I Did It Again

I was so turned on by the kabocha squash roasted with mild Italian sausage that I made a few days ago that I decided to do it again, this time with all the rest of the fairly large kabocha and chicken apple sausages. There was method to my madness - I wanted to cook enough squash in the sausage drippings to make dinner plus a pot of roasted squash soup.

I can definitely recommend this with the chicken apple sausage - just as good as the Italian - but the links were much smaller so I browned then removed them, added the squash to the browning pan, roasted the squash in a 350 degree oven until nearly done, then added the links back in for a few minutes so they'd cook through but not become dry.

That combo of squash and sausage - oh, yes.

Nailing two meals with one roasting, also a big yes.

Spring Rice

I go in spurts. When I find a preparation I like, I tend to make it all the time until My Beloved cries "uncle!" and we move on to the next enthusiasm.

It would seem that raclette and risotto are my current jags. This risotto is the best one I've made so far, Lemon Risotto with Green Garlic, Chicken Apple Sausage and Asparagus. Doesn't that sound like a menu from some fancypants restaurant? But, I didn't get this from a famous chef; I assembled it from the contents of my fridge.

I discovered the fun of using lemon juice in risotto in place of the usual wine when I had no white wine in the house but lotsa lemons; I like it better. The Meyer lemons from Momo and Patty's bush are flavoring many of my dishes these days and one of them really improved this risotto.

After sautéeing the sliced green garlic in a knob of butter and adding about 3/4 of a cup of carnaroli rice to coat with buttery garlicky goodness, I added the juice of one (very juicy) lemon, chopped a single chicken apple sausage and added that to the pot, too. Stir, stir. Then came the veggie broth, ladled in and stirred bit by bit until it was all added (about three cups). Just as I was adding the parmesan cheese before serving, the thin asparagus spears, cut into inch-long lengths, went in and were stirred along with the rice until they were bright green and just tender.

The result was so fresh and springlike that we were both nodding and savoring, twinkling at each other over mouths full of flavor.

So far, I've heard no grumbles about "too much risotto" from My Beloved. I guess I can keep this trend going for a few more meals before he waves his white flag and asks for a change of menu.

Summer Favorite

What I'm about to admit puts me beyond the pale of true foodie territory: I like beans and franks.

Yes, beans from a can and frankfurters mummified in plastic. I actually look forward to summer cookouts where, almost inevitably, someone will bring a big pot of beans to go with the grilled hotdogs.

My Beloved, however, is not a huge fan of the tube steak - the man can actually attend a baseball game without consuming one. Imagine!

Since I'm the cook in our house, and so have the power, we do occasionally have this summer favorite of mine. Oh, I dress it up for him by adding onions, spices and tangerine or orange slices (skin and all) to the pot of beans as they simmer. I sometimes even grill chicken apple sausages rather than true franks. But, let's not fool ourselves that we are eating anything but comfort food here.

And comfortable it is. Sweetly savory-salty, it's a flash back to childhood when, very occasionally, my mother would serve us this when she was dressed up to go out with my Dad for the evening and wanted to leave us in a good mood for the babysitter. When I take the first bite of the beans, I almost get a whiff of her perfume as she breezed out the door on my father's arm, knowing she left us as happy as she was.

Sole + Survivor

Having scored some right-out-of-the-ocean fresh local petrale sole at the market, I then wondered what to do with it. It's a very mild-mannered fish, delicate and light, so it needs a little jazzing up but it gets lost if too much other stuff is added.

Did some online research for recipes but nothing seemed to appeal until I remembered I had a single chicken apple sausage in the fridge left over from a previous meal and, somehow, that combination rang a bell with me.

I put some fingerling potatoes in to roast while I chopped the sausage and sauteed it in a wide pan with a big squeeze of lemon juice and a generous grinding of fresh pepper, then added a handful of green beans to saute along with the sausage. When the beans were nearly ready, I pushed all that to one side and lightly sauteed the fish in the same pan for just a minute or two per side. Piled onto a warmed plate with those fingerlings on the side and a few bright cherry tomatoes for color, it turned into an unexpected feast of sole plus survivor.

The Garden's Last Gasp

See that ripe, red, juicy, gorgeous Brandywine tomato? I grew that. I'm proud.

I'd be truly puffed up if I had managed to grow more than one, but one is all we got from that plant this year.

Oh, well... at least it was delicious, as perfectly sweet and tasty a tomato as everI have eaten. It fell off the vine into my palm this morning and ended up simply sliced on our plates this evening. Lovely.

Don't stop there! The zucchini boat in the picture also came from the garden, one of those sneaky ones that hides under those platter-sized leaves until it attains approximate shape and heft of a cudgel. I scooped out the seedy part and filled the boat with a mixture of garlic, onion, fennel, sweet pepper, chicken apple sausage ballettes (new word, I just invented it) and little bread cubes, all sauteed in olive oil before inserting in the boats and baking in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Quite tasty.

Oh, there will be another zucchini or two and perhaps a handfull of green beans but this is the last true offering from the funny little garden I planted this year, all tucked in among the daisies and irises. I noticed some strawberry plants at the market this morning and I must admit I was tempted to plant some of those for next year's garden.