Pork, sausage, and the benefits of being frugal

 First, if you are a vegetarian, please be warned, the pictures are quite graphic!

Anytime we find pork roast on sale, we snatch up a few and grind it! We purchased our meat grinder years ago, and it has more than paid for itself in the long run.  We've made many different kinds of sausage, from Spicy Italian to Brats to Chicken Sausage, but our favorite is plain breakfast sausage.  The stuff you buy in the store is tasty, but it's high in sodium, has lots of preservatives and added ingredients that we don't believe should be in our food.  And this just ends up cheaper!

Take the roast, and trim away as much meat as you can, cutting it into workable chunks that will fit into the grinder. Whenever we find a boneless roast on sale, well, BONUS!

 This is the meat grinder we bought years ago.  It's been through alot!!

 Grind up the pork, either once for a chunkier grind, or grind twice for a finer texture. We like chunks.


We trim away most of the fat, but not too much, because that fat helps keep your meat moist.

 Now that you have some beautiful ground pork, you can freeze it just like this:

 Or you can make sausage.

Breakfast sausage

For each pound of ground pork, use
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 teaspoons red chili flakes. (as hot or mild as you like!)
2-4 TABLESPOONS rubbed sage
Salt and/or pepper to taste

1/4 cup vegetable oil (optional, but if you trimmed your pork of its fat, this vegetable oil will help moisten your finished product)

Mix this all together. I mix all my spices into the vegetable oil first, then mix into the meat, it seems to mix easier that way.  Cook up a small sample to test but keep in mind that the flavors will blend and mellow a bit if this is frozen.


We make 5-10 pounds at a time, depending on what we find on sale, and freeze them in packages.
Which brings me to our other nifty gadget, our FoodSaver.  We purchased this years ago. and it has paid paid for itself several times, allowing us to buy in bulk, freeze and not worry about waste. 
 
You can also freeze these in regular zippered freezer bags, just be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible.

Sweet Cream Pancakes

This recipe is my homage to the Sweet Cream Pancakes at the Black Bear Diner in Bullhead City, Arizona.   I had them for the first time last year, and fell in love.  They are so good, they need no syrup, like a fluffy, slightly sweet cloud that smells and tastes of vanilla.

So I went home and did what I usually do, which is to scour the internet for a recipe.  I found a few more people like me, looking for answers, but only one recipe that even sounded close.
So I went to work, with my husband and son as my guinea pigs (such a tough job), toying with the right balance of creamy, sweet and fluffy.

I don't eat out at restaurants as a regular thing, since I have a hard time handing over my hard-earned money eating food that is just better from my kitchen. Yes, I am a conceited Food Snob, but I also know when to bow down to someone of superior cooking skill.  So, upon this year's trip to Bullhead, I look forward to visiting the Black Bear Diner and humbling myself.

In the meantime, this isn't a bad alternative!

These pancakes are much like most of my recipes.... not difficult to make, just a bit time (and bowl) consuming.

1 - 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar (you can use as little as 1 tablespoon, or even better, use Agave Nectar)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2-4 large eggs, separated.

Start with a 2 cup measuring cup, measure 1- 1/2 cups of milk. When I say milk, you can use anything from low-fat all the way to cream, depending on how rich (and fattening) you'd like your pancakes to be. I like using half and half. Stay away from fat free milk, AND I have no idea if soy, almond, or any other substitute will work To the milk, add 1 tablespoon vanilla and 1/4 cup sugar.

In a medium-sized bowl, measure 2 cups all purpose flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder, mix together. Now you will separate eggs. The yolks will go in the milk mixture, and the whites will go in a small mixing bowl. I use 4 eggs- 2 yolks go in the milk and all four whites go in my mixing bowl.
Use a small whisk to scramble the egg yolks into the milk mixture, then pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until large lumps are gone.

Beat the egg whites till soft peaks form, then fold into the batter.

Heat griddle to 300 degrees, then pour spoonfuls of batter onto hot griddle.
Presto Cool Touch Electric Griddle
(My griddle used to be non-stick, but it needs a wipe with vegetable oil or butter once in a while)

Cook pancakes till bubbles on the surface start breaking open, flip, then cook till the other side is golden brown. I make pancakes about 6" in diameter, this recipe makes 9 pancakes that size. Serve with your favorite pancake toppings.... butter, syrup, powdered sugar, fruit preserves, etc.

* more explanation about the eggs-

 I use the remaining egg yolks another way, they don't get wasted. You can put all four egg yolks in your pancakes, they will still be good, just very "eggy". If you only use two eggs, the pancakes will also be just fine....I just like the extra egg white to make them extra-fluffy!
Also, this same recipe, using all four eggs makes an OUTSTANDING waffle batter.

The world's best meatballs

I said before that I'm lucky to have an entire family who cooks. Friday's dinner was meatball sandwiches.

My 13 year old attends Charter School, which means he has Homestudy on Mondays and Fridays, so I asked him if he'd like to make meatballs for dinner.

1. I said 'meat', so he's all over that. (We've been sneaking in alot more meatless meals lately)
2. He gets a break from study.....uh, yeah, something like that.

Mostly, he loves to show off his mad cooking skills.

I called him from work about noon, so that he could make sure we have all the necessary ingredients: Ground beef, ground pork or sausage, eggs, onion, garlic and bread crumbs.



Seriously. That's it. So, what you see in the picture is a pound each of ground beef and sausage, so you'd chop half an onion, one or two cloves of garlic and 2 eggs. If you are using the seasoned bread crumbs shown in the picture, 1 cup is perfect and no other seasoning is necessary.

Mix with your hands (thoroughly washing them first, of course).
Its the only way. It's cold and icky-feeling, but it really is the only way.

Some people form their meatballs and drop them, raw, into sauce to cook. This works, but I don't care for the mushiness. I make golf ball-sized meatballs, place them in a pan, and when the pan gets hot, pour 1/4 cup of water and slam a lid onto it. In about 2 minutes,lift the lid and continue to brown the meatballs, turning occasionally for about 10 minutes.

You can also arrange them on a cookie sheet, spaced apart and bake for about 20 min in a 300 degree oven, turning occasionally.

Throw cooked meatballs into any marinara sauce, home made or canned, and then pour over cooked spaghetti or shove into a roll for a meatball sandwich. Freeze the leftovers, if there are any!

Oh, and I call these "The World's Best Meatballs" because I don't have to make them.