Honeyed Sausage Appetizer

Recently I was looking at various images of food online when I came across an interesting looking dish on a Brazilian site, Lingüiça no Mel. It's sliced sausage, cooked in champagne or apple cider and red pepper flakes, then finished with honey.

I needed a last minute appetizer and happened to have my favourite smoked sausage on hand. It's a nitrate free, pecan smoked beef sausage from Whole Foods. All I had was red wine and it was perfect with this sausage.

This simple dish was a huge hit.

Ham and Potato Croquettes

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(4-5 servings)

Whenever I have ham in the house I think of these croquettes. They aren't exactly light fare, so I'm often conflicted about making them, particularly because the times I do have ham, it tends to be around holidays when I've already eaten more than I should.

Thanksgiving this year was no different. I did try to be conscious about what landed on my plate. I only sampled slivers from 3 desserts instead of all 7 or 8 that graced the table after the football game! It's so difficult not to overeat, especially when there's so many things to chose from. I spent the holidays this year with a good friend who was here from NYC, and her extended family. We had turkey and ham and a large assortment of vegetables and casseroles. The corn was to die for (I will ask her mum for that recipe)!

These croquettes are a good way to use up leftover ham, but as I mentioned earlier, it's not the lightest dish I can think of. I did come across a recipe posted online by Emeril Laggasse who bakes his, (looking for ways to lighten these up), but in the end I took the plunge and fried them. I had no intention of adding cheese, but when I fried a small piece to check and adjust the seasoning, it seemed to be lacking something. The addition of cheese was was just what these needed.

Turkish Yogurt Soup

(3-4 servings)

This is a very satisfying soup when the cold weather settles in. It's one of the few things I will prepare if I'm not feeling well. The lemon juice is optional although I love lemon in most things and it seems right here.

Occasionally as a variation, I'll add a bit of leftover chopped spinach to this soup.

Daring Cooks Challenge, November 2011; Beef Braised in Rooibos Tea

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

We were given three recipes for this challenge; green tea soup, beef stew or Chinese tea eggs. I made the beef stew, primarily because my stews are usually quite similar to each other and I wanted to try something completely different for a change.

The honey was optional and I thought 3/4 cup was too great an amount, so I added 1 tablespoon instead. This amount seemed just right for me. It provided a nice contrast to the spiced and slightly sour stock.

This recipe introduced me to Rooibos tea which I had never tried before. Since making this stew a couple of weeks ago, I have enjoyed a hot cup of this tea with a slice of lemon nearly every evening.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

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(2 servings)

Acorn squash always makes me think about fall even though it's available during the summer as well. It's been a long time since I prepared it, I'm not even sure I had any last year. There was a time I brought some home nearly every week. I used to enjoy it baked with maple syrup and butter.

I still prefer it baked, but it's become a meal. This is how I have been preparing it lately, although occasionally half a sour apple will find it's way into the mixture or a bit of chopped celery for the crunch.. it just depends on what I happen to have on hand.