Oops, I did it again...

SausageFest 2014 happened last weekend. 

It was glorious, we should have made shirts to commemorate the occasion... I guess spiced meats will have to do!

A friend of ours has the same sausage grinder that I do, and after careful deliberation over a bottle of wine one night, we decided that we should combine our respective talents into one massive day of meats. Again, glorious.

The day began at The Meat Shop in Phoenix where we picked up some choice cuts (for grinding, so not the speedy stuff) to play with. I also raided my chest freezer for some goodies. We had: beef chuck, pork (loin tip and blade roast), lamb, veal, and chicken thighs.

We went to the downtown phoenix market for some herbs and lemons and then headed home for the fun.

We set one grinder for coarse and the other for fine and we went to town grinding ALL THE MEATS!! 

Truth be told, it was pretty ridiculous.

Trevor, me, and Chris has the most efficient system going. We were all in the zone. 

We even cased a bunch of sausages for a new twist on my old game.

Of course, we tested each recipe before we committed it to the case.

All said, we made: 

Spicy Italian chicken sausage

Fennel and apple chicken sausage

Koobideh (lamb)

Gyro (lamb)

Spicy Italian pork sausage

Wheatless Veal meatballs with flax and pine nuts

Chorizo

 I'll post a recipe or two from this adventure in madness soon.

Chicken skillet pie

Comfort foods are just that: comfortable. They should be all kinds of work and stress. Saturday, I made an amazing chicken pot pie in my cast iron skillet. Then I did it again on Sunday, it was that good!

How'd I do it? Easy!

I diced 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 4 garlic cloves, and half of a giant yellow onion

I sautéed that'll that in a 12 inch cast iron skillet, then I added some sage, thyme, salt, frozen mixed veggies (whatever I had in the freezer, and 8oz chopped, cooked chicken. I also added a spoonful of chicken bullion and about 1/2 cup of water.

I let it cook until it dried out a bit, then placed crescent rolls (not rolled up) on top. You could just as easily use puff pastry or actual pie crust, but this was what I had around...

Then I put the whole skillet under the broiler for about 10-12 min (until the rolls were puffy and browned. 

Then, I ate! Let me know what you try!