Sausage and Potato Casserole

This makes a lasagna pan's worth of food, or 2 smaller casseroles.

Ingredients
4-6 lbs of potatoes, peeled and sliced.
1 onion, diced

1/2 lb cream cheese or nuefchatel
1/2 lb of queso fresco **
1/2 lb farmer's cheese
2-4 TBS prepared mustard
4 TBS coconut oil
4-6 TBS gelatin
2 eggs
8 TBS cane sugar
Sea Salt, a lot.....2 TBS?
Cream of tartar as needed

1 lb Sausage, bite sized

1. Prep potatoes and onions and set aside
2. Combine sauce/filling ingredients until smooth.
3. Correct seasoning, should be slightly saltier/zestier than needed as the potatoes will neutralize some of the taste when it's all cooked together.
4. Combine sauce with potatoes and onions and pour into a coconut oil greased pan/s.
5. Add bite sized sausage evenly over the top.
6. Cook for about an hour at 350*-375*, cover, if needed to prevent burning.  
7. Check for softness of middle potatoes.  Adjust cooking time as needed.
8. Cool for about 20 minutes and serve.

This was a big hit the first time around.  It doesn't reheat well, as is. I used the leftovers as a soup by adding broth, some tomatoes and a little extra gelatin and salt. Traveled very well in my thermos. Fabulous!


**Queso fresco is ricotta-ish, without the additives usually found in commercial ricotta.

Hunk of Meat Monday 
Hearth and Soul Hop 
Fat Tuesday

Slow Cooked Pepsi Pig Ribs

Pepsi BBQ Sauce
1 can Pepsi throwback
1 cup gelatin
1 cup pizza, spaghetti or tomato sauce
1/4-1/2 cup Gulden's mustard
1 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS sea salt
2 TBS coconut oil


4-5 lb rack of ribs
(This was Sally's side, tons of meat and tiny bones.)

Rice or mashed potatoes for absorbing extra sauce.

1. Preheat oven to 450*F.
2. Grease broiler pan with coconut oil to make clean up easier.
3. Combine ingredients for sauce.
4. Slather ribs with BBQ sauce.
5. Place ribs fat side up on broiler pan.
6. Put in oven and immediately turn down to 170-190*F setting on oven. 
7. Cook for 9 hours or so. (This makes a great set it and forget it meal.)
8. Broil for a few minutes right before serving.

See Ya In The Gumbo
Hunk of Meat Monday

Boiled Potatoes with Ham Hock Broth

We had some fencing work to do lately.  Seems to be a never ending project on a farm.......


I knew we were going to be exhausted and SORE....well, I was anyway. I threw a .60 lb homegrown, smoked hock in the slow cooker, added potatoes, salt, gelatin, caraway and water and turned it on low for the day. 

Ingredients:
1 Hock, milk fed Ossabaw Hog
Potatoes to fill (about 10-15 medium), peeled, whole
Salt (not sure, a lot...but we still ended up adding more to our bowls)
Gelatin (about 10 TBS)
Caraway (about 5-8 individual seeds)

We came back in the evening after we got one section cleared, 5 posts, one line of wire and the concrete poured. No, we're not done yet...but the end is visible. ;)

This was PERFECT!  We were too tired to eat, but too hungry (and thirsty) not to eat. It was simple faire, but very satisfying and the only effort after a long day was adding the extra salt.