every few days for work lunch or quick-and-easy dinners!

Connecticut Cookout

My friends Beth and her husband T invited a group of us out to their CT home last weekend. It's about an hour outside of the city, and last-minute drama at work almost led me to cancel, but I soldiered through and made it there..and I'm so glad I did!

T made salmon burgers and regular burgers (notice the dimple in the burger, a classic Bobby Flay technique!), plus veggie skewers. I love, love, loooooove zucchini, so this was all A+ in my book.

We also had potato salad that was darn near as good as my Mom's! YUMMMMM! Chunks of red onion, a tangy vinegary-ness to it, oh man, was this good--I had two spoonfuls! It was a perfect complement to the juicy, cheesy burger that was cooked just right. Yummm! Summer is delicious.

But the star of the cookout, surely, was the specialty drink, The Breezy Reese (click on the link for the youtube how-to). It's a drink their friends made in their honor, with a taste of New Hampshire in a glass. You know I'm a sucker for New England, what with my roots being there and all, but even non-Yankees can appreciate this drink! Ruby red grapefruit vodka is a key ingredient, as well as cranberry soda. Beth was kind enough to be the bartender while T worked the grill. And I was kind enough not to have her make too many of these for me. ;)

It was a gorgeous night, and we enjoyed sitting in the backyard, visiting for a while. Then we moved the party in for a cutthroat few rounds of CatchPhrase before we all crashed for the night. All in all, a fantastic night of fun with friends. Next time, no work delays! I'll have to get there while there is still daylight, so I can see more of your lovely town. Thanks again, my Connecticut friends!

Use Real Stuff!

One of my philosophies in eating, baking, cooking is to use real stuff! I use real butter, whole foods (as much as I can) and REAL vanilla extract. None of that artificially-flavored junk for me! It's not a snob thing (I eat Twinkies, I am NOT a food snob!), it's just that this ingredient REALLY makes a different to my taste buds.

The folks at Foodbuzz.com are offering one of my favorite vanillas, Nielsen-Massey, at a 14% discount today. This is definitely my favorite type of vanilla--from Madagascar. Tahitian is nice, too, and Mexican vanilla is a distant third. I used to LOOOOVE Mexican vanilla, but now I find the flavor far too strong. Hands down, the Madagascar type wins with me. If you don't have some already in your pantry, why don't you stop on by their site?

And while we're chatting, what's the one ingredient you won't compromise? Butter? Flavorings? Chocolate? Do share!

Happy Baking!

*photo not mine