Candygram for Mongo

 It is Christmas at my house...looks like I have been a very good girl.

Cold and Snowy Night

Today I had an MRI done, so I was home this afternoon and had time to try my hand at making my own sweet Italian sausage. I attempted to add a little heat but it turned out to be more sweet than hot sausage (which is good since I have a 7 year old pallet to deal with as well.)

I used this spice:

And added garlic, red wine vinegar, and some actual red wine. I mixed and let it sit in the "walk-in" for about 2 hours.

I sweated onions and shallots, then browned my sausage.

 Once I had some nice fond in my pan, I deglazed it using our very own Italian Merlot blend.

Here is the wine...it is still pretty young but I think the strawberry component to this wine brought out the sweetness of the paprika in my seasoning.

 Deglazing.

Once the wine cooked off (no more cooking wine smell), I added a box of my favorite chopped tomatoes. Now, I this recipe actually only calls for about half the box. But since I did not have bell peppers in my pantry or fridge, I had to improvise.

I simmered and kept stirring to avoid having it burn on the bottom.

I served with al dente pasta, parsley, and parm cheese. It was quite yummy and went well with the wine!

Mise en Place

On Sunday, we returned from a weekend in Keystone to a very messy house. A cluttered kitchen, Christmas decorations still not put away (yes, I am one of those people...), and a kitchen in disarray.  I have no room to cook, no place to sort, no place to chop, no place to do what you do in the room with all the appliances. So, I set about to clean, organize, and streamline my kitchen. It is a work in progress.

Here are the before pics: 

And here are the after pics:

It is not quite finished but it is a sight better than before. After one week, I have kept it like this!