Sausage Spinach Buns

We got some awesome smoked sausage from the wicked butcher outlet store last week, but now they're hogging space in the freezer. I wanted something different other than your standard super-crisped on a bun or with sauerkraut or something else and started digging on the internet for "sausage bread". ...Not the best search in the world, lol. Reading them, they all wanted sausage out of its casing and lots of add-ons or pizza style. Considering I was just looking for whether or not you could bake a whole sausage in a piece of bread, it was odd, lol. But it gave me ideas and I came up with something that actually rocks.

Sausage Spinach Buns


makes 8 buns

1 recipe pizza dough (i'm still perfecting mine, so you can chose your fave)
1 lb smoked sausage, cut into 1/4 inch half moons
300g frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 medium onion, minced
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 cup grated mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 F and oil a baking sheet.
Have your dough ready to go, or ready for the final rising, divided into 8 equal balls.
Fry the sausage pieces in a frying pan until nice and crispy.
Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.
In the leftover fat, or a dash of oil, saute the mushrooms and onion until brown and soft.
Stir in the spinach and sausage.
Mix in the cheese just before you start making the buns.
Roll the dough balls into about 6 inch circles.
Put an 1/8th of the filling in the center and pull the edges around it.
Place on pan seam side down and brush tops with oil.
Bake about 15-10 minutes or until filling is hot and dough is cooked and brown.

Enjoy!

Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza

A night when I would have loved nothing more than to order in pizza rather than cook, but sadly there are absolutely no good pizza joints in town and it wasn't exactly in the budget either. Wasn't going to give up on pizza, but wasn't feeling making dough. Luckily we had some Pillsbury crescent roll dough in the fridge and some leftovers, so I got to do a minimal amount of work and still have some sort of pizza.

Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza


makes 4 pieces, serves 2 as a main or 4 with a side

1 tube Pillsbury crescents
1 1/2 cups fried ground beef crumbs
1 cup grated cheese ( I used a blend of cheddar and mozzarella since there was some leftover cheddar)
1/2 cup cooked mushroom pieces (about 100g raw)
1 med onion, chopped and par-cooked
3 Tbsp tomato paste
pinch each of garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a baking sheet.
Unroll dough on sheet and press together seams.
Mix spices and tomato paste together and spread over the crust.
Sprinkle with half the cheese.
Top with the burger, mushrooms and onion.
Add rest of cheese.
Bake about 12 minutes or until toppings warm and crust brown and crispy.

A new and interesting way to get rid of crescents when not craving their sickly sweet plain flakiness.

Enjoy!

Beef Fried Rice

More Chinese, but it's one of the simplest things to do to stretch lean supplies. We had leftover roast beef for this one, but fresh beef works and is sometimes better. Any cut too, as long as you marinate the tougher ones and don't over cook them.


Beef Fried Rice


makes 5 servings

1lb beef, cut into small, thin strips
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large carrot, chopped into half moons
2 cups dry rice, cooked as you like, fresh or day old
4 green onions, chopped
1 egg
3 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
1 Tbsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet/wok heat 1 tsp of the oil.
Scramble the egg in a small bowl, season with a little salt and pepper, and fry flat in the pan with little stirring.
Remove and cut the egg into 1/2 x 1/8 inch strips.
Heat 2 tsp of oil in the pan and fry the beef pieces about a minute a side. Remove from pan.
Heat another 2 tsp of oil in the pan and fry the carrot and mushrooms for about 4 minutes, then remove.
Put the rest of the plain oil in the pan and add the rice.
Fry until nice and crispy, about 8-10 minutes depending on how damp it is.
Add 1 1/2 Tbsp of the soy sauce and stir to coat the rice evenly.
Mix the spices with the rest of the soy sauce in a small bowl.
Add everything back to the pan and pour the soy sauce mix over it, stirring well to combine with the rice.
Top with the sesame oil and green onions.
Serve hot.

Yummy!

Purist Beef Stew and Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

Another lazy day, but there's nothing wrong with that. With winter back again, a beef stew seemed like a good idea to warm the soul. And we're eating through the freezer again, so there was some thawed puff pastry in the fridge. I was thinking of something to do with apples, but mom wants to be in charge of those, since she thinks they're skeazy, so I went with a straight-up cinnamon sugar thing.

Purist Beef Stew


serves 3

2 lb eye of round beef, chunked
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 packet onion soup powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups water

Put a large pot over medium heat and add the oil.
Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add the onion soup powder, flour and pepper and mix until everything looks wet.
Add the sherry and cook off the alcohol smell, about 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the water gradually until all the lumps are gone.
Turn down to really low and add the beef chunks.
Even though the meat is sticking out of the liquid, DON'T add more water, since the meat will give off its own.
Simmer about 2 hours, until meat is soft, stirring occasionally. If it starts to boil, just turn it off for a while and let it sit on the stove.

Serve immediately or fridge and reheat the next day (it's always better the next day if you can plan it that way)

If you couldn't tell, I nicknamed it "purist" since it only has beef and onions, none of this potato, carrot, pea and what-not stuff you find in canned stew, lol.

Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

makes 24 mini pretzels

1/2 package puff pastry (about 227g), thawed

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Sprinkle a little of the sugar on a clean work surface and put the puff pastry on it.

Roll it out to a 10 inch by 12 inch rectangle.

Brush the butter over the whole area of dough.

Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over the dough.

Semi-tightly roll the dough to the middle from both sides, to make a pretzel-shaped log.

Cut into 24 even pieces and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake about 8 minutes and then flip the pastries and bake another 5 minutes, or until brown on both sides. Careful, it can burn quite easily.

Serve warm or cooled. both make a yummy, sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Spicy Minced Pork

I was in an Asian mood today after planning out what I would do with some of the sale items from last week. It's kinda extravagant, but we had pork tenderloin getting freezer burn, so I thawed it and googled minced pork recipes. Some were sweet only, some were spicy only, so hello another amalgamation to get what I wanted.

Sweet and Spicy Minced Pork


serves 3

1 lb pork tenderloin, chopped into little pieces
1 small onion chopped
1 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil

Add the plain oil to a skillet or wok over high heat.
In a small bowl, mix spices, sugar and cornstarch.
Add water and soy sauce and stir well.
Add the meat and onion to the pan and flash fry, 2-3 minutes.
Add the sauce to pan and let thicken, about 1- 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and drizzle sesame oil over top.
Serve on a bed of your favourite rice.

A nice sweet and spicy dish in a golden sauce. Yum!

BBQ Rubbed Steak and Home Fries

Another simple supper today, after another lazy day. The constant defrost cycle of the freezer makes things get freezer burn faster, so it was the sirloin steak's time to be eaten. It was still fine to eat plain with the normal salt and pepper fried in a butter-oil mix, but mom and I were craving something different.

BBQ Rubbed Steak


makes enough rub for 3lbs of steak

Rub:
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp ground cayenne

Rub the steaks and let sit for at least half an hour in the fridge, up to twelve hours.
If you want to let it sit overnight, you should add a couple Tbsp of oil and some water so they don't get too salty.

Fry:
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp butter

Take steaks out of fridge just before you want to cook.
Heat a large enough pan over medium-high and melt the butter into the oil.
Depending on the thickness, cook them 3-5 minutes a side for medium-rare.

Home Fries


serves 3

6-7 medium potatoes, any kind, peeled or scrubbed clean and chopped uniformly
1 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp oil
salt and pepper to taste

Put chopped potatoes in a microwavable bowl.
Sprinkle with a little salt and stir.
Cover with saran wrap and microwave 6-8 minutes. (gives them a head start on softening).
Heat oil in a extra large frying pan and give the onion a couple minutes head start.
Add the potatoes to the pan, gently stir to coat with oil, especially if the potatoes are really soft.
Let sit and brown on the first side, about 7 minutes.
Flip and brown the second side, about 5 minutes, or to desired doneness.

If the potatoes can't be in a single layer on the pan bottom, stir gently while browning to avoid breaking them.

These are good plain or with sour cream.

A meat and potatoes meal sure to please anyone whose adventurous enough to try.

Enjoy!