What Do We Really Eat?

I am questioned fairly often about what a larger family eats for dinner each day. Mostly what we're eating is what I've posted either here, at A Thousand Soups, at Disney's Family.com or even at Half Hour Meals.

This week, however, I'm going to share what we're eating each day. This will be the good, the bad and the ugly - I'm sure. There is no way to have a family this size without having a snag here and there and I'm planning on sharing what our schedule is and what other extenuating circumstances, if any, there are each day.

So, are you ready? This evening for dinner I've done the very bad: Pancake Breakfast Sandwiches. I went uber easy with prepared and frozen pancakes and sausage, deli American cheese and fresh eggs.

My preference would be to make the pancakes myself from homemade and sausage myself as well, but feeling as I have been, and having wiped myself out yesterday going to the kids' first parade of the year, I'm doing simple and not-so-good-for-you.

Line up!

I don't have a real recipe for these - but it's very simple, cook one egg and one sausage patty (or a strip of bacon if you prefer) for each sandwich and layer together with a slice of cheese between two small pancakes. Serve up with hashbrowns or potato pancakes and orange juice. Easy even for 9 people, just get an assembly line going and you'll be done in no time.

Bacon Pie

Bacon pie, it turns out, may be just a joke. Dear George asked if I ever made bacon pie - my response was, "What's that?" He told me he had friends who talked about a pie that was popular in Upstate New York and made it out to be the best stuff going. The only reference I could find online was at an urban dictionary - something about it being consumed with root beer. I also consulted Mr. Dave, author of Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York and he told me the only pie he could recall having was more akin to the Bisquick 'Impossible Pie' type and served with gravy rather than having gravy in the pie. Oh, and Dave has more bacon recipes than a person should and each one looks heart-stoppingly delicious. And I do mean heart-stoppingly.

No matter, I came up with my own recipe based on what George told me, which was, "eggs, sausage, bacon and gravy". There are several other names I could think of for this pie like: Heart Attack Pie, Stroke-For-Sure Pie, Go-Broke-Quick Pie or Lard Butt Special, but I think for now we'll just go with Bacon Pie.

I had one child tell me, 'this should be a daily food here' and my husband said, 'I was hoping someone wouldn't want their piece so I could have seconds' Yeah -- it's good. As always, eat at your own risk.



Bacon Pie
Serves 8

1/2 pound bacon - cut into small dice
1 pound breakfast sausage - cut into small chunks
12 eggs
1 double pie crust for 9-inch pie
flour
milk or water
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare pie dough and set aside. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat eggs well and cook until no longer runny (scrambled eggs - folks). Set aside in a large bowl.
Cook bacon and sausage in the same pan until the bacon is crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and put into the same bowl with the eggs.
Turn the heat to medium-low and add flour to the drippings - there should be about 1/2 cup of drippings to which you would add 3/4 cup flour. Whisk the flour into the drippings and slowly add water or milk (it really is just a preference here) until a thick gravy forms. Cook for several minutes to cook out any flour taste. Salt and pepper to taste.
Add eggs, sausage and bacon back into the gravy. Stir until everything is well coated.
Pour into the bottom pie crust, top with remaining dough and vent with a knife.
Bake for 30 minutes or until top is browned and filling is bubbling out the sides of the crust. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Don't eat this more than once a year.

Sunday Breakfast - Royal Foodie Joust Entry

This month's RFJ ingredients seemed to throw several of us for a loop. They are: acorn squash, sage and orange. My first attempt at a submission was truly horrid. I made a dessert acorn squash stuffed ravioli with an orange/sage relish. I actually gagged at first bite. Something about the flavors put together that way just didn't work, but I refused to give up.

This morning I made an excellent breakfast of acorn squash pancakes and chicken sausage with a maple-orange glaze. It was truly delicious!

Acorn Squash Pancakes

2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each powdered ginger and cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed or pureed acorn squash
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine squash, eggs, and vanilla and blend well. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Add flour mixture to squash mixture alternately with milk until a loose batter forms. Drop by 1/4 cup onto a hot griddle and cook until bubbles form on the top and the edges are dry. Flip over and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Chicken Sausage with Maple-Orange Glaze

1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all and blend well. Form into small balls or patties and fry until golden. Add the juice of one orange, 1/2 teaspoon orange zest and 1/3 cup maple syrup. Simmer for several minutes and make sure all sausages are coated well.

Accidental Soup

If you cook like I do, you know exactly what "Accidental Soup" is. If not, let me enlighten you. Accidental Soup is one of those perfect soup moments created by 'throwing things together' from whatever is on-hand. The soup you wish you'd written a recipe for so you can re-create it.

I made one of those soups yesterday and, as usual, I didn't write anything down. I'll try to pass on what transpired, though and maybe you can make this for yourself.

I had quite a few potatoes sitting around that I cooked at the same time I cooked potatoes for the Sausage Pasty I posted. It's gotten so chilly here that it seemed the perfect time to use them up in potato soup. The combination of sausage and potato in the pasties was so good that I wanted to carry it on, so I made this potato/cheddar/sausage soup and everyone, even the pickiest eaters, loved it. I have to say, it was really good - I even had some for lunch today.

Potato, Sausage and Cheddar Soup

1 pound bulk sausage
5 large potatoes - cooked and diced
6 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage

Break up sausage and brown well in a large and heavy soup pot.
Add potatoes, stock, milk, thyme and sage. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 - 45 minutes; use the longer time for a thicker soup. Mash slightly with a potato masher if you like and add cheddar cheese. Remove from heat, stir well and serve.

Sausage Pasty

Non-traditional, but oh-so-good, these pasties go together easily and bake quickly for a warm and delicious Autumn handheld dinner.

Sausage Pasty

3 large potatoes, boiled and crushed (between a dice and a mash)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 country-style sausages, cooked and diced small
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together well and set aside to make dough.

Pasty Dough:

2 sticks butter
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
flour, as needed - (anywhere from 3 to 4 cups)

Melt butter in a saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, add salt and flour, a cup at a time, stirring constantly until a smooth dough forms. Remove from heat. The dough is correct when it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is pliable. Let cool to room temperature, covered.

Separate dough into 8 pieces and roll each into a circle, about 8 inches in diameter. Drop 1/8 of the sausage and potato mixture into the center of each circle. Fold dough over sausage mixture and seal edges well. Vent each pasty by making a small cut into the top of dough. Bake on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

Sunday Breakfast

My famous Pumpkin Pancakes and sausage patties. No problem waking the kids for this one.

Leftover Sausage and the Sausage Sandwich Tart

*Disclaimer: These photos are really bad. My poor old camera is not doing so well, I guess, but a new one is absolutely out of the budget for now. Hey, it still looks like food, right?*

My mother brought over the mammoth of all sausages - a full 3 1/2 pounds from her favorite butcher. I have no idea why she thought we needed that much, but she was thrilled that they still use real butcher paper and tape, and so, I humored her and told her how fabulous I thought it was. In truth, I still get meat from my own butcher in real butcher paper, but I let mom have her moment.

I cooked all of it at once, knowing we would never eat it all in one sitting, and set aside what we didn't eat with homemade waffles and thought on what else I'd like to make. I had a bit of puff pastry leftover and some lovely red and green peppers and a very nice yellow onion. I really enjoy a good sausage sandwich and decided a tart based on that would be pretty darn good. I was right.

I pressed the pastry into a 10 inch round baking pan, caramelized the peppers and onions and sliced the sausage thinly and layered it all together. I think it baked for a total of 30 minutes at 400 degrees F and it was far prettier than my photos captured. Far more delicious, too!

Ready, Set, Cook! #32

OK boys and girls, before you take a look at today's ingredients, PLEASE click the link above for the NEW rules of play. They were changed just last week and it's important that you check them out.

Today's three are from my third child. She called them; we'll play them.

sausage
eggs
green pepper

Easy, no? I'll be "seeing" you Thursday with links to submissions!

*Note: If you want to play but don't want to post your recipe to your own blog for whatever reason, let me know and I will post it here for you.