It's Wednesday! Do you know what that means?
Great island Common on the seacoast in New Castle, NH. Isn't it gorgeous there? The day I took this was just like today's weather--sunny and in the 70's. I'd love to be under that tree right now with a good book. I've got a couple of recipes to share today. One is for a most delicious salad, created by Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants. You should check out his blog--he has great food to drool over. Jerry came up with this recipe for the Royal Foodie Joust sponsored by Jenn, The Leftover Queen, at the Foodie Blogroll. Please check her blog out, too, and if you haven't joined the blogroll yet, have a look around!
Neither do I. I was hoping some of you might. At least it's cooler today! We're currently at 74°, which is fine by me. We'll still be getting some warmer than usual weather later in the week, but for now, I'm totally enjoying this. It was so hot last night that I didn't even cook anything. We had roasted red pepper hummus and summer salad with whole wheat pitas and feta. So good, and no heating up the kitchen!
Since I won the previous joust, I got to pick the three required ingredients for this one, and those were...surprise! raspberry, lime and almonds. The jousters came up with such great recipes to feed my addiction, hehe. (It's almost like I had minions catering to my raspberry and lime whims!) I had to try the salad, not only because it looked delicious and had my favorite things in it, but because it's got my name on it! I think if something's named after you, it's a given--you've got to make it. It's so good! And will be a regular around here this summer. The dressing is tangy and not too sweet, the chicken is tender and nicely flavored, and all the extras in it come together to make one great meal. I couldn't find any sliced almonds at the store, so I used pecans--also delicious. The vinaigrette is like any dressing, to taste--I ended up adding a bit more raspberry jam (Trader Joe's low sugar jam) and lime juice. Actually, I just about doubled it so we'd be sure to have enough. I also added some fresh raspberries to the salad.
This one's definitely going to be on the menu again soon, and I hope you'll all check it out!
Almost forgot to link to the salad! D'oh! La Salade d'Elle (Chicken Salad with Almonds, Queso Fresco, and Raspberry Lime Vinaigrette.)
Next recipe! I must warn you, these pictures you're about to see aren't pretty. But! It won't matter because the food is so freaking good! It's typical baseball park, tailgating, or street food. So funny, because it's such a simple thing to make, but for me, it's such a treat. I'm like a little kid when we have these. So is my husband! He's happy when we have this. It's easy to feed a crowd with these, too, or cut back and make a smaller batch if you like. You can do these in the house, as I've done here, or on the grill, with a pan so you don't lose stuff to the coals. Either way, it's goooood eating!
Sausage, Peppers and Onions
For this batch, I used Sweet Italian Sausage, ten of them. They were on sale, what can I say? Normally I don't make ten at a time, but they're still so, so good the next day. I used three red bell peppers--use whatever color peppers you want, and two longish light green peppers. No idea what they were, but they were sweet, not spicy. I also used two large sweet onions, and about seven or eight cloves of garlic.
10 Sweet (or hot, if you like) Italian Sausage; you could also use chicken or turkey sausages
5 sweet bell peppers, any color, sliced into long strips
2 large sweet onions, sliced
7 cloves garlic, minced
vinegar (I usually use white wine vinegar, but use whatever kind you have)
fresh cracked black pepper and salt if you taste and think it needs some
sandwich rolls
yellow mustard (you can use spicy mustard if you want, but the best way to enjoy these is with good old yellow mustard)
In a large pan on medium heat, brown the sausages, about 3 minutes on each side, for a total of about 12 minutes.
Remove from pan and set aside to cool a bit, drain most of the oil from the pan.
Add the peppers, onions, and garlic, and saute until they get soft, but don't brown them too much. Stir them around occasionally for even cooking. You can add a little olive oil if you need to.
Before!
After!
See? I told you these weren't pretty.Open up the sausages and place them over their bed of peppery-oniony-vinegary goodness.
Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium low for about 10 minutes.
Serve in buns with yellow mustard, and lots of napkins. Street food is messy food.
Servings depend on the size of the sausages. Yes, size matters. We had stubby ones and needed two per bun. God, I can't believe I just typed that, hehe!
Elle | Print Article | Share Article | Email Article | 23 Comments tagged chicken, cooking, main dish, new england, onions, peppers, raspberry, recipe, salad, sandwiches, sausage
Reader Comments (23)
I'd love to sit under that tree and study your recipe!!! I <3 good ugly food!!! :)
Oh my heavens thank goodness it cooled off! I have a renewed spirit today and don't feel like I'm about to keel over from all this heat and no AC.
Is it wrong I wanna roll around in those sausage and peppers? Probably so and I shouldn't have typed that, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Scrumptious looking ugly food!
Cake--Sounds good to me. That tree is a prime spot for reading.
April--you poor thing! You need some AC! And lmao over your comment. You know what? If you did, you'd probably attract every guy within a one mile radius. They'd be inexplicably drawn to you, but have no idea why. hahaha!!
Ooh, once I'm done being a vegetarian, I'm making those sausages for sure. Delish!
Elle, that sausage looks delicious to me. I guess if you love something it's going to look good-- just like the way parents see their newborns as beautiful. I am in sunshine envy. Our weather in Washington is rainy and 50 degrees and Laura mainly owns summer clothes. We're being tortured by your photos of sunshine. :)
Renae--I've got a couple of friends in Seattle and I know that sunshine is a hard thing to come by in your area. Hoping you get some soon!
That salad has gotten me up and off to the store...it's beautiful and perfect.
I love sausage and peppers so much! These look great. Very hearty! I pretty much always use turkey sausage though -- trying to be slightly good once in a while ;)
Haha!! So funny - I don't know what it means now that it's Wednesday, either ;0)
Looks like you're enjoying the hotter weather with great food!
Elle! These look delicious! My Grumpy would love them!
Those sausage and pepper sandwiches look perfect! Now I've got a craving, this has got to go on next week's dinner list! :)
Looks good! The peppers and onions kinda balance out the meal. Nice!!!
Glad to hear that at least for now the weather's cooler. And sounds like you are eating really well. The salad and sausage dish both sound so good! :)
What a gorgeous picture, Elle! And lmfao I know what Wednesday meant...paying the tuition for my 4 monkeys. *faints* If only I could drown my financial sorrows in that salad and those pepper and onion dawgs!
Hey, those sausages look great! :) That salad looks gorgeous, it will be interesting to see what everyone comes up with for the Raspberry Lime and Almond challenge...
Um...I don't know what you're talking about - the picture of the sausages look GREAT!!! I love sausages!
Why does it not surprise me in the least that you added extra raspberry and lime to your salad?
Sometimes the ugliest food is also the most satisfying...looks don't always matter, even in the culinary world.
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Those long, light green peppers you spoke of? Those sound like cubanelles.
I love cooking sausages that way.
love the new look of the blog!
Hey Elle - saw your submission into tastespotting for this, and would love for your submissions to hit the front page...would you mind cropping your photos to 250 px square to make sure that they crop properly (sometimes the cropping tool on the site picks the darkest, blurriest parts of the picture), and also remove the watermark? let meknow if you have questions!
love,
tastespotting
Loved the sausage sandwich recipe! The white wine vinegar in the onions is the perfect touch. I'm so glad I found you blog!
Teresa, thank you so much! I'm thrilled that you enjoyed them! I'm glad you found me, too. :)