Have you ever got ready to make supper and realized you don’t have the sausage you thought you had? I have and it can ruin a supper plan, especially if you’re on a short timeline.
Sausage herbs & sausage
But thankfully it’s really easy to make homemade sausage. It’s a simple recipe and it tastes fabulous.
I’ve used this recipe with deer, beef and pork and they were all good. The flavor is just like store bought sausage. I know you’re going to love it.
A Breakfast Style Sausage
This is a sage-type recipe, not a sweet maple style. It makes a great breakfast sausage out of any of the meats mentioned above. It can be used in any recipe you want to use it in.
Mixing herb miix with ground pork.
The ingredients are simple and ordinary, mostly things you probably have in your spice cabinet.
Ground pork from our local meat locker.
This recipe is for 2 pounds of meat. It’s easy to divide or add, however you need.
Sausage Recipe
2 tsp of sage
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp of dried marjorum
1 TBL brown sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 pinch ground clove
Mix your spices together in a small bowl.
Cooking sausage seasoned pork
Add it to your 2 pounds of your choice of thawed meat.
Using your Homemade Sausage
From here you can crumble and cook so you can add to any dinner or breakfast dish like a frittata, or other breakfast casserole.
Cooked ground sausage.
Or you can make it into patties for a side of eggs or even as a part of a supper mix.
This recipe taste just like a sage breakfast sausage you can get at the grocery store.
Cooked sausage, pasta, a white sauce and your choice of a green.
It’s great used in several kinds of meals. This homemade sausage can be used in everything from pizza to breakfast. Using white sauce or red sauce.
Ground sausage and red sauce made from home grown tomatoes.
It’s simple and it’s really easy. Enjoy!! Give it a try. Let us know what you think, how you used it and if you feel inclined share your awesome recipe. I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.
Thanks for following along. Let me know what you’d like me to try and share. I’d really love to know what you would like to see.
I pulled out Italian sausage links for a last minute supper today. I pulled them out this morning with no idea how I was going to use them.
At some point around noon I did a Google search “recipe Italian sausage onion pasta”.
I knew I didn’t want a tomato base recipe, so I looked for anything without tomatoes. I found a recipe called Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta.
It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for because I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe called for. But I decided I could adjust. When you’re looking at “last minute” you look at how you can improvise for this last minute supper.
Substitutions
This recipe called for penne pasta. I already had a different type of pasta open, so I use it instead.
Cooked, strained pasta
The recipe called for a ground Italian sausage but I was using link. I just cut it up in small slices and used it instead.
The recipe called for adding cream. I did add cream, but my husband likes a gravy so I added about 2 1/2 Tbls of flour first. I didn’t drain the grease, added the four and then added the approximately 2 cups of cream to make a roux, then a gravy.
Local raw cream
I buy whole raw milk from a neighbor weekly and usually make butter out of the cream. I’ve been putting the butter in the freezer, so I decided I could use the cream for this instead this week.
Once I made the roux, I shredded a little more than a cup of shredded parmesan cheese. I stirred it in until it was melted.
Then I added steamed broccoli and cauliflower instead of the called for spinach. I really love spinach. But I didn’t have any, so I improvised.
Improv for a last minute supper
The best part of this last minute supper is to improvise the ingredients you don’t have or don’t want with what you do have or what you like better.
Broccoli in pasta
Don’t be afraid to try a new recipe, with your own twists. You’ll be surprised how good it can be.
Tell me how you improvise on recipes and share with the rest of us.
You can use an essential oil spray for all kinds of things. I have one for me, one for dog babies, one for the curtains/carpet/house…
A variety of essential oils
**NEVER USE ESSENTIAL OILS ON CATS
These kind of sprays are most often used as a deodorant of some kind.
What you want to use them for will determine what oils or carrier you may want to use.
There’s a few things to remember when you’re putting together an essential oil spray.
First – NEVER use essential oils on cats.
If you have a pet other than a dog or cat, please do your research. Some animals just can’t handle essentials oils at all.
Second – Quality Counts
Clove is supposed to be great for a tooth ache.
Here’s a great place to learn about and find essential oils. There’s information here on what the different oils are good for and if you feel so inclined you can buy them here too.
Wherever you decide to buy your oils, be sure you are buying 100% pure essential oils. You don’t want a fragrance. And just remember, if it’s cheap, it’s probably not good quality oil.
A good quality essential oil will usually cost a little more, but that’s because you usually only need a few drops of it. A quality oil is pretty potent and frankly, it’s worth the money.
Make sure whatever you use with your oils is of just as good a quality, especially if you’re using it on your pet or your own skin.
Third – Essential Oils Are Stout
If you’re going to use it on your canine fur baby, only use a few drops. We have about 6 million smell receptors in our nose but your furry baby has about 300 million. A light smell to us is a giant smell to them and we don’t want to overwhelm them or cause discomfort.
I spray a cloud and walk my pups through it. That way it’s just a very light mist. I usually pet them afterwards to help it soak into their coats.
And I make them their own separate spray with very little essential oils in it. Remember it don’t take much.
Here’s a few things to decide on when you’re putting your spray together.
Essential Oils
Orange smells awesome.
We all know that different essential oils, just like herbs, are used to support all kinds of different things.
Some will help you relax, or maybe invigorate and wake you up. Others may be supportive of a body function, help alleviate an allergy or other condition or just support your general wellness.
Knowing the purpose for your spray will help you choose the essential oil you’ll want to use. Or maybe you just like the smell of a specific oil or oil blend and want to use it as an air freshener.
Whatever your purpose is, your homemade essential oil stray will be much better than what you would buy at a store. You’ll know exactly what’s in it.
Here’s a few oils to look at, some of which you probably already know about (and remember you can always find more here):
Lavender
We all know lavender is great for supporting relaxation and easing a weary mind. Find out more about lavender here.
Citrus (orange or lemon)
A citrus scent is perfect for lifting your spirits. When you smell citrus it just makes you feel good.
*Note: If you spray a citrus spray on your skin, wait a while before you go out into the sun. It can make your skin sensitive to the sunlight.
Peppermint
Peppermint is great in helping to relieve headaches or migraines. It’s also been used to temporarily suppress the appetite.
Sandalwood
This has been used for thousands of years to enhance your mood.
Rosemary
Helps to reduce nervous tension & occasional fatigue.
Cedar
Cedar has a warm homey smell. It’s great for using in your house after work to just sit back and relax (especially on a cold night) and it’ll help ground you.
Bonus: insects hate all those oils with heavy smell like cedar, rosemary, basil, and lavender. All those ones we LOVE to smell.
The carrier spray
Body spray or deodorant
This is the liquid you will want to put the oils in. This can be water, witch hazel, or a combination of both. You might want to add a touch of a carrier oil too if you’re using it for a person or a dog. Something like almond or coconut oil, depending on what you’re wanting to do.
Water
Adding your essential oil to water is the easiest way to go. After you spray on yourself or carpet or curtains, the water will evaporate leaving the essential oil to do it’s thing and to smell awesome.
Witch Hazel
Lavender is great for relaxing.
This is an astringent, meaning when you use it on your skin, it tones and tightens, (think pores). It’s also an antibacterial. When we sweat it’s the bacteria that creates and puts off a smell. You can use Witch Hazel with a few drops of your favorite scent to kill that bacteria which helps remove the smell and then replace it with whatever essential oil you’re using.
I use this as a deodorant. Pair it with the essential oil of an herb that’s also an antibacterial, say….lavender, and you’ve got a pretty good thing going on.
A few drops of carrier oil
This can be any kind of oil really. Olive oil, coconut oil, almond oil, just to name a few. In 8 oz of water or witch hazel, you’d only need about 1/8 of a tsp. This oil will help hold the moisture in and it also gives the essential oils something to spread in when you rub it on your skin.
This isn’t really necessary, but it’s a nice luxury that doesn’t cost much to add. You’ll want to make sure you don’t spray this on any cloth or it’ll show and won’t be real easy to wash out.
Mixing Your Essential Oil Spray
What you need for a spray for a person. Change the witch hazel to regular water for a room spray.
I found out the hard way, that if you mix too much and leave it in your spray bottle, you’ll be using that same essential oil in that bottle forever.
I don’t remember what I originally mixed it for, but I mixed water and lavender oil. Then didn’t use it all. I left some in an 8 ouch spray bottle.
At some point I decided I wanted to use a citrus spray for something and tried washing that bottle out. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. So I bought another bottle.
Tip– Make small batches and use them. Then rinse out your container. If you do that you should be able to use different scents in the same bottle.
So, that means I would say use an 8 oz bottle for a room/carpet/home deoderizer. You might start out with 5-7 drops of essential oil and if you feel you want more, add more. But, remember it doesn’t take much.
A very relaxing floral scent.
If you’re spraying it on curtains or carpet, remember that oil will attach itself to the fabric and it will stay there after the water evaporates. Even if you don’t continue to smell it in the air the next day. Stick your nose to the curtains or carpet, it’s there.
If you’re using it for your dog, I’d use about a 2 oz bottle. I have 5 dogs, so I still use an 8 oz bottle. So that kind of depends on what you have.
Using your spray
For my personal use, I have a 2 oz spray bottle. It’s out of one of those little airline carry packet things you can pick up at the store. It’s a perfect size and has a lid. I use about 3 drops in that.
One thing you need to remember every time you use your spray is to shake it.
Oil and water don’t mix, so every time you use it, you’ll need to mix it together so you get a good mix each time you spray.
Remember to experiment. As you use more oils, look for blend recipes. They’re everywhere. You may find a blend that you really enjoy better than any single oil.
And if you find one, let us know. Maybe we’d like it too.
Hope you all enjoyed this one. I love using my various sprays. Share what you with come up with everyone in the comments.
I hope you’re all doing well, staying health and washing your hands a lot.
So what’ve you been doing while you’re at home?
Have ya been doing some cooking, trying some new recipes or experimenting with old ones? Cleaning closets, dusting corners and catching up on a “to do list”?
Or are you like our family, is your job an “essential services”? Are you working non-stop to keep us all going? Let me know in the comments what you’ve been up to the last several weeks.
Our jobs are considered “essential services”. We’re both still working full-time. I’m lucky enough to get to work from home most of the week. But my husband still has to go out every day.
We leave the house as little as possible to get what we need. But being home a lot doesn’t bother either of us. We both really enjoy having so much time at home.
But that means while I’m at home I get to experiment a lot with new things.
I have celery growing from organic celery scraps bought from the store.
Just a few days in.
Can’t wait to see how this turns out. I can tell you it’ll be a while before I know.
This was my first one, planted about 3 weeks ago. That’s Big Princess in the back ground enjoying her pillow.
I have sweet potato slips in the works started from organic sweet potatoes from our local organic market.
Baby sweet potato slips.
I’ve canned everything from cornbread to meatloaf to beans. All of which are new to me. I can’t promise any of it is approved by the USDA. But it all worked for me. And it was fun.
I’ve started making my own tortillas. They’re so easy and good
A fresh batch of tortillas on a rack cooling.
And I’ve got a mess of seedlings started in the house, ready to plant in the garden soon. I started a few things too early and they need to be in the ground, but the garden isn’t ready yet. Hopefully they’ll hold on for another couple weeks.
And….I dehydrated marshmallows!! I know, it sounds so easy, and it was. But who actually thinks to dehydrate marshmallows? So Good!!
One of three jars of dehydrated marshmallows.
Let me know what you’re doing while you’re staying at home. I’d love to know what you’ve been experimenting with.
If you are working at one of those “essential jobs”, thank you for what you’re doing. Please know you are appreciated.
It’s almost garden season again. Have you thought about how you’ll preserve all your garden bounty yet?
I only recently discovered fermented food and was surprised to find out how much I Iike it.
Fermenting food has been around for centuries.
Historians have found evidence of fermentation dating as far back as 7000BC.
Sauerkraut mixture ready to ferment.
While no one really knows how it came about, it’s likely that our ancestors figured out that they could store foods much longer with fermenting.
And around the time of the turn of the last century, fermented drinks were probably much less likely to make you sick than the water you drank.
There’s some really great benefits to eating fermented foods.
The bacteria that ferments your foods also makes the nutrients of that food much more readily available for your body to use.
The process of fermentation also produces additional vitamins for your body and enzymes that are highly beneficial for your digestion.
And good digestion can support everything from great skin to a strong immune system.
Some of the supplies you need to ferment.
Fermenting supplies
It really doesn’t take much to get started fermenting. Here’s a list of the basics, in no particular order.
Canning jars. I have found wide mouthed jars easier to use.
Some kind of lid. There are several to choose from. You can be as basic or as fancy as you like. I’ve used sandwich baggies and I have special fermenting lids.
A sharp knife for chopping or (as I just discovered recently) a food processor. It all depends on what you’re fermenting and what you like.
Some kind of masher comes in handy if you’re making something like sauerkraut.
Water or apple cider vinegar. You probably won’t want to use city water from your tap if it has added chlorine or fluoride. See more on that below.
Salt for preservation
Veggies.
Last but not least all kinds of herbs and spices or onions, garlic and peppers. Be creative and try what you like. Make smaller batches with different mixtures to determine your favorite.
I’m pushing a “puck” down over my sauerkraut to make sure my veggies stay submerged.
Now there are several types of fermentation. You can ferment grain or fruit as in beer or wine. You can ferment tea as in kombucha. And I’m sure you can ferment a number of other things but, what I’m talking about here is preserving your garden harvest and creating different flavors from all the veggies you’ll get from your garden.
A little about the water you use.
I have well water, so I never thought about this until I did the research.
City water generally has several additives like fluoride and chlorine. Some places add a chemical called chloramine too. Chlorine is not to much of a problem in that you can just let the water sit out for about 24 hours and it’ll evaporate. Or you can boil water to get rid of chlorine.
But, that doesn’t work with fluoride or chloramine. You can’t boil or charcoal filter these out of your water either.
If you have a home filtering system you can check what it says about what all it removes from your water. Otherwise, bottled water might be your best bet.
The fermenting process.
Fermenting takes a little time, but it’s not a hard process. It’s a great way to help preserve all of that garden bounty and give a your veggies a variety of tastes.
Step One
Clean whatever veggies you want to ferment well then chop them into bite sized pieces. In the case of a sauerkraut type ferment, you can shred them with a knife or better yet, with a food processor. I’m embarrassed to say I just realized the food processor thing. I’ve almost never use it….until now.
Step Two
Salt is the key. In most cases you’ll add 1-3 tablespoons of salt to a quart of water and allow it to dissolve. In the case of using cabbage or another high water content veggie you can use some of it’s own water content in place of what you would otherwise use. The salt will also help release the water from your veggies. I’ve got a recipe for sauerkraut here, if you’d like to give it a try.
Step Three
Fill the quart jars with your veggies. You can combine many different kinds, or not, it’s entirely up to your tastes. Experiment with different batches to see what you like best. Add your spices and herbs now too.
Step Four
You want to make sure the salt water mixture you pour over the veggies covers them completely. The point is to not allow any air to reach your veggies during the fermentation process.
Step Five
Next your going to add a lid to keep critters out, BUT you need to allow the resulting gases to escape. If you’re highly diligent you can just put a lid and ring on the jar very loosely and remember to just kind of lift it once a day to let those gases out.
There are several brands.
I know myself better than that, I’m not that diligent and would never remember to do that. So, I bought a kit. It comes with what’s called pucks and breathable lids. These kits aren’t real expensive and it makes the process so much easier.
They run as low as $20 and you can probably spend as much as you want. There are several kinds, so you can decide what works best for your.
When I first started making sauerkraut I didn’t have the kit. I found a method that used sandwich baggies covering the veggies and then filled with water. I got to say it really was pretty inventive. You can see this method here.
Once you have prepared your veggies and got them in your jars, filled it with your salt water and situated a lid, now you wait.
Make sure you set it on a plate of some type because most of the time it will bubble over and will make a mess. Ask me how I know this 😉
How long do you wait?
As a rule you let your ferment sit from a few days to 6 weeks. The warmer it is the faster your food will ferment, but ultimately the amount of time is entirely up to you.
Sauerkraut ready to ferment.
The taste will continue to evolve the longer it sits. Different foods have a different suggested minimum amount of time to ferment. Each recipe will give you timelines to follow. The trick to getting the taste you like is to test it periodically once you get to that minimum amount of time.
Once it gets to the flavor you like, put it in the fridge. The cold will slow the fermentation process to almost a stop and it will stay pretty much like it is. I’ve never had a ferment go bad in the fridge. So far, I’ve had sauerkraut sit in there for several months and catsup longer than that..
The fermenting process adds a tang to your food. But recently, someone told me they had tasted sauerkraut that had sit for 6 months and it was the best and mildest they’d ever tasted.
Now I can’t attest to that yet, but you can bet I’m going to try it.
Share what you know.
Leave a comment below to let us know what food you’ve fermented and how you did it. I would appreciate any inspiration you can leave.
If you haven’t yet, but you plan to try, let us know what you come up with. I can’t wait to hear!!
