Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

One of our favorite family traditions is our Annual Iron Chef Competition at the Remix.

Since we are a family of foodies (people who love to read about, talk about, think about, make, and eat food) our very own Iron Chef Competition just makes sense.

Our rules are simple. The official judges (Nana and the grandkids) chose a secret ingredient and announce it a few weeks in advance. Any one – of any age – can enter as many entries as they wish.

The day of the event all of the entries are placed on a table, labeled and given a small plastic cup to hold the votes. Whenever we are all assembled and quiet (now that’s a major undertaking!), each chef shows their dish and describes the ingredients.

Then we all go around the table taking samples of everything. We each have a small cup of M & M’s that we use for voting by putting them in the cups of our favorite dishes.

This year’s secret ingredient was apples.

We had everything from apple muffins to apple salads. We had apple brownies, apple snacks, and apple desserts. We even had apple butter pancakes!

Some of the amazing entries were:

The simple: “Thick Skinned Apple” – an apple that was peeled, then peanut butter was used to re-apply the peel.

The Chocolate: Caramel Apple Bars

The Unique: Apple Salsa

The Artistic: A Rice Krispie sculpture of William Tell’s Son complete with apple and arrow!

It was a fun and delicious family activity!

Having married a man of Scandinavian descent with roots deep in Minnesota (the land of a thousand lakes and lutfisk), I have learned to appreciate and even enjoy certain traditional dishes.

Potato sausage is one of them!

This spicy combination of beef, pork and shredded potatoes is a filling and very economical dish.

Traditionally it is stuffed in sausage casings and boiled in hot water to serve. But if you, like me, don’t have sausage casings sitting around, just make them into patties and fry them.

We like to make a batch before Christmas and freeze the patties to enjoy all winter. Our favorite way to serve them is with waffles and hot applesauce on a cold, snowy winter night.

Swedish Potato Sausage

15 pounds potatoes, peeled
3 pounds onion, peeled
3 pounds boneless pork roast
3 pounds ground beef
1/3 cup flour
5-7 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons pepper
3 teaspoons allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 – 3/4 cup milk

In a food grinder using the course disk, alternately grind the potatoes, onions and pork.

Combine with the ground beef, mixing well.

Combine all of the dry ingredients and sprinkle over the the meat and potato mixture. Add milk and mix well.

Stuff the sausages into casings or make into patties and freeze individually. (I like to lay them out on parchment lined cookie sheets in the freezer until they are frozen solid. Then I put them in zip lock bags to store in the freezer.)

This recipe makes about 20 pounds of sausage.  It can halved or cut into thirds, or even doubled or tripled if you have that much patience and potatoes!

Ja, Ja, is goot food.  Mange tak for stopping by.

Ha en god dag. (Have a good day – in Norwegian of course!)

So have ya’ll got your ground hog trapped and skinned for the big shin-dig ta-night?

Yep, we got us a good one this year. We’re fixin’ to have a real feast ta-night. Ground hog, collard greens, fat back and biscuits.

What? Ya’ll don’t enjoy ground hog on this holi- day?

It’s a tradition here in the hills where I comes from.

All the chillen’ look forward to this here feast. It means February is finally here and winter is almost over.

Yes sirree, it’s a time to be a’celebratin’!

Go out and grab you a hunk of ground hog at the local supermarket and have yourself a feed ta-night.

Yes, your grocery store carries ground hog – they all do. It’s common enough where I come from.

Now just think a minute- what is ground hog? A hog is another name for a pig.  And what is ground pig called- you got it now!

Sausage!

Hurry on out and get some of that “ground hog” for supper ta-night. The looks on the faces of your chillen’  when you tell them they’re eating ground hog will be worth the effort!

Happy Ground Hog’s Day, everybody!