Turkey Sausage Fusilli

This is one of the first dishes Lisa cooked for me. She's an amazing cook and I never go hungry... It's hard to believe this is so good given it's so simple, but simple food is usually the best! You can use regular sausage, but if you can find a good turkey sausage why add the extra calories. We get our turkey sausage form Publix - it's the best I've found...

3 Turkey sausage links, casing off and pulled into bite sized pieces
2 Cups Fusilli pasta, the ones that look like corkscrews
2 Red peppers, roasted and diced - can roast them yourself or out of a jar
1/2 Bag Spinach, washed and drained
1/2 Cup Chicken stock
1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes, more or less to your liking
1/2 tsp Oregano
Salt
Pepper

Start by preparing the pasta according to the package. While the pasta is cooking, remove the casings off the sausage and pull them into bite sized pieces. In a large saute pan cook the sausage over a medium heat until it is cooked through. Once the sausage has cooked, remove it to a bowl. Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock. Add the roasted red peppers, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt and pepper to the pan - Cook for 2 minutes. Add the spinach to the pan and cook down - this will take only a few minutes. When the spinach has cooked, add the sausage and drained pasta back to the pan and mix everything together well. Plate, Eat & Enjoy!

Happy Cooking & Eating!

~Nikko

--

Pancakes

I have two recipes I use for making pancakes. Both have been tried and trued over many years. The one here is the one that produces very good pancakes, and I share with anyone who asks for it - the other however falls into the secret files, and I'm not sharing...

1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Sugar
2 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
3 Tbsp Butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for cooking
Softened butter, for serving
Warmed Maple syrup, for serving

Sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder into a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, egg, and butter in a small bowl. Make a well into the flour and add in the wet mixture. Whisk everything together well, but do not over mix. It shouldn't take you more than 30-40 strokes to bring it all together well. If there are a few lumps - leave them be they will work themselves out. Bring a griddle (or large saute pan) to a medium head and add a spot of butter. Once the butter has melted coat the bottom of the pan. It's always good to start with a test pancake to make sure your temperature is at the right level (this will vary per pan) - the good thing here is if it's good you can eat it, and if not give it to the dog... You can make your pancakes any size you want, but I almost always go with a 1/4 cup of batter. Once you have your batter in the pan just leave it alone until bubbles form on top and a few of them pop. Once they have popped it's time to flip. Carefully flip them over and cook the other side - this will not take as long as the first side. If you need to store them before serving put your oven on it's lowest serving and store them on a hotel pan under a towel until you're ready to serve. Serve with butter, jelly, syrup, etc... Eat & Enjoy!

Happy Cooking & Eating!

~Nikko

--

Cornbread Stuffing

So I made one homemade stuffing that knocked everyone's socks off so I thought I would try my hand at another. Cornbread stuffing has always been a favorite of mine and I'm glad I finally tried it. The only thing I would have done differently in this recipe would be to add some sausage to it.

1 Recipe for cream corn cornbread (http://cookingmywayvideo.blogspot.com/2009/11/creamed-corn-cornbread.html)
1 Cup Celery, diced
1 Cup Carrots, diced or sliced
1/2 Cup Red Onion, diced
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
Chicken Stock, enough to make it all nice and moist
2 Tbsp Butter
Thyme
Marjoram
Sage
Cayenne pepper, pinch
Chipotle pepper, pinch
Salt
Pepper

Start by prepping up the veg. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the veg and a healthy pinch of salt to start the sweating process. While the veg is doing its thing, cut the cornbread into inch or so cubes. Be careful when cutting the cornbread because it's quite delicate. Just like in the last stuffing recipe - For the seasoning - I'm going to ask you to add amounts of these that make you happy. Start by adding a heavy pinch of the thyme, marjoram, and sage, and a small pinch of the cayenne and chipotle. Start small and add until it gives you a smell that you like. Once mine started smelling like a nice stuffing mix I stopped. I probably ended up with a few teaspoons of each (a little heaver on the thyme but that's just because I love thyme). You will want to cook this for about 5 minutes or just until everything starts to get a bit soft. Add about a cup of chicken stock to the pan and let it warm up. Once finished add the the bread bowl and carefully fold everything together well. Add enough stock to moisten everything well. Once you have a happy mixture, put into a baking dish and bake at 350 for an hour.

Again next time I make this I'm going to add some nice country sausage to the mix. It was good as it was, but that would have made it a lot better...

Happy Cooking & Eating!

~Nikko

--