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Joining in with Soulemama on this glorious late summer afternoon: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – some words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.
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Not so many years ago, I was a picky eater of the worst kind. I had an enormous list of things I didn't like and I was a master of picking off and eating around things I didn't like. Which.....was very nearly everything! If there was even the smallest chunk of tomato in the pasta sauce I'd flick it rudely away. That sauce needed to be a pefect puree for this picky person!
And these things:
These things used to terrify me. But gradually (okay, it really was wanting to not seem like a immature child in front of my now-husband), I overcame my bad habits and began to like very nearly everything. Peppers, tomatoes, and onions didn't have the power to send me fleeing....so long as they were cooked!
It wasn't until a few months after the great tastebud reset of 2011 (Vegetarian Challenge) that changed my palate entirely, that I noticed something. I was snacking on slices of crisp peppers as I chopped them up for another dish. And then another time, as I sliced a tomato I had to sprinkle salt on it and eat it up right then and there which was something I had never ever done before. Incidentally, this is when I noticed that wine finally didn't taste like sour grape juice. There were nuances! Nuances! And I could taste them and they were delicious!
Ahem! I digress. Back to tomatoes, onions, and peppers.
And hot sausage. Oh, yes.
Hot sausages bursting with juices surrounded by tender vegetables are just waiting to be in tucked into torpedo rolls and gobbled up. You have no idea how difficult it was to fend off my family while I took the pictures when really I wanted to stab my fork into the skillet and grab the plumpest sausage before anyone else could.
Hot Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches are a local favorite in this part of Pennsylvania. Block parties, church events, community days, and firemen's fairs all serve this sandwich and I do my best to follow my nose to the tent serving these sandwiches and get in the long line to wait my turn. And it's always been worth the wait.
It took missing my town's community day last year* to realize that there was no reason I couldn't make this sandwich myself. This is the perfect time of year to make them too because everyone has piles and piles of tomatoes and peppers tumbling out of their gardens. Pick your own, beg, borrow, or steal from a neighbor (and if you filch from the neighbor you better bring him or her over a sandwich! Trust me, they'll forgive you.) and make Hot Sausage & Pepper Sandwiches for dinner.
I make homemade torpedo rolls but you can find them at the grocery store as well where they are more often called 'sausage rolls' which are thick, crusty elongated rolls conveniently the length of a sausage. It's important to get the right type of rolls because this sandwich is so juicy that regular rolls can't hold up long enough to eat it.
Oh, and by the way? Sliced watermelon is a perfect companion; it's cooling and sweet which is especially good if you have little ones joining you for dinner.
Hot Sausage & Pepper Sandwiches
by Michelle
5-6 Italian hot sausages
2 peppers, red, yellow, green--any combination--sliced into strips
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, cut into rings
1 tsp dried oregano (increase amount if using fresh)
1 tsp dried basil (increase amount if using fresh
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
5-6 torpedo rolls
1. In a deep skillet, brown sausages on both sides and remove from pan. Drizzle a little olive oil and saute onions and peppers until softened. Stir in tomatoes, oregano, and basil. If you aren't using tomatoes grown in your garden or your neighbors, you might wish to add a teaspoon of sugar to cut the bite of a conventiona store bought tomato. Return sausages to the pan and nestle them into the vegetables.
2. Cover and simmer 40-45 minutes, stirring periodically to make sure the vegetables aren't sticking to the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper if desired.
3. Split torpedo rolls, tuck in a sausage and pile on the vegetables and enjoy!
*When I was a picky eater, I still ate this sandwich only sans peppers, tomatoes, and onions and I never looked at the sausage once I bit it because there were strange unidentifiable spices inside those things! I am so happy to be past that silly nonsense.
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Ever need an excuse to eat candy? Ever need a reason to not eat candy....so fast? Yeah, me too.
This soft peanut butter cookie is stuffed so full of chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures that it nearly falls apart which is exactly the way it should be! You sugar nay-sayers out there thinking to reduce the amount of candy in this cookie....just don't. Eat five four two of them instead of six or seven. This cookie is perfect just like it is. You wouldn't want someone trying to change you, would you?
You'll need the entire 12 ounce bag. Try not to eat too many of them when you are unwrapping them.
Feel free to to eat a hearty spoonful of dough (at your own risk! Raw egg you know) because this recipe makes about four dozen cookies and no one will ever notice. Promise.
My mother used to make this cookie for Christmas and fancied it up by drizzling chocolate on top of the cookies. She didn't remember where she got this cookie recipe but when she gave it to me I changed a few things in the recipe and promptly decided that now that the recipe was in my posession there wasn't any reason for this cookie to be only a holiday cookie. I do save the chocolate drizzle for holidays or other special occasions but nowadays I make Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies several times a year and leave the tops plain.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
adapted from Vanilla Icing's Mother's recipe
12 ounce bag of Reese's peanut butter cup minatures, roughly chopped into quarters
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter*
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Additional chocolate for drizzling, if desired
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and the peanut butter. Mix in the brown sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture and then stir in the chopped peanut butter cups. Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 60 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375. On an ungreased or baking parchement (silicone baking mats work too) covered cookie sheet, drop cookie dough in rounded one tablespoon mounds. Flatten slightly into disks. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.
4. Leave on the cookie sheets for at least five minutes or else the cookie will fall apart!
5. If desired, when the cookies are cool, drizzle melted chocolate across the tops. Let the chocolate set if it was used, and then store in a cookie jar. This cookie will keep for several days in a covered cookie jar. Makes about 4 dozen.
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Summer is a season of abundance. Fresh fruit and vegetables are everywhere and people are tripping over them -- quite literally in the case of those with gardens!
Deep dark greens drizzled lightly with a favorite dressing, sweet buttery corn, grilled zucchini, plump tomatoes bursting with juices.....the list can go on and on. But sometimes...oh, sometimes!
A bad thing can happen.
Summer is also the season of grilled cheeseburgers, rainbow sprinkled ice cream, amusement park funnel cakes, S'mores milkshakes at Burgatory, and crisp steak fries everywhere one goes. And then, let's not forget the countless picnics, parties, and get togethers that friends have! Chips, chips, and more chips and occasionally some brownies thrown in for a bit of variety. My friends, unfortunately, do not share the same food values that I have. I prefer a whole foods diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible. Very few come into my home and I try to limit consumption of such things to when I am not at home. But the month of August has been very difficult for me; I've eaten more bad things in this month alone than I have for the prior three!
Let's not even get started on the amount of diet Pepsi I was consuming.
At first I didn't notice anything but then I started to notice that I constantly felt a hunger I couldn't satisfy and I just kept putting more and more bad things inside of me. I felt heavy and lethargic. My stomach often wasn't very happy by the end of the day and I constantly felt bloated. And greasy. And frankly? Just plain gross! I knew it was what I had been eating--junk--and what I hadn't been eating--whole foods--and I had to do something about it.
I had to reset.
The very next morning, I turned on my new Punch Brothers Cd while I kneaded some dough for Italian bread and thought about what vegetables I had on hand and what I could do with them. It was an unseasonably cool day and I decided I would make a nourishing summer minestrone full of vegetables--tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, peas, carrots, celery, and onions. The aroma filled the house as the soup simmered.The first bite was delicious. And so was the next and the next and the next and I scraped that bowl clean!
It was just what I needed. A reset. Since then, I've been able to return to my preferred diet and I am feeling good in my body again. Gone is the heavy, bloated feeling. Gone is the greasy, gross feeling. I feel light and energetic and more importantly.....
Satisfied.
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Sharing a sewing machine leaves plenty of time for good conversation and knitting.
Off and on for many years I've attempted to sew with limited success. Oh, there's been a couple of quilts like this hastily thrown together quilt, this little black and white lap quilt, and my favorite: Farewell Summer Quilt but sewing has always been a stressful time for me. I would wrestle and struggle and fight with my old chintzy sewing machine until the frustration would build and I would swear never to sew again because despite my best attempts I just couldn't get any better at sewing. (I did have reasonable success with this cute tote bag from one of Soule Mama's books so it hasn't always been a complete failure!)
A small voice would sometimes whisper in the back of my mind that perhaps, just perhaps, it wasn't me and it was the sewing machine.
Again and again, I would shush that small voice. The machine worked; it had to be me. I would give up on sewing after loud frequent declarations to never try again.....and then try again a few months later. It was an endless cycle that seemed destined to never end.
But end it has!!!
This past Christmas, Maia asked for and received a sewing machine all of her own because she was just as frustrated with mine. I finally got around to trying it a week ago when my friend Cristy and I decided to attempt to sew dresses to wear the Renaissance Festival this year. And guess what? It's not me! All of this time and it WAS the sewing machine! I can sew! (At least much better than I previously thought!) I'm so excited at this newfound knowledge.
And I can't wait to share the completed dress on the blog!
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Joining SouleMama...{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
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On a steamy August evening, there's a momentary lull and my family gathers together to share homemade Pizza Margherita on the back deck before Rick and I scramble to play chaperone; it's cheerleading practice AND a band uniform fitting tonight.
And then...
I think we'll gather together again at dusk for homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes
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