Beer, Sausages,and Potatoes...Some of My Favorite Things

Hello everyone I'm back!  My classes are done, so I can cook again.  It felt really good to get back into the kitchen.  I might almost say that I even missed it.  Almost.  The expensive grocery bill kind of spoiled my enjoyment of returning.  $181!  Granted it wasn't all food products, but I would say the majority of the bill was food related.   We finally got out to the meat market (Triano's) that is in our town and it was a really good experience.  We got a bunch of chicken, ground beef, and Italian sausages for around $13!  I was impressed and will definitely be going back there.   


For my first foray back into the kitchen I decided to try out a Martha Stewart recipe.  I'm not sure that I've ever actually tried one of her recipes before, so I figured I might as well try it out.  The recipe is Beer-Braised Sausages and Warm Potato Salad.  As I mentioned in the title of this post:  Beer, Sausages, Potatoes these are a few of my favorite things! (And so is the Sound of Music!)


This was an easy recipe to follow, the only issue I ran into was browning all sides of the sausage.  I got the first three sides browned, but the part that curves was really hard to brown.  I ended up breaking one of the sausages a little bit trying to do it, so I finally just gave up. 

Next you add the thinly sliced onion and cook that until it's softened. 

Then you add the beer (12 oz of pale ale), red potatoes (I quartered mine), water, salt, and pepper.  You bring that to a boil and then cover the pan and lower the heat to medium and cook until potatoes are done.

Once the potatoes are done (15 minutes for me) remove the sausages (keep them warm) and take the potatoes out of pan and toss them in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and parsley. 

The last step is returning the cooking liquid back to a boil and reducing it down to about 1 cup of liquid. 

Once that's reduced put the sausages back in to heat them up and you are finished.  After you put the sausage and potatoes on a plate, drizzle half the sauce on top and serve the other half of the sauce on the side.


Final Product:

My thoughts:  This meal was okay, but not great.  There wasn't anything wrong with the recipe, but we used a beer that was just way too bitter.  I think you can get away with a normal ale.  I'd like to use Yuengling if I make this again.  I also highly suggest adding sourdough bread to this meal.  There was a ton of sauce and using the sourdough to soak up all of the liquid would be super.  Also because the sauce was so bitter you couldn't taste the dressing on the potatoes, which was sad because the tanginess of the vinegar would have gone nicely with the beer. 


It was easy.  It didn't take as long to cook as I thought it would.  It wasn't labor intensive.  So try it out if Beer, Sausages,and Potatoes are some of your favorite things too!


Next up:  My first Mark Bittman recipe, More Vegetable Less Egg Frittata and the Sloppy Joe is back!  This time I think I might have finally found the recipe that my mom used to use when I was little.  Can't wait to try it!

Frozen Meals Part 2

I didn’t cook last night. We went to Rohrbach’s a German Restaurant/Brewery for an event they hold once a month called Brewtopia. It’s a beer tasting that has a theme. Last night’s theme must have been fruity beers, because that’s mainly what we had. So we tasted beers that had apricot, blueberry, orange, and black cherry flavors to them. We also ate there. I had a Reuben, which is one of my favorite sandwiches of all time. Anthony ordered a German pretzel and a German sausage sandwich (can’t remember which one but it was either: liverwurst, bratwurst, or bauernwurst). Both of our entrée’s were served with German Potato Salad. It’s soooo yummy. It has the right combination of bacon, vinegar, sugar, and potatoes. The food at Rohrbach’s is very good and of course so is their beer.

I tried two more frozen “healthy” meals this week. I’m going to be picking up more at the store this weekend. I figure I’ll try as many as I can and let all of you know which brands I think taste the best and are worth the money. On another note I did eat Spaghetti O’s this week for lunch too and I still love them!! They might not be the healthiest thing for me to eat, but they are just so yummy. I think they are one of my comfort food items. They remind me of my childhood, and I didn’t have a terrible childhood so that’s a good thing! I might just have to buy the one with sliced “franks” this weekend.

The first frozen meal I tried this week was Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken. I was pretty excited to try it since I like other Kashi products a lot. Plus the company is all about healthy, natural products which are things that I find important. Then there was lemongrass. Lemongrass is not an ingredient that I know much about. I’m certain that I’ve had it a few times in my life, but I can’t remember what it was in. Lemongrass is not something I ever really want to taste again. Of course we all know I will have to try it again, since I have the “3 strikes and you’re out rule” to eating food (see my Shrimp and Quinoa post). This meal probably would have been on my list for all time favorite frozen meals, if the lemongrass took a hike to Cambodia. The meal had chicken, broccoli, carrots, sugar snap peas, coconut flakes and red quinoa pilaf. The texture was great and I really enjoyed the quinoa pilaf. The sauce is a lemongrass coconut sauce. They should just admit that it’s only a lemongrass sauce. They should also admit that you will not taste anything other then the lemongrass. And that it so strongly tastes of lemongrass that it has a bit of a bite to it. While eating it I was reminded of Lemon Pledge and my belief that I was eating Lemon Pledge sauce was confirmed when I saw other people on the Kashi website describe it that way. I’m not joking people, this tasted like Lemon Pledge smells and it wasn’t good. I was so very disappointed since I love coconut and was really hoping to get some of the coconut flavor. Never fear Kashi, I will be trying another variety of your frozen entrée’s but I will be avoiding any that include lemon of any sort!

The next meal that I had was Lightlife Indian Veggie Masala. I cheated a bit with this one. I’ve had this entrée before and I like it a lot! Whether it’s actually healthy for me or not (there are a good amount of carbs in it), it feels super healthy. The box says it has three servings of vegetables and one serving of whole grain. That right there is more then I typically eat in a day, so this meal is perfect for me. The Indian Veggie Masala has cauliflower, sweet potatoes, chick peas, tomatoes, peas, onions and brown rice. The sauce has a tomato, ginger, curry taste to it that I just loved. The texture and flavors are really good in this meal. Plus the meal is pretty filling, for mostly just being vegetables. And I feel healthier just for having eaten it today. Will I be trying other varieties of Lightlife? You can bet on it!!

You can’t win them all, so even though the Kashi lunch was not what I had been expecting I’m very grateful that Lightlife knows that a little goes a long way! This blog is getting more and more fun for me to write every week. I’m enjoying trying to cook. I’m super excited about my brand new Anthropologie apron (I’m in love with that store!). I can’t wait to try poaching some eggs tomorrow, let’s hope I succeed! I’m also quite intrigued about going to the grocery store and picking out some more frozen entrees to try. Fun stuff!

Pig Roast

I really wanted to post a picture of the pig roast at the wedding last night. This is the first time I've ever seen a pig like this in person. I felt a little bit bad for the pig. In the end though the pork was really tender and moist. I got over any sadness for the little piggy. Overall I would say the food at the wedding was really good. They had more hors d'oeuvres then I've ever seen at a wedding including coconut scallops, yummy! There was even a Ginger Wheat beer that my husband loved and drank the entire night. I stuck with Corona, the Ginger beer was a bit too gingery for my taste buds.

Tonight will be my first night cooking since I started writing this blog. I still have to go to Wegmans and get my ingredients. And yes I am nervous. I really don't want to mess up the first meal.

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