Sausage Balls

Every time I eat, see, or even think about sausage balls I hear my girlfriend Hegna’s voice in my head. Hegna is her maiden name (in college we all went by our last names, and they stick – even 13 years later and even if you are married) and she is my favorite Jersey girl. So what I hear is a thick northern accent saying, “saawsage bawls.” To me it makes them sound even more desirable. Seriously, what's not to like? Sausage, Bisquick and CHEESE! There is more than one recipe for these little bits of heaven but I chefed up this version for mother’s day brunch.

Sausage-Cheese Balls from Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

3 cups Original Bisquick mix

1 pound bulk pork sausage

4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup milk

½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

Directions:

Heat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease bottom and sides of jellyroll pan. Stir together all ingredients, using hands or spoon (hands are of course more fun). Shape mixture into 1-inch balls. Place in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brown. Immediately remove from pan.

Seriously, don’t forget to grease the pan. I did so it took a little work to remove those puppies. I also made these ahead of time. Bake as directed; cover and freeze up to one month. I just put mine in the refrigerator since it was only a day. Heat oven to 350ºF. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until heated through. It was perfect to pop in the oven while the brunch bake was setting. 

This is not a pretty picture, but dude-we were hungry.

Perfecting Perfection - Sweet Fruit Dip

It is a great time of year to enjoy fresh fruit. In Hampton Roads that is especially true for strawberries that are ripe for the picking from our local farmers. For my recent mother’s day brunch I had a spread of fresh strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe and grapes. It is hard to make perfect fruit more – perfect, but this sweet fruit dip makes for a great accessory.

Sweet Fruit Dip from Kraft

Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

1 cup thawed whipped topping

Directions:

Beat cream cheese and cranberry sauce with mixer until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping; cover. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Hearty Kale Salad

I’m not sure how it happened or how I found her but I recently added Eat, Live, Run to my blog roll and Jenna is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I dig her. Seems like if she was a right coaster we could possibly hang. Fishing around her site I also found some recommendations for our upcoming trip to California’s wine country. Thanks lady, I appreciate it. I also appreciate this recipe for a healthy kale salad.

She calls it her detox salad. I call it a lovely little addition to my mother’s day brunch menu. My suggestion is to make it ahead of time and let it sit. Our mother’s day version didn’t seem like it soaked any of the dressing so the kale tasty a bit too hearty in my opinion.

Kale Salad with Oranges, Almonds and Avocado from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients:

1 bunch lacinato kale (“dinosaur” kale”), washed and roughly chopped

2 juicy oranges

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 avocado, diced

2 tbsp sliced toasted almonds

pinch of sea salt

pinch of black pepper

Directions:

Combine the juice of one orange with the olive oil, pinch of sea salt and pepper. Shake or stir until very well combined. Set aside.

To assemble the salad, peel the other orange and separate the sections (peeling off the white pith as best you can). Chop orange sections roughly and place in a bowl with the kale, chopped avocado and almonds.

Drizzle dressing over salad and toss well to coat. Enjoy now or stick in the fridge and eat later (this salad will stay good for a couple days in a covered container in the fridge). Dressing will stay good in a sealed jar for a about a week.

My Undying Love of Lemons

Yo! I love lemons. You may know this if you’ve visited this blog a time or two. Whenever I see a recipe that includes lemon I’m going to pay extra attention. I saw this particular recipe on a blog I follow, Sweet Peas Kitchen. I’ve made a variation of this before and loved it and thought this would be an interesting variation with the use of yogurt. Game on.

Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf from Sweet Peas Kitchen

Ingredients:

For the Loaf:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided (I used 1 cup AP flour and ½ cup all purpose wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

For the Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:

1 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

(I also added about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the glaze.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.

Do you like my well loved pan?

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.

Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let the cake cool completely.

To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. Add up to another tablespoon of lemon juice if the mixture is too stiff. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

As High as the Sky - Got to Love Mom

I love my mom. I feel pretty fortunate to feel that way and to be blessed with the perfect mom for me. She had the most admirable job in the world. She was a stay-at-home mom, taking care of my brother and me. There wasn’t a field trip she didn’t join, a committee she didn’t volunteer or a classroom of mine in which she wasn’t the “room mother.” She was heart broken when I went to junior high and I told her they didn’t have room mothers since I had seven different classes. She is a solid. A great role model in the art of loving, family and of course, cooking.

For mother’s day I had the pleasure of preparing brunch for her and another great stay-at-home mom. My man-love’s sister-in-law is another great mom of two beautiful, super well-behaved little girls. It was great to have his family in town. It makes me feel closer to him while wrapping up this deployment.

Our brunch menu consisted of:

Sky-high Brunch Bake

Kale Salad with Avocado, Almonds and Oranges

Sausage-Cheese Balls

Array of fruit with a Sweet Fruit Dip

Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf

I will hook you up with all of the yummy recipes. But first, the Sky-high Brunch Bake. I used to get these great little food magazines from Kraft foods and this recipe is one I’ve had for years. It is great to make ahead. As we had the wine festival on Saturday I prepped this Friday evening so it would be ready to go Sunday morning. (Didn’t want to run the risk of prepping food while tipsy, you know?)

Sky-High Brunch Bake from Kraft

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (17.3 oz.) frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed

6 eggs, beaten

1 cup ricotta cheese

Dash hot pepper sauce (or a dash, dash, dash, dash in my case)

2 pkg. (10 oz. each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

4 slices bacon, cooked, chopped

1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup chopped red peppers

Directions:

Heat oven to 400°F. Unfold pastry sheets. Roll out 1 sheet to 11-inch square; set aside. Roll out remaining sheet to 12-inch square; use to line bottom and side of 9-inch spring form pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Reserve 1 Tbsp. eggs. Mix remaining eggs with ricotta, pepper sauce and spinach. Layer half each of the bacon, Cheddar, ricotta mixture and peppers in crust. Repeat layers.

Cover with remaining pastry sheet; fold under edges of pastry, then tuck inside pan. Brush pastry with reserved egg. Cut slits in top crust.

Bake 45 to 55 min. or until golden brown. Cool 10 min. Run small knife around edge of pan to loosen crust before removing rim.

Make ahead:

Assemble and bake pie as directed. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. When ready to serve, bake, uncovered, at 350°F for 30 to 40 min. or until heated through.

Turkey Barley Soup

When my man-love’s parents were in town awhile back we fried a turkey. The best way EVER to enjoying turkey. Generally we throw the carcass away but his mom graciously made us turkey stock and pulled the small bits of turkey and froze them for us for a later soup. I finally got around to making it after looking in my pantry and trying to figure out what I can do to get more barley in my life. The reasoning FIBER. But with a little more research I discovered that barely is a “nutritional powerhouse.”

Like I mentioned, barley is a good source of fiber having both soluble and insoluble fiber helping to lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, and helping to lower the risk of certain cancers.

Barley is cholesterol and fat free. It contains several vitamins and minerals including niacin (Vitamin B3), thiamine (Vitamin B1), selenium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus and copper. Last, but certainly not least, it has antioxidants.

The evening I made the soup the temperatures were cool enough to enjoy, unlike the blast of summer we are getting right now in Hampton Roads (woo hoo). But who doesn’t like soup all year round? I eat tomato soup for lunch almost every week. So try this recipe for Turkey Barley Soup and enjoy all the health benefits barley has to offer.

Turkey Barley Soup

6 cups of turkey stock (I had to add a little chicken stock to mine)

½ c barley

1 c sliced carrots

1 c sliced celery

1 small diced onion

2 - 3 c turkey pieces (you can always buy a breast of turkey and roast)

small palm of oregano

small palm of pepper (like those measurements huh? I feel like my mom)

salt to taste

Put barley and broth in a heavy saucepan, cover and simmer until barley is tender (about an hour).  Add remaining ingredients, cover and cook until vegetables are tender.

Mmm, veggies.