So, saw these flatbread pizza crusts in the bakery department at Jewel. So, we thought we would give it a try with the ever popular arugula pizza.
Construction: brushed with olive oil, studded out with fresh mozzarella and a little bit of grated parmesan. Mounded high with baby arugula. Covered with slices of prosciutto. Baked at 400 for 12 minutes.
It came out pretty good. The fresh mozzarella was a bit juicy, so next time either a bit less cheese or dryer, less fresh mozzarella. Success declared, however.
I’ve had a hankerin’ for roast pork, so today was the day. A nice TJ pork loin roast, cooked to the now reasonable and FDA approved 145F internal temperature (pink, like Aunt Anne would demand it). Nice overall rub of thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic powder.
Roast potatoes in the pan with the pork. I tossed them in olive oil and salt and pepper first. Nice browning, eh?
I think we all agree that the grilled asparagus with lemon and olive oil is pretty stinkin’ good. But, I wasn’t grilling today, and I wanted to do it on the stove. I found this recipe for Pan-Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Garlic, and it came out really well.
An experiment. I know how good baked ziti is with Putttenesca sauce and fresh mozzarella balls. So, this is a variation, including blanched caulflower and sundried tomatoes. The sauce is some broth, with garlic and basil and the usual Italian seasonings. Complete with the crunchy baked noodles on top.
A creation I conjured up, based on TJ ingredients. A bag of medium pre-cooked shrimp and a package of H8. The dressing was my creation: mayonnaise, 4 cubes frozen cilantro, juice of a lemon, salt, pepper and a bit of garlic powder. Quick and delicious. I’ll make it again.
Karen suggested we try the new Black Forest Bacon from Trader Joe’s. In thinking what to do with it (short of just cooking it and eating it plain, which is not a bad idea itself), I thought about making a Bacon Sarnie.
Not quite authentic, but totally awesome in their own right. We used a TJ’s baguette and the Black Forest bacon. Didn’t have any HP sauce on hand, and wasn’t about to chance the ancient A-1 sauce in the fridge. Really, the bacon and bread were awesome on their own.
So, seeing as Dad had his own recipe incoming about a sausage and lentil thing, I decided I’d post my results to show you what I came up with. Originally the idea struck me to do a slow roast, but most of the lentil/sausage hybrids turn into soup. I had no idea how it was going to turn out once I took my own stab at it.
First what I did:
Gather a bunch of carrots, a white onion, celery, sausage, lentils, chicken broth, thyme, trader joe’s everyday seasoning, and of course, salt and pepper
Brown the celery and white onion in a frying pan.
Not quite as brown as I wanted.
I didn’t brown the carrots, cause browning carrots just seemed to dang weird to me. I also didn’t brown all the veggies. Some recipes called for browning the veggies, others did not. I decided to do both of each so I could see which one I liked better for future reference. Here’s hoping the combination doesn’t completely alter the broth taste.
3. Brown the sausage
Huh… I did not expect the skin to cause the sausage to bunch up that much.
So, most of the pictures online saw people cutting the sausage into circles. I tried cutting it lengthwise like Gordon Ramsay recommends in most of his sausage receipts. He put skin side down first which I thought was odd and made it harder to cook. After I flipped the Sausages, I found out why. The skin on the back side if cooked second causes the sausage to shrink. Where as if you fry it first, it just holds everything in place perfectly. Still, sausage is sausage.
4. Put all the veggies, sausage, lentils, and chicken broth in a pot and simmer for a good long time
All the sausage on top of course. Priorities people!
So I put everything in and wanted to see how it would turn out. The buckling of the sausage may turn out to be an advantage, because it makes more the sausage naturally stick up out of the water to get more braised flavor on the meat. I added some thyme, fennel seeds, and garlic to make it tastier. Probably should have put in more minced garlic, but I had a brain fart and used powder instead.
5. Enjoy:
The Final Product
So how did it come out? Pretty great. I just got a bunch of food from it. It’s quiet amazing. The lentils absorbed all the water and it was really a stew / lentil meal, with no water. The slow roasting effect on the sausage was AMAZING. The sausage was melt in my mouth. It was so moist and tender, at first I was worried that it wasn’t cooked. But inspection of all the pieces revealed it was. The lightly fried onions really bring out a lot of flavor to the dish, as does the fennel and the thyme.
