Monday, April 14, 2014

Making the best of things

The theme of the last few weeks has been "We'll make it work."

 Everything is going to hell at the office
We'll make it work

We do the math over and over and to our amazement, we're still stupid broke. 
We'll make it work


Or, the focus of today's post,
I get my menu all set for cooking group, only to find the store is out of pretty much everything I need.

We'll make it work.


Breakfast for dinner is what I promised the lovely participants of the New Columbia cooking group. Homemade breakfast sausage, leek and mushroom egg muffins, 
and a simple fruit salad with whipped cream.

Simple, easy, delicious.

Because work is so insane these days (commencement is in three weeks) I'd waited until a mere hour before cook time to pick up ingredients. Luckily, I thought to myself, this group takes place in the market of a little grocery store in North Portland. I figured I'd be all set.

ha.

A dismal selection of berries (there must have been a raid), no mushrooms, and no ground pork, actually no ground anything. Soooooo, off to our local friendly Fred Meyer.

Still no ground pork.

Okay not true, but no ground pork that didn't look questionable.... you know what I mean.

But they were having a sale on organic, pastured happy ground turkey.
#MakinItWork

I picked up the rest of my ingredients and raced back to the kitchen for class.

This kitchen is a pseudo industrial kitchen, the supplies are ever changing, and most things are GIANT size. So cooking a meal for five people is a comical adventure through big-land.

However, tonight's dilemma was kind of the opposite. I could not for the life of me find normal size muffin tins, just itty-itty bitty mini muffin tins.  So....we'll make... mini egg muffins! 

And apparently all the frying pans had taken a walk, so we cooked our sausage in giant stock pots.

Though we lacked proper cookware, the food turned out delicious. The mini egg muffins were perfectly bite size. We threw the leftovers in the fridge and they made an excellent snack or on-the-go breakfast in the morning.  Things always work out right?
Right.
Though making sausage in a soup pan sucks, use a frying pan. Get it together.


Homemade Breakfast Sausage (paleo, primal, 21DSD)

Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground turkey or pork
  • 1 apple, granny smith or gala, diced into 1/4inch pieces
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp sage
  • 1tsp fennel seed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • oil or butter for pan
Directions

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Work together, with your hands, to evenly distribute spices. Using your hands is really the easiest way. Form meat into small 2-3 inch patties that are no more than 1/2 inch thick.
Melt coconut oil or butter in a large fry pan over medium heat. Add patties to pan and cook for 3-4 minutes per side, or until done through. Finish with additional salt and pepper, if you like.


Leek and Mushroom Egg Muffins (vegetarian, paleo, primal, 21dsd)
Makes 12-16 large egg muffins or 24-36 mini muffins
Ingredients
  • 8 eggs
  • 2 small leeks, ends trimmed, diced (include the greens!)
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup mushrooms (we used shitakes) diced
  • 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
Preheat oven to 350F
Dice up all your veggies. You want them fairly small because they will distribute more evenly throughout the eggs.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the bejesus out of those eggs. You want them fluffy and happy. Happy eggs taste better. Fold in your leeks, garlic, mushrooms, cheese (if using), and spices.
Mix thoroughly to distribute.
Grease your muffin tin. Ladle egg batter into tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Place in preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the muffins pass the toothpick test.

Refrigerate any leftovers for up to a week!