Love to Cook, Love to Eat

I have loved to cook for as long as I remember.  I also love to eat.  I do NOT like to bake.  Baking and following a recipe is too scientific for me.  I like to throw things together and merge the flavors to create something new.  I will often take a recipe and change it to suit our taste.  I eat pretty much everything but can get particular when it comes to meat.  Not sure why or what it is about it that makes me this way.  It is not for ethical reasons or because I am a vegetarian, I just don’t like the flavors of many meats.  I like beef, chicken, fish, pork.  I don’t like lamb or veal (although I will occasionally buy  a ground meat mix that has veal in it for when I cook up meatballs.)

Dave doesn’t like cheese – my all time FAVORITE food!  Our kids eat terribly.  We tried getting them to eat everything when they were babies but that did not last.  I am not sure why they are this way.  My oldest son DJ said once that they prefer “beige food.”  You can probably imagine what that includes, chicken nuggets, cereal, bread, cheese (only American – the one kind I don’t like,) and french fries.  It embarrasses me to even admit but I am almost at the point of buying a deep fryer so that I can fry up vegetables and sneak them into their diet!!  My kids aren’t little either, so hearing, “they’ll grow out of it,” doesn’t work anymore.

Tonight was one of those nights that I threw together a bunch of things from the fridge and made a dinner that was so good.   I did not write down the recipe.  I never do –  although I should.  I am posting it here so that I will be sure to remember it – Dave declared it a “make again” dinner and so did I.  The kids wouldn’t even try it.  It doesn’t have a name so Dave came up with one.  I served it over pasta, but it could be served all sorts of ways.  I also did not measure any of it so add as much or little as you like:

VEGGIE SAUSAGE SLAM

• Trader Joe’s Chicken Sausage
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Yellow Onion
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Arugula
• Red pepper
• Yellow Pepper
• Orange Pepper
• White Wine
• Cream (about 1/4 cup) (add at the very end)
• Salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes to taste

I took the sausage out of the casing, cut it up and cooked it up in olive oil before adding all of the other ingredients

Cook on stove top until all vegetables are at desired tenderness.

That’s how I cook.  Amounts are questionable, time it takes is as well.  That is what makes cooking fun and interesting to me.

We have definitely had a few meals where we declare it a “don’t make again meal but the majority of what we throw together is pretty good.  Occasionally I even make one that we call, a “make for company” meal.  I would never experiment with something new on others.  We are  our own guinea pigs!  This one is definitely a share with friends meal!  Hope yours turns out just as good!

Tagged: a new recipe, beige foods, Cheesetique, cooking, cooking without measurements, cream and vegetables, favorite food, horrible eaters, i love cheese, kids won't eat, love to cook, recipes with sausage, sausage, Trader Joes Sausage, Veggie Sausage Slam, yumm meal