Italian Sausage Sandwiches with Sauteed Onions and Peppers

The name says it all:  Italian sausage sandwiches with sauteed peppers and onions.  I  start purring like a kitten just thinking about it...

First I sauté the peppers and onions with some garlic and tomatoes.  While that’s bubbling nicely, I grill the hot Italian sausages.  Then I put it all together on some toasted rolls, melt some cheese on top, and you know what you end up with?? Sandwich heaven.

There’s some Bowl Games coming up in a few weeks, my friends.  Fire up the Weber and get cookin’ :)

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

(serves 4)

4 hot Italian sausages

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small can diced tomatoes, drained

1 large onion, peeled and sliced in rings

3 bell peppers (I used red, yellow, and green), cleaned and sliced into strips

mozzarella cheese, grated

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

splash of white wine

salt/pepper/garlic powder

Italian sub rolls or 2 loaves Italian bread, split open

Melt butter and olive oil in deep frying pan.  Add onions, peppers, and garlic and saute until crisp tender and they have a little color.  Add tomatoes, sprinkle all with salt/pepper/garlic powder, add a splash of white wine, stir to get the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, and let simmer (low) covered, until all the flavors come together and the onions/peppers have softened enough to place on the sandwich.

In the meantime, grill sausages.

When sausages come off the grill, grill rolls.  It's nice to get them a little crispy so the tomatoes don't make them soggy.  When I made this, I used a loaf of Italian bread that my neighbor Tony made and gave to me that night--it had benne seeds and a golden egg wash on top, so good!

Assemble sandwiches:

Slice sausage in half lengthwise and place on roll, add peppers and onions mixture, and grated mozzarella on top.  If you need to, place sandwich under broiler (or in microwave for 10 seconds) and melt the cheese fully.  

Close roll and eat! 

ps:  these are so good with an ice cold Bud Light...or 3...lol

I Miss You Already, Carol Brady

Here’s how my stream of consciousness mind works:

Oh no, Florence Henderson died.  Sad!  Carol Brady.  Love the Brady’s!  Except Jan…blah.  Wait, so that means Carol Brady is dead too then.  But now she can be with Mike…that’s good.   Wait, is Shirley Partridge still alive?  Did she end up marrying Reuben Kincaid?  Is Keith still wearing his puka shell necklace?  Carol Martin Brady…Martin right?  How would Carol Brady even die, because that would be weird.  

And on and on it goes and then I start thinking: 

• ·        The Hawaiian tiki taboo idol got her
• ·         Maybe it was food poisoning from the porkchops and applesauce
•       She caught Mike with Bibi Galini
• ·        Too many stairs up to Greg’s bedroom in the attic
• ·        She had heart failure when she found out Peter played ball in the house
• ·        She was beside herself because she thought creepy cousin Oliver was never going  home
• ·        She wore herself out running around Kings Island looking for Mike’s plans that Jan left  in the log ride
• ·        Died of embarrassment having to tell the PTA that it was Greg who kidnapped  Coolidge High’s mascot, Raquel the Goat
• ·        She walked in on Alice and Sam the Butcher having sex

However it would have happened, it's sad.  

Isn't it weird that Carol and Shirley Partridge didn't even know each other?  I mean, they kinda live close and both their kids are in bands--the Partridge's and the Silver Platters must have crossed paths.  If they did they coulda  just asked Reuben to introduce Marcia to Davey Jones instead of trying to sneak into his hotel room.  I'm telling you, these are just some of the many things I wonder...  

Thanksgiving Night Turkey Sandwich

By the time I sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner, I'm almost sick of the food.  I've been cooking (and tasting) it for 2 days, and I hardly put anything on my plate.  So by 9:30 at night, I'M STARVING.  In the sea of tinfoil and Tupperware that house the leftovers in my refrigerator, I find the turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce and make myself a sandwich.  And I make one again the next night, and the next.   

It's lots of mayonnaise on toasted Italian white bread, kosher salt and cracked pepper sprinkled over the turkey, and I eat it cold.  Yep, even the stuffing...cold.  And it's soooo good :) 

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

leftover:
turkey
stuffing
cranberry sauce

Italian white bread (I use Arnold)
mayonnaise
salt/pepper

Toast Bread.  Spread mayonnaise liberally on one side of each piece.  Add turkey, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then stuffing, then cranberry sauce.  Top with 2nd piece of toast, mayonnaise side down.

Heat up your other side dishes to go with it, like this:

with sweet potatoes

Open-Face Wedge Salad

Wedge salad.  Classic and timeless, and always spot-on.

It’s the steakhouse equivalent of a Brooks Brothers blue blazer, white on white Tretorns, and tortoise shell frames.  Except instead of serving it as a triangle of lettuce, I’ve fanned out the wedge for more surface area, so that all the goodness gets in between the leaves.  NOW, it’s a timeless classic with a  twist.  It just keeps getting better :)

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(WHAT YOU'LL NEED)

Depending on how big your head of lettuce is:  this serves 2, or 4 as a small salad

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise

1 head iceberg lettuce, washed and outer leaves/core removed -- chilled until ready to use

balsamic glaze

1 pound bacon, cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces

blue cheese crumbles

blue cheese dressing (I use Marie's)

cracked pepper (optional)

NOTE: In the picture above, this is served alongside slices from a bone-in ribeye, but any grilled meat would be delicious

Cut lettuce into 2 or 4 portions.  Open and fan leaves a bit so that when you add the toppings, they fall in between.  Spoon blue cheese dressing over lettuce.  Then sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles, then tomatoes, then bacon.  Drizzle balsamic glaze lightly over all. Finish with cracked pepper.

Serve--

Ice Cream Sundaes

When I was little and my aunt Alida would babysit me, we would stay up late on summer nights and watch tv in our pajamas.  Shortly before 11:00, we would make our snack—a big bowl of vanilla ice cream  with scoops of creamy peanut butter, slices of banana, and chocolate sauce—and we’d get ready to watch reruns of “Soap”.

These were the best of times…sitting on the couch in the den late at night, freshly showered with wet hair that smelled like strawberry Suave, eating my sundae and laughing at the Tate’s and the Campbell’s and the ridiculous twists and turns of their lives in 1970’s Connecticut.

I’ve made that sundae here for you (I now add dry roasted peanuts), as well as 2 others that are favorites of mine.  On National Sundae Day tomorrow, make one—or all—of them, as well as some fun and long lasting memories of your own.  

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

In all of these sundaes, I use Breyers French Vanilla


sundae #1:
vanilla ice cream, creamy peanut butter, dry roasted peanuts, sliced banana, drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce

sundae #2:
vanilla ice cream with a pinch of course-ground black pepper sprinkled on top, and drizzled with your favorite Scotch (I used 10-year Glenmorangie, but I've also used Dewars...still good!)

sundae #3: (shown at top)
vanilla ice cream, assorted berries (I used blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries), drizzled with Crown Royal

#NationalSundaeDay
#FunMemories

Apple Crisp

I’ve been making this recipe since I was 10, pretty much the same way.  It’s simple and delicious, the way dessert should be. 

In the 8^th grade, I was given a Recipe Notebook to write down all my favorite meals.  This was the first recipe I wrote down.  I still have the book—the pages are frayed, yellowey, and stained, and I continue to refer to it to this day.   Testament to the fact that I started writing in it in 1983:  there’s also a recipe for “Flock of Seagulls Punch”.

...in my 8th grade handwriting

In honor of #NationalAppleBettyDay, please enjoy my Apple Crisp  :)

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

5 or 6 baking apples (I use Granny Smith)
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup butter (plus a little extra to grease the pan)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream
8 inch square baking pan


Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease baking pan

Peel and core apples, then slice into slices like orange sections.  Place in pan.

In mixing bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.

Break egg into cup then add to sugar mixture.  Use fork to mix together until crumbly.  You'll think there's no way that one egg will make a crumbly mixture but just keep working at it.  By the time your wrist is sore, you'll have crumbs.

Sprinkle crumbs on apples

Melt butter, then drizzle over the crumb mixture in pan.  Sprinkle cinnamon all over the top.

Bake for 1 hour, uncovered.

When you take it out of the oven, it will look like this:

Spoon into bowls and serve with ice cream on top.  The ice cream is a MUST because it makes a creamy sauce as it melts that's both hot and cold...so good...

Shrimp Bowl with Lemon Orzo

My daughter always wants to go to a place called Hibachi and get a shrimp bowl.  Delicious, but by now I’m Hibachi-ed out.  “I can make a shrimp bowl”, I told her.  No you can’t, she says.  I can.  No you can’t.  Yes.  Nuh uh.  And on and on. 

We had this same conversation about honey mustard and duck sauce…I can.  So she finally says fine but now, shit,  I gotta come up with some kind of shrimp bowl or lose face.  Grrrrrrr.

Normally, I would make sautéed shrimp, rice, and broccoli, but it’s 95 degrees outside and rice seems heavy.  OF COURSE…orzo.  Pasta that LOOKS like rice.  Lemon orzo salad…cool and perfect.

This salad takes minutes to make then cools  in the refrigerator all day until dinner.  When it’s time to eat, you just saute your shrimp and steam your broccoli, which takes no longer than 10 minutes.  Dinner in 10 minutes—Hibachi wouldn’t even have my drink on the table by then!  Now if I could only figure out how to make yum yum sauce…  :)

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

serves 4

1  16 ounce box orzo (you will only use half)

2 lemons

1 container grape tomatoes (washed and cut in half lengthwise)

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

olive oil

approx. 2 tablespoons butter

salt/pepper/garlic powder

cajun seasoning

water

20 jumbo shrimp (5 per person), deveined with tail on or off, but not yet cooked

2 heads broccoli (cut in large florettes)

1 large tupperware bowl for salad

pasta bowl for eating

First make your salad:

Make half the box of orzo according to package directions.  Save the remainder for another use.  Drain.  Place in large bowl.  Add tomatoes, chopped garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over all.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir together, cover, and place in refrigerator to cool.

When ready to make dinner:

Place broccoli in large pan with deep sides (I use a large frying pan).  Add enough water to come up approx 1 inch on the broccoli.  Turn on medium-low heat and when broccoli begins to steam, cover and let simmer gently (not boil!) until fork tender.  Drain and sprinkle with cajun seasoning.  Leave in pan, covered, to keep warm.

Take orzo out of the refrigerator.  Stir.  If dry (and it probably will be), add the juice of half a lemon (or more if you want).  Salt and pepper to taste.  Stir again.

In skillet, melt butter with a drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat.   Season shrimp with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Saute a few minutes on each side until they turn pink and firm (not too long or they will be rubbery)--approx 4 minutes per side.  You'll know.

Place a little bit of everything in a bowl and eat.

Voila Morgan, a shrimp bowl!  Ha! 

Linguine Puttanesca

Puttanesca sauce is a pungent, robust, briny, full bodied red sauce traditionally comprised of olive oil, tomatoes, capers, garlic, black olives, green olives, and anchovies.  And if I’m making it, a splash of wine.  It’s delicious, but not everyone can handle it.  My mother won’t eat it, but my daughter loves it.

Italian food is fun because its very name tells you what you’re eating:  Al Forno means “baked”,  Cacciatore “in the style of the hunter”, and Puttanesca is “in the style of the prostitute.”  Loosely translated, Linguine Puttanesca is “whore’s spaghetti.”   Yes, really.

In honor of  National Linguine Day, I offer you this recipe.  Make it for someone you’re kinda “iffy” about—if they can’t handle it, they can’t stay.  Period.  Gotta go.  Nice knowin’ ya.   ARRIVEDERCI, puttanesca haters.   Except my mom…Gigga can stay :)  

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(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

Serves 4

1 14.5 ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes  (do not drain)

1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands

Capers

Kalamata olives, pitted, halved lengthwise

Spanish green olives, pitted, halved lengthwise

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

olive oil

1 tin flat anchovies, packed in oil 

Fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped (1 handful)

1 pound linguine

1 large skillet with lid (not frying pan)

cracked black pepper

splash dry white or red wine

optional:  salt

Start sauce:

drizzle olive oil in skillet and add garlic and 2 or 3 anchovies from the tin.  Save the rest for another use.   Saute over medium-high heat until the anchovies disappear into the oil.  Add tomatoes and some black pepper, stir.  

Add as many capers and olives as you would like.  Stir all and add a splash of dry wine. Let the sauce start bubbling, turn heat to low, and cover.  While your sauce simmers, cook pasta.

simmering sauce

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Rinse and chop parsley for garnish.

When pasta is ready, drain and top with some sauce and parsley.

I can't imagine it will need more salt but if it does, add that too--then go get your heart checked...

EAT  

done...and full  :)

#NationalLinguineDay

Back to School Brunch: Denver egg scramble, roasted potato hash, and grilled ham

My kids have been back in school almost 2 weeks now and every day it’s the same:  how was your day…FINE.   How was practice…FINE.  How was the pep rally…FINE.  And then into their rooms until dinner and right to sleep after because the late night hours of summer vacation have caught up with them and 5:30 am is sooooooooo early.

For the first week while they’re adjusting I say nothing.  They say “fine” and I go “k”.  Then comes week two and my crafty plan:  back to school brunch.  Guaranteed to make them talk without me having to say a word.  It goes like this…

On Sunday morning when they get up at noon I have this all ready:  Denver egg scramble with melted cheese and salsa, roasted potato hash, and grilled ham (if I want extra information I will also ply them with toasted buttered English Muffins).  We sit down to eat and I say to my daughter “how’s school?” and she sings like a canary…who likes who, who’s in which classes, which teachers are dating each other, why she hates math, blah blah blah and on and on.  Excellent.  And we talk and laugh until we’re full (which for our stomachs  is a long time…lol).  It’s the best kind of morning, sitting with your kids and catching up, and I will cherish these times with them forever. 

When they come home at Christmas from college and I say “how’s school” and they say FINE…how do you like being a Rhodes Scholar…FINE…how was your first case…FINE…how do you like sitting on the Supreme Court…FINE…how are your discounts with AARP…FINE…how’s your arthritis…FINE MOM, GOD… 

Forever  :)

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(what you will need)

3 eggs per person
shredded cheese (I use Colby Jack)
a few teaspoons water
1 ham steak per person (plus one extra for the eggs)
1 green pepper, diced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 large russet potatoes, washed & diced (no need to peel)
salt/pepper
seasoned salt (I use Lawry's)
your favorite salsa
1 half small onion, diced very small  (use all or as much as you'd like.  I only use a few tablespoons)
olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
non-stick skillet
optional:  English Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine diced potatoes and onions on large cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Toss with your hands to coat.  Sprinkle all with salt and pepper.  Bake for 1 hour.  Depending on your oven you may need some extra time (they're done when a knife can be inserted into both kinds of potato easily).  They should be golden brown on the side that touched the pan.

potatoes right out of the oven

Prep your other foods:
dice the extra hamsteak and green pepper small enough to mix in your eggs
(because this ham is already cooked and going in your eggs, you do not need to grill it)

When the potatoes are almost done, grill your ham steaks.  They are likely already cooked so they just need to be heated through, with nice grill marks.  Cover and set aside.

Approx. 8 minutes before your potatoes are done, start your eggs.
Melt butter in non-stick pan over medium heat (the key to fluffy eggs is LOWER HEAT, no medium high or high). Break eggs into bowl and scramble with a few teaspoons water.  Pour into pan and begin to move around slowly.  Add as much ham and green pepper as you want, sprinkle with seasoned salt, and continue to scramble slowly and on lower heat. When done,  add as much cheese as you'd like over the top, remove from heat, and place cover on the pan so it will melt.

eggs with melted cheese.  fluffy!

Bring brunch to the table and let 'em eat.
Top eggs with salsa after plating, and salt/pepper to taste.

see the melted cheese hanging off the sides? mmmmm...

Fresh Garden Salsa and more

So, let's catch up.

Exciting things have been happening here at Dishing Memories.

I've been asked to be a recurring guest blogger on a website called "Better Health Greater Wealth".  It features, as the name suggests, ways to live a "smarter healthier lifestyle and all the wellness cooking that goes with it."  Cool, right? 

My first post appears on the website today and I thought you'd like to see it.   It's a garden salsa, made with the freshest ingredients the summer has to offer.  A picture of it appears above and here's the link...check it out, then make it for yourself and your friends:

http://www.betterhealthgreaterwealth.tv/better-health-greater-wealth-blog/fresh-garden-salsa

Okay...what else?  Oh ya...there's also a NATIONAL TV SHOW (swear!) and I have been invited to tape some cooking segments for it.  Fun!  I will keep you posted on this so we can watch together.  You bring the popcorn.

We're gonna have so much fun together, you and me.  Writing crazy stuff here...submitting healthy stuff there...getting ourselves on tv...  

Stick with me, kid!  It's just keeps gettin' better!  :)