I have been getting a lot of emails from people who want quick and easy recipes that are cheap. So for now on, I am going to devote thursdays to cheap eats. In this economy people want to save money and an easy way to do that is by cooking at home. Cheap food does not have to be bad either. For instance I made this chicken bake for $6.74, or $1.69 per person. I purchased the ingredients on sale and that was the reason why it was so cheap. For instance, instead of having to purchase cheese, which is not cheap, I purchased frozen vegetables in cheese sauce. They were on sale for $1.49 a bag. I used half a bag of broccoli and half a bag of cauliflower in this recipe for a total of $1.49. Sure beats buying cheese at $3 for a 8 oz bag.
Chicken bake for less than a $1.70 a serving.
Continue reading…
Tags: affordable meals, Cheap Eats, Chicken, easy, good deals, how to, howto, less than $2 a person, Pasta, quick, quick tips, Recipes, Vegetables, veggies
I have been on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookies for a while. After a while I have figured out the ingredients needed to make a really good cookie. You need to use both butter and shortening. If you use all butter your cookies come out flat and crunchy. If you use all shortening your cookies come out fluffly but don’t spread out. A perfect balance of the two gives you a light and fluffy cookie that is not too thick and not too thin.
- Light fluffy with a little crisp on the edges. The perfect cookie.
Continue reading…
Tags: awesome cookies, Baking, chocolate, chocolate chip, Cookies, Cooking, howto, Recipes, vanilla, worlds best
I have been getting a few emails regarding the French Bacon Sandwich that I posted on my about page. It is really tasty. I first heard about the French Bacon Sandwich when I was in college. My old roommate Nate and I were watching the South Park DVDs and the intro for Season 2. The intro consisted of a fake cooking segment called Bakin Bacon with Macon. In the cooking segment Trey Parker and Matt Stone teach the finer points of the French Bacon Sandwich. It can be a little hard to watch as they feed bacon to a pig named macon. So if you are a PETA fan or don’t like animal cruelty you may want to skip the link. You can watch it here.
It might be the simplest and greatest sandwich ever.
Continue reading…
Tags: bacon, Cooking, Food, french dressing, howto, meat, Recipes, white bread
Nothing says summer more than firing up your smoker, sitting in the sun and drinking some beer. Last sunday it was 65 degrees and sunny so I decided that I wanted to make some pulled pork. I went to the butcher and of course, he was on vacation. So I had to choose from the meat in the case. They had a pretty good selection including full picnic shoulders, 9 pound briskets and boston butts. I chose a small 6 pound boston butt as I was only feeding myself. I know 6 pounds is a lot. But on the other hand it is still better than barbecuing a 14 pound picnic shoulder for myself. Although, I probably would have eaten it all. Pork is amazing!
Above is some freshly shredded pork, you can see the nice pink smoke ring. Doesn’t it look delicious.
Continue reading…
Tags: Add new tag, Barbecue, BBQ, Cooking, Food, Grilling, howto, meat, Pork, pork butt, pulled pork, smoke ring, smoker
 |
Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing Home Sausage Making. I have been addicted to everything about making homemade sausages since I took a sausage making class at sur la table in March. In the quest for more knowledge I have been grabbing every single book about sausage making. Today’s book is informative with everything that you need to know to start making sausages. |
| Part One: Basic Technique
This book has 50 pages dedicated to the basics of sausage making. This is an extremely helpful section for a novice sausage maker. It covers equipment from meat grinders, sausage stuffers, measuring tools, thermometers, and basic ingredients. It even covers topics such as nitrates for dried and cured meats. The best part of this book occurs on pages 26-27. On these two pages there are drawings illustrating the 8 basic steps to making sausage. Oh, don’t forget to check out page 49 with a macgyver’s guide to making your own smoke house using a metal barrel, 6″ stovepipe and a few bricks. This is clutch if you ever find yourself on a desert island with a bunch of meat, casings, a grinder and the above listed hardware.
Part Two: Sausages
The Home Sausage Making book includes over 100 sausage recipes to make at home. This includes but is not limited to pork, beef, game, poultry and seafood sausages. They have an extensive list of all of the most popular types of sausage including breakfast sausage, bratwurst, kielbasa, pizza sausage and frankfurters. The recipes are easy to read, include basic ingredients and are well written. Plus, most of of the sausage recipes include a brief history of each type of sausage and suggested cooking instructions. On a side note, I noticed that most of the recipes are just meat and spices and fail to include a binding ingredient. While not necessary, binding ingredients improve the overall texture and moisture of the sausage.
I was extremely interested in the seafood sausages. This seemed quite weird to me. Nothing sounds more awesome than fish chopped up and stuffed in animal innards. Page 193 lists one of the craziests sausages that I have ever read about, especially since it includes a 1/2 cup of alcohol and 8 medium sized squid. Needless to say, I am going to be making this in a couple of weeks.
Part Three: Cooking Sausages
The third section of the book suggest sausages and recipes for each sausage based on the time of the day. Sausage and Apple pancake roll-ups for breakfast, Guacamole with chorizo for appetizers and Sausage pizza for lunch or dinner. The recipes all sound great. The best recipe I read about and one that I am going to have to recreate is a sausage filled piroshki. It is a russian dumpling that is baked and filled with sausage, egg and onion. It sounds awesome. I love sausage, egg and pastry.
Overall this book is very informative and includes a lot of great instructions and recipes. Even though none of the recipes that I read included binding agents the seasonings and meat combinations were traditional and sounded delicious. While the basic ingredients are good, the lack of fillers will create juicy sausages that will fall apart, dry up and lack in the great textures that you are used to. So, If you are looking for a great informative book on how to make sausages you may want to pick up this book. If you already are knowledgable about the art of sausage making and want a book with sausage recipes you might want to pass. |
Tags: Book Reviews, howto, Sausage, Sausages
When I started BBQ’n and making sausage I had no idea where to find good meat. I started by going to the Safeway grocery store by my house and picked up prepackaged Pork Butts and Briskets. Then I went to a specialty butcher which cost two to three times as much. I decided to call the butcher up at the Safeway and order the best cuts from him.
Continue reading…
Tags: Barbecue, BBQ, Beef, howto, meat, Pork
