ITALIAN SAUSAGE & PEPPERS

Next stop Italia!

On the menu .......a little Italy. I've always said I would try making some Italian inspired fare. It's always fun and its hard to go too wrong. This is my version of S&P, enjoy.


What you need......

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 7 sweet Italian sausages cut into rounds.
  
• 1 onion, Julienne cut
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and Julienne cut
• 2 green bell peppers, seeded and Julienne cut
• 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I left this out)
  
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Ingredient notes......
*drain the tomatoes....(I didn't, but like it this way but on the other hand the extra liquid thinned out the sauce and may have necessitated the need for the Bertolli)
* 1/4 cup Bertolli sauce. It thickens up the sauce.





























Cook it up!

In a large pan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until brown. Add the onions, garlic, basil,fennel seeds, oregano, salt, and pepper and sauté until the onions are translucent. Next add the peppers and tomatoes, simmer 30 minutes. After cooking, if there is a lot of fat floating on the top skim and discard (I didn't have this issue but it really depends on the sausage you buy).






All done!

You can serve the dish with flaky/crusty Italian bread, or with pasta like I did.

I was afraid that it wouldn't taste good that way, but we all liked it. My little son Ryan is big on Italian food and after he tasted the dish he said "Mom! this is good!", My oldest, Aaron said (with a full mouth - "This is good mom!"). So according to the little experts, This dish is a success!

Tools of The Trade 2

Have you seen a super happy cook lately?? Well.....LOOK NO FURTHER!!!! I received my WP (Wolfgang Puck) cooking gear this week! It's everything I thought it would be!!

Tools tools, tools.....How I love thee. The second best thing about cooking is using some kick ass cookware to create...or attempt to create amazing tasty dishes! The worst thing is not having the right tools for the job. I saw this set of pots, knives and a blender that I just HAD to have! I fell in love with them right away and know that I can kick out some tasty eats with them in tow.

I just opened the huge box of pots so I didn't get a chance to set everything up, but I took pictures of my favorite pieces. Every time I make something with a WP piece, I'll make sure to showcase the cookware as well.

I grated some cheese!

The Cooking Gods Smile Again

After a most unfortunate accident I am fully back and ready to COOK!料理を作ろう！

So I guess it's catch up time....I don't really know where to begin...... One thing I did want to post about was my son's birthday cake.

Ryan requested a snow themed cake. I wasn't too sure what to make him so I improvised and did my best. I ended up making a white cake that had a pecan/cream filling, along with a whipped cream icing. Despite my best efforts, it is very hard to work with whipped cream....I tried putting in stabilizers after the peaks formed, but it was still a tad thin for me. It also turns out that I didn't make enough icing (or the cake layers were too big) so i just iced the sides thin, and covered them with coconut flakes. Dad made the design on the cake. I asked him to put something "Michael Jackson-ish" on it because Ryan really loves his songs now. So...here it is...it looked ok, but tasted wayyy better than it looked. Not too sweet, fluffy cake with a awesome filling everyone enjoyed. To be honest I thought thia cake was going to bomb out, and I was all ready to run to the store and buy something....but "everything turned out ok!"-cloudy with a chance of meatballs

I should have taken more & better pictures of the cake...But I was hosting the party.


This is a picture of the filling being put on (pecan &cream)