me make food

Theresa is more of a sausage girl when it comes to breakfast. She likes farmland pork and bacon brand sausages. I wnted to see if I could come close to them. Got some sheep casings from the 27th and pine lake super saver and some bacon ends and pieces. Ground a pound of bacon and added it to a pound of boston pork butt I had frozen. Some black pepper, cayenne, and paprika to season. Fried up a patty and it was close, but still far away. Pulled out the tender quick which I was scared to use and added some brown sugar. The cure in the tender quick made a huge difference. Stuffed it up, froze them, and peeled off the casing.

They came out pretty darn close. Theresa liked them and said more salt, fat, and sugar would make them even closer to the farmland brand. I wuv her

I think this recipe got lost when I got my account closed from youtube. I will do it again here really soon cuz it is one of my staples.

Anyway I made this and cooked some shrimp to go with it.

I spiced them waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much and it was strong, but so good. I made it through 1/6th the pasta, but the shrimp was good.

Theresa was running low on dog soup. She whipped up a quick batch with some chopped spinach, $1.90 whole grain spiral pasta, some gizzards, frozen veg, broth, and a $.89 can of salmon on top o some scrap meat.

Our dogs live good on the cheap.

^old^

Theresa suggested we repaint our kitchen a few Fridays back. Then we both brainstormed other things we could do in the kitchen to improve it. I want to start replacing counters and cabinets, but she had the great idea of putting up tile back splashes. As you can prob see in the pic above our back splashes were toast. Stained with oily spots and years worth of meal prep. Theresa did most of the major cleaning with TSP while I smoked bacon and did other errands. Our kitchen was cluttered and we have eaten out or ordered in a lot. I so need a week of really good home cooked meals soon.

The colors are pretty cool, kinda reminds me of Arby’s. I need one of those gallon pumpers of horsey sauce The tile came out awesome. Took a lot more of it than we thought it would. Put the chalkboard paint on the cupboards. Some shelves are going up tonight above the stove and Theresa is almost done with the grout work. With this and the porch step project it has drained us. So close to being done. I was going to wait till it was all done to post, but figured what the heck. Close enough. My MMF vids should be a bit nicer now too.

Andoullie is a killer sausage. Got the kitchenaid food grinder and the sausage stuffin nozzle attachments. Picked up a 13 pound boston pork butt.

I guess I sorta have this thing. If I am making food I want it to be from scratch. I really do not understand where it comes from, and it seems to be getting worse. A can of chopped green chilies prob cost under $1 and is just chopped green chilies, but I had to do it myself and am very glad I did.

Picked up some Anaheim peppers and that sat in the bag long enough for some to turn red. Roasted them on the grill. Some were more roasted than others and the skin peeled off them with ease after they cooled down. The skin stuck to the ones that did not get roasted enough. Scraped out the seeds and diced them up.

Used them in a batch of chicken and chillies and the results were some really good flavor. A bit spicier than usual, but way better taste.

When we started making meals from scratch we tried to recreate some hamburger helper type meals. Theresa always liked the HH’s with potatoes and I liked the pasta ones. I had not tested out the food grinder attachment yet and figured we could use it for something last night. Theresa said beef goop with potatoes. We discussed how we would do it. I was under the impression that the dehydrated potato slices that come in a HH box were pretty much cooked and since the sauce would be a bit thick it might be better to cook the potatoes first. After making this last night I think it might of been better to cook the potatoes in the sauce.

Theresa picked up some cheap chuck and sirloin steaks and I got to grinding. I had purchased a food grinder attachment off ebay before, but I did not read the description and failed to notice it did not come with the grinding plates. I still have in my possession a really old hand cranked grinder from Theresa’s parents, but that thing was really scary. The kitchenaid one rocked. I was surprised you are supposed to turn it up to speed 4, but it was not as fast as I thought it would be. What came out was perfect.

It is no secret that I am an Alton Brown fan. I really wanted to try his southern fried chicken (vid 1 / vid 2 ) a second time after my first attempt was not a success. Well epic burned fail on last nights try.

I know exactly what went wrong. First i started to get into a rush towards the end while making it and forgot to dredge the chicken in flour. Yeah I know. I pulled it out of the oil and floured it in a desperate attempt so salvage the meal. Second I had the pan so full of chicken that I could not get a good read on the temp. I saw some browning way too early and saw the oil was at 385. Picked up a piece and saw it was burnt black. I finished the other side while the delivery guy was on his way.

It is just too easy to get popeyes or KFC to try again. I am fine with disappointment. Maybe in a few years when we live on a farm or something.