Poultry Seasoning

  Poultry seasoning must be worth about the same amount per pound as gold or at least my local grocery store thinks so. I must have spent $20 last year on this blend alone. After that I made up my mind I was going to grow as many of the components as I could in my garden and find the rest of the ingredients cheap at a bulk spice retailer. I was able to easily grow the sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary. The volume I made today would have cost me over $20 in bulk already mixed and about $40 in those tiny cylindrical containers at the grocery store. I calculate it cost me only $1 using the stuff I grew and the other bulk components I bought. Ka-ching! Now if I could only find a way to get those bagged bread cubes for something less than the going rate for silver I would be in business. :-)

Poultry Seasoning

1 tbsp dried sage

1 tbsp dried rosemary

1 tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp dried marjoram

1/2 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp dried parsley

3/4 tsp ground pepper

  Put it all in a coffee grinder and mix it for 5-10 seconds. Done! This makes about the same amount as one of those small cylindrical containers you buy at the grocery store for $5.

TTFN

B

Fresh Pork Breakfast Sausage

We love sausage. This endeavor was initiated due to my girlfriend's allergy to MSG. I wanted her to taste sausage again because she likes it so much and can never have it. I did my own little empirical experiment and read every sausage ingredient list in every food store I went to for about 2 months and every single sausage package had MSG or the lesser known name for MSG of natural salt listed. I did recently find Johnsonville Brats without MSG and we eat a lot of those, but they aren't breakfast sausage. So, where to start? I started with Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network and made it my own. Here is what I came up with:

Pork Breakfast Sausage
2 lbs fresh, cheap pork (bones not included)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
4 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder

  I am sure there are sausage connoisseurs out there that will tell you to use only certain cuts of meat. In fact Alton Brown recommends using pork butt, but I tend toward what is available and economical. In this version we used a Pork Loin Sirloin End Roast (whatever that is). I recently saw a pork shoulder for $1.69 a pound and mammasan thought that might make good sausage, so we'll probably try that at some point. The bottom line is, use the pork you want to use! You want 2 lbs of meat after de-boning. If you do have a bone, make sure you save it for a soup or Gramma and Grampa's sauce. Just throw it in freezer bag and freeze it until you need it.

  Cube the meat and place in a large bowl. Mix all the other ingredients together and sprinkle over the meat cubes. Mix well. Chill for 1 hour. Grind according to you meat grinder's instructions. We don't have a grinder, so we used our food processor. If you use a food processor, don't fill the container more than 1/3 full at a time. I ground all the meat up and put it back in the mixing bowl and gave everything a good stir when it was done.

  We froze our extra sausage. Whenever I freeze meat I try to make sure it is flat so I can stack it and thaw it easier. We just put about 1/2 lb in a freezer bag and got as much air as possible out before sealing it. Then I press it flat and stack it in the freezer. A quick defrost cycle in the microwave first thing in the morning or an over night thaw in the fridge should have it ready for breakfast. Here is the finished product:

TTFN

B