Sausage!

Wow!  It has been a busy summer as you can tell by our lack of posts since April!

We'll get back to updating this regularly once we catch up on our projects... but really quick:  We had a subscriber write and ask for suggestions for how to use the paprika sausage.  Another subscriber suggested that we post the answer so everyone can benefit... so here goes:

We've used it as taco filling, grilled in patties like hamburgers served in a bun or on top of garlic mashed potatoes, as an egg scramble or burrito for breakfast and as a meat for a tomato based spaghetti sauce.

We also had another subscriber use the sausage to make stuffed poblano peppers and posted his recipe here:  http://bit.ly/hckitchen

A basic spaghetti sauce in our house is:

1) Brown the sausage in a stockpot or a large sauce pan
2) Add
  - a couple large cans of Muir Glenn roasted basil tomatoes
  - consider adding a can of tomato paste if you like thicker and more tomatoey sauce
  - add a bunch of fresh chopped basil (dried is OK if you don't have any fresh)
  - add any other 'italian' herbs that you'd like -- dried or fresh oregano, a small amount of thyme, parsley, etc.  Some stores sell good dried 'italian herb mix' that has a bunch of those herbs.  I would think oregano would be the first one to add. 
  - a bulb of chopped fresh garlic or garlic powder
  - salt to taste
  - pepper to taste

3) Simmer everything on low heat for about an hour, at least 30 min.  If it it is too thin, add more tomato paste or simmer longer.  If too thick, you can add some water to cut it.
4) Consider adding a cup or two of cedar summit cream towards the end if you'd like a cream sauce (I think this is super good -- they have the best cream in the region)  You'd want the sauce somewhat on the thick side before adding any cream or else cook it down a bit to the desired consistency. 

5) Cook up some noodles, ones with some sort of shape to them might work well to pick up the sauce, but plain spaghetti would work well.  I prefer noodles that aren't fully cooked so they have a little bit of a bite to them.  If you're gluten free, we have found the ones with the bunny on the front of the label that says 'not mushy' are actually possible to cook not mushy.  The others are hard to get to have any texture after cooking.

6) Top noodles with the sauce, more fresh chopped basil and grate some fresh grated hard cheese.  The best tool we've found for grating fresh cheese is a microplane. 

This sauce will freeze really well -- so we like to make up a large of batch and freeze half.  That way we have really good tasting sauce for a busy night's dinner ready to go.