Tag: Sausage

Heather Disarro: Sausage, Leek and Mushroom Pizza {Foodie Friday}

A few years ago when we lived in Colorado we had a favorite place in downtown Boulder called The Med that had a fantastic happy hour. Sure, the drinks were good (sangria anyone?) but our favorite part was the fantastic tapas menu. There was a margherita pizza that we would order multiples of, and we always left so stuffed that there was no dreaming up dinner by the time we got home.

About a year after our first Med happy hour, we were lucky enough to get actual pizza making lessons from the founder in a traveling brick pizza oven, and it was at that point that I started dreaming up a backyard pizza oven for our future dream house. Much like the lovely Zaza’s Pizza here in Little Rock, this pizza oven fired out the good stuff in seconds flat, as a good hot pizza oven should.

While we don’t have our dreamy Pinterest-worthy backyard patio complete with wood-burning oven, I have perfected the art of pizza in our electric range. It requires no fancy equipment, no fancy pizza dough recipe, and you can choose any toppings you like. I love this cozy version with breakfast sausage, butter-sauteed leeks and sliced mushrooms all on a bed of super simple bechamel sauce. It sounds complicated, but it’s really all about rustic ingredients that will bring people closer to the table.

As for the pizza dough, I hardly ever make my own – I’ve found that Whole Foods (or a local pizza place) can supply that need in much quicker fashion than I can. BUT if you have a favorite dough recipe far be it from me to keep you from using it!

As with all food, this pizza is best served with loved ones, a nice glass of wine (if you like) and a fresh salad. Enjoy!

Make the pizza of your dreams with this guide from @heathersdish 4 #ARWB #FoodieFriday.

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Sausage, Leek and Mushroom Pizza
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Ingredients
  1. 1 large ball pizza dough (enough for one large pizza - about 20 inches)
  2. 4 ounces breakfast sausage, browned and crumbled
  3. 1 large leek, white and light green parts only, cut in half and then cut into ½-inch half moons
  4. 4 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
  5. 2 tablespoons butter, divided
  6. 1 tablespoon flour
  7. 1 cup milk (I highly recommend using cow’s milk of some kind for this)
  8. ½ teaspoon salt
  9. ½ teaspoon black pepper
  10. ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  11. 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  12. ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a large cookie sheet OR pizza stone (whatever you have on hand) in the oven. You want it to be screaming hot.
  2. In a small saute pan, melt one tablespoon of butter and add the leeks. Cook until the leeks are tender, stirring occasionally, about 5-7 minutes.
  3. In a small saucepan over medium heat melt the remaining tablespoon of butter.
  4. Add the flour and whisk together to create a roux, and cook for about 1 minute to let the flour flavor cook out.
  5. Whisking constantly, pour in the milk and whisk until all lumps are removed.
  6. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg and whisk to combine.
  7. Let the milk mixture come to a simmer, whisking occasionally, until very thick and then remove from the heat.
  8. Roll the pizza dough out until it is large enough to completely cover the pan you’re preheating in the oven.
  9. When the oven and pan are hot, carefully remove the pan and quickly (and carefully!) spread the dough on top.
  10. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes.
  11. Remove the dough from the oven and spread the bechamel sauce evenly on top.
  12. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
  13. Sprinkle evenly with the crumbled sausage, leeks and sliced mushrooms.
  14. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese.
  15. Return the pizza to the oven rack by sliding it gently off of the hot pan.
  16. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the crust is slightly crisp and the cheese is bubbly and melted.
  17. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 2-3 minutes before digging in.
  18. Enjoy!
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

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Heather Disarro is a food-centric lifestyle blogger who is passionate about embracing the beauty that surrounds us with in our everyday lives. She is a Texan living the expat life in central Arkansas with her husband, son and two massive dogs. Heather writes her blog, Heather’s Dish, from an office filled with dust, dog fur, toys and plenty of love, grace and music.  She specializes in creating delicious and creatively nourishing recipes.  Cooking seasonally and with as many local ingredients as possible is an important component to Heather’s style of food, and she revels in the opportunity to bring the love of cooking to the world as a way to love others well! 

 

Get your holiday favs ready for our annual Holiday Linky next week. #ARWB #foodieFriday #shareurfavs

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Lindsey March: A Way With Wontons Olé

By Lindsey March of A Dollop of My Life
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A little well known fact about me is that hosting is not one of my strong points.

Yes, it’s true. I am many things, but being hostess with the mostess is just not one of them.

Which is why I am a big fan of easy-peasy throw together appetizers that scream, “I’m DELICIOUS eat me now!” without having to break your back in the kitchen. (I also abhor dish cleaning, and this recipe pays favors in that regards as well. You can thank me later.). These Mexican Wontons are the perfect blend of melt in your mouth salty yum with a crisp wonton holding it altogether to give you that crunch. It’s perfection… trust me.

A friend of mine actually introduced me to this recipe several years ago during a little shindig where we all were asked to bring an appetizer and/or drink. This pairs nicely with your favorite daiquiri or margarita (lime, frozen, salted rim – thank you), and is brought to you just in time for you to try it out for your Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Or just for your friends coming over to have a little picnic on the back porch. That works too.

Without further ado, I give you…. Mexican Wontons.

 

Mexican Wontons
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Ingredients
  1. 1 package of wonton wrappers (typically found in the refrigerator section of the produce department) I‘ve always found mine near the Tofu in the produce section at Walmart)
  2. 1 pound pork sausage
  3. 3 stalks green onions, chopped
  4. 1 can Rotel, drained (any variety is fine, but I like the Mexican variety best).
  5. 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  6. 1.5 Tablespoons ranch dressing
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line a regular sized cupcake pan with the wonton wrappers, using your fingers to evenly form them to the pan.
  3. Bake for about 4-5 minutes.
  4. This is where I tell you that cooking wontons is like broiling your bread for dinner. DO NOT STEP AWAY. Otherwise you may end up with black wontons, which tends to deter the crowd away from actually eating your masterpiece.
  5. Once your wontons are evenly toasted to a slightly golden appearance, remove from the oven and set out to cool.
  6. Once cool, these can be stored in a large Ziploc bag until ready to be used (I would make these the day that you plan on eating them, as they taste best when freshly toasted).
  7. In a large skillet, brown the pork sausage until completely cooked. Drain well, and pour into a large mixing bowl.
  8. Combine the sausage with the green onions, Rotel, cheddar cheese and ranch dressing. (Sidenote: I tend to go a little overboard on the cheese and put more than 1 cup, because… CHEESE. If you tend to not like things extra super cheesy, then you’ll probably just want to stick with the recommended 1 cup. But I promise you, you’re missing out on life.)
  9. Once everything is well mixed, simply scoop and place evenly into the toasted wonton wrappers, serving warm.
Notes
  1. The sausage mixture can be set aside and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve the wontons, which makes it a perfect make-ahead dish to bring to a party. If you refrigerate the mixture, simply reheat in a microwave set on high, for several minutes. Enjoy
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

A Dollop of My Life 
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Lindsey is a self-professed Sonic Happy Hour addict and lover of all things Southern (though far from a Southern Belle). Lindsey is the writer behind A Dollop of My Life, where she chronicles life as a wife to Drew and a mama to the three sweetest, most ornery boys that God has ever created. Lindsey has a pension for putting her foot in her mouth, coming across too blunt and not being afraid to be honestly truthful about the hard parts of life. You can find Lindsey on various social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest).

Pasta with Italian Sausage and Kale with a Side of Humor {Foodie Friday}

By Debbie Arnold of Dining With Debbiepasta, sausage, kale

 

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and not many of us want to spend any more time in the kitchen since that’s probably what most of us have done all week!  Perhaps you’ll spend the day shopping the Black Friday sales.  Not me.  But I have family members who were up and off at the crack to do just that.

Or, perhaps you’ll be among the hundreds of thousands who will be traveling back home from “over the river and through the woods.”  Be safe.  I hope you make all of your plane connections or have clear highways.

Will you be continuing the family football game with a post-Thanksgiving bowl or heading out to watch your favorite team at the real thing?  I hope your team wins.

Christmas decorating plans? For many of you, this is the day the tree goes up.   I wonder, will yours be covered in precious handmade handprints and clothespin reindeer? Or will it be one of designer dreams?  Whichever you choose,  it will be beautiful.

For me, I’ll be spending the day sharing time with family.  I won’t be decorating or traveling, and I’ll not be cooking much  This pasta dish is the perfect choice for allowing me the time to create a gingerbread house with my little artist-to-be 6 year old granddaughter.  Or maybe we’ll make a handmade Christmas surprise for her parents. Or cookies.  Those are always a favored option.

For Perfect Boy, my 8 year old all boy grandson, there has to be a ball involved.  There could be Legos.  I expect to find NYC replicated in Legos one of these days.  How does he do that so easily?

And while we are finding opportunities and ways to share and be thankful for our thanksliving time, we’ll be sharing some of the corniest jokes ever.  It’s always a challenge to find one they haven’t yet heard or told.  We sometimes get a serious case of the giggles just trying to one-up one another.  I am blessed.

Need a little laugh today?  Here are some both of the Perfects shared with me today.  

Blessings on you and yours.  (If you need any more jokes, we’ve got ‘em!)  Now go enjoy your day then make this easy pasta.  You’ll be glad you did.

 

1.  What do hippies put on their Thanksgiving potatoes?
A.  Groovy

2.  Why was the quarterback crying during the game?
A. Because he was playing footBAWL.rom

3..  Why don’t you eat fish on Thanksgiving?
A.  Because Thanksgiving never falls on a FRYday!

4 Rich people eat what on Thanksgiving?2
A.  Eighteen Karats

5.  Why IS Plymouth Rock so brave?
A.  Because it’s a little boulder 

6. On which holiday do you play a lot of jokes on people?
A. PRANKSgiving

7.  How much did the Mayflower weigh?
A.  A PuriTON

8.  What is big and green and goes “gobble-gobble?”
A.  A Turkeysaurus Rex, of course!

9.  What do monsters have on their Thanksgiving tables?
A.  Knives, forks and goons!

10.  What do policemen eat on Thanksgiving?
A.  Corn on the cop!

Are you laughing yet?

Pasta with Italian Sausage and Kale
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Ingredients
  1. 8 - 10 ounces pasta (rotini, cavatappi, farfalle)
  2. 1/4 cup oil-packed dried tomatoes, chopped
  3. 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
  4. 10 ounces Italian sausage (preferably hot)*
  5. 4 roasted garlic cloves
  6. 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
  7. 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
  8. 14 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
  9. 10 ounces coarsely shredded fresh kale
  10. 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, set aside
  11. 1/4 cup sliced black olives
  12. freshly shaved Parmesan
  13. salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Bring a large pan of salted water to boil.. Follow package directions for cooking the pasta. Drain and set aside. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.
  2. While the pasta is cooking, crumble and partially cook the Italian sausage in a large skillet. When the meat is mostly done, drain it in a sieve and rinse with warm water. Return it to the skillet.
  3. Add the tomatoes and onions to the sausage and cook until the onions are soft; add in the roasted garlic and Italian seasoning. Cook 10 minutes, stirring well to incorporate.
  4. Add the kale to the sausage mixture and pour the broth over. Cover and simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and black olives. Stir in the cooked pasta. Add pasta water as needed to create a little sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Serve immediately sprinkled with some of the shaved Parmesan.
Notes
  1. *Turkey sausage may be substituted.
Adapted from Cooking Light, November 2007
Adapted from Cooking Light, November 2007
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

Debbie ArnoldDebbie is in her second year of retirement from a 30-plus career in education primarily as a PreAp and Regular English teacher at the middle school level. While she enjoyed teaching and interacting with students and staff, she is thoroughly enjoying this time in her life. She has been married to her husband for almost 44 years, and they have one child, a daughter who lives in Fayetteville with her husband and her two perfect grandchildren who are 8 and 6.  Debbie and her husband spend lots of our time traveling back and forth to NWA in order to spend as much time with them as they can and the Perfect Ones will allow.

 

Shredded Brussels With Chorizo Sausage {Foodie Friday}

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By Alison Chino of Chino House
 
Greetings from Aberdeen, Scotland

Shredded Brussels With Chorizo Sausage

I’m always looking for new ways to get my kids to eat green veggies. None of them appreciate roasted Brussels sprouts the same way I do, but I’ve recently found that they go over much better when thinly sliced and sautéed.  Add some sausage and you’ve got a side dish not many can turn down.

 
I think this dish would taste wonderful with Petit Jean Meats smoked sausage, but we are living in Scotland and can’t get it at the moment. I used Spanish chorizo sausage.
 
There are just a couple of tricks to making this dish perfectly.  The first one is to slice the Brussels as thinly as possible. You can do this in the food processor with a slicing attachment. Secondly, after you add the Brussels at the end, watch them carefully to keep from overcooking them.  Ideally, you want a little crunch left in them when you pull them off the stove and serve them.
 
If you’re in charge of bringing a side vegetable this year to Thanksgiving, you can’t go wrong with these! Plus I would think you would be in no danger of bringing the same dish as someone else!
 
Enjoy!
 
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Shredded Brussels with Chorizo Sausage
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Ingredients
  1. 1 pound brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
  2. 6 ounces Spanish chorizo sausage, thinly sliced
  3. 1 onion, peeled and diced
  4. 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  5. 1 rib celery, with leaves, finely sliced
  6. 1 tablespoon olive oil
  7. salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil on medium heat.
  2. Add onions, celery and garlic and cook for about five minutes.
  3. Add sausage and cook mixture until vegetables are soft and sausage slices are browned on both sides, about 15 minutes.
  4. Add Brussels sprouts and cook for 5-7 more minutes, until Brussels are done but not soggy.
  5. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Serve warm.
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/
 

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Alison Chino wants to live in a world where the adventures are new every day, the soups feed a crowd and the kids still play outside. Her travel musings, stories about expat life in Scotland and yummy recipes can be found several times a week at alisonchino.com. You can also follow along on Twitter or Instagram.