Preheat the oven to 450° F. Form Ground Sausage into small patties. Sauté the sausage in a cast-iron skillet or non-stick pan for 4 minutes a side on Medium-High heat.
Drain oil from sausage and allow to cool. Blend sausage in a food processor (using the pulse function 8-10 times should be enough).
Flatten cooked sausage evenly on a non-greased baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 Minutes (Sausage should turn a darker-brown).
Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Place dip in a small ceramic baking dish or metal pan and bake at 450° F for 15-17 minutes.
Top with grated Fresh Parmesan and Fresh Parsley.Serve with toasted Pita Bread or toasted French Bread.
With permission from the owner of Basil’s Restaurant, Jeremy Spengeman, I’m posting some of Basil’s most popular recipes.
These recipes have been scaled down for the home chef.
The first recipe, Basil’s Sausage Dip, is an old favorite. In 2005, the kitchen prepared the dip with a mixture of red and yellow tomatoes.
You’re welcome to do the same. You can also add more Diced Jalapenos if you like it Caliente. Hope you enjoy it!
Dear Santa, I want a Salad Shooter. When I was a kid in 1989, you broke my heart. I wrote to you and begged for the white beauty.
With the body of an electric cheese-grater and the soul of a wood chipper, the pearl princess was what I desired.
I won’t need a knife to cut vegetables or a grater for my cheese. I’ll shove small quantities of the food I love into one orifice. I dislike saving time by using a knife to cut cucumbers and carrots.
I’ll cram half of a cucumber and a carrot into my Salad Shooter. Then, I’ll watch as the veggies slowly cascade off of that sleek, cheap, beautiful, plastic spout.
Why did a kitchen appliance company name their gem the SaladShooter? Is it a weapon used to dissuade Americans from eating tasty greens? Is it an assassin who took out a distinguished head of romaine lettuce?
No, it is a modified cheese grater that needed a catchy name
and a memorable theme song. I recommend viewing the commercial from 1989.
It looks like a Saturday Night Live sketch for a ridiculous
product that doesn’t exist, but it does. The electric topping chucker still
exists today.
Shoot some slices—Salad Shooter.
Shoot some shreds—Salad Shooter.
Shoot some salad, shoot it best,
Shootit pretty—Salad Shooter. Lyrics by Bob Dylan.
Some kitchen appliances are useful and worth purchasing. Others will hide in the darkness of your kitchen cabinet next to your rice cooker. Every kitchen has mini storage.
It could be a cabinet or small closet that you only use to
store comical appliances. An egg cooker, a Yoda waffle iron, an electric pasta
maker, a juicer, and an electric carving knife can be crammed into a tight
space.
It’s a zone in your kitchen that defies the laws of Physics.
It’s your kitchen’s clown car that spews Cuisinarts
when you reach for something useful.
I have one. Why don’t I sell all of the plastic rubbish in
my dark zone? It’s probably for the same reason you haven’t sold any of your
dusty goods.
Someone you love or care about gave you one of those useless
appliances. If they happen to stop by and notice that their gift isn’t located
somewhere in your kitchen, you’re in trouble.
During the holiday season, if your cabinet is at full capacity like mine, tell everyone that you’re running low on socks.
Socks are the answer. If Uncle Ricky, who planned to send you a pineapple massager, hears that you need socks, you’ll get ugly socks.
Socks are cheap, easy to find, and strangely appreciated by
elder relatives.
Beware of kitchen appliances that perform one specific task. A chef’s knife, a cutting board, and a simple cheese grater can often perform the same tasks.
These tools are simple to clean and easier to store than a small appliance with five attachments.
It’s fine if you enjoy purchasing comical appliances. If you have a kitchen that has 1500 square feet, go nuts.
You can own a walnut chopper, filbert shredder, peanut grinder, and a pecan pounder. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Chicken and Roasted Pepper Stew and Rosemary Focaccia, Perfect for Cold Winter Nights
I’ve included three delicious recipes tonight: Rosemary Focaccia Bread, Chickenand Roasted Pepper Stew, and Low Country Cookies. Rosemary Focaccia Bread is a variation of the famous Italian bread. There are several recipes for Focaccia online, but this one is simple and tasty. When you use Fresh Rosemary, it makes a huge difference.
It doesn’t take very long
to make. You can finish it in a little over two hours. For yeast bread, that’s
pretty fast. The recipe instructions
seem long, but I’ve learned that it’s important to be more descriptive with
bread recipes.
It’s frustrating when you
carefully follow instructions from a bread recipe, and it turns out looking
like baked dung. I don’t know what that looks
like, but there are reasons why recipes don’t always turn out the way they
should.
Ye Ol’ Crockpot from the 1970s, Built to Last
Measuring Techniques
One reason is that we
generally rely on volume measurement rather than weight measurement for
recipes. There are countless variations
and sizes of measuring cups. Yes, a cup should equal 8oz(6oz for coffee pots),
but measuring cups can come in 1 cup, 4 cups, 8 cups. . .etc.
When you dump 2 cups of
flour in an 8-cup measuring cup, you use your eyes to judge whether the flour
is perfectly level with the 2 cup line. Someone else, using the same recipe,
may decide to use a ½ cup to scoop out the flour.
They may not sift the flour
like the 8-cup cook, and they may not level off the flour the same way. Some
people shake the cup slightly, and some use their hand to scrape the flour
level.
This difference in
measuring tools and techniques plays a role, often only a minor one, in how
results can differ in recipes. Another reason is that some people tend to
shorten or skip an important process described in the recipe.
The Importance of the Process
For instance, some of the more complicated bread recipes require you to knead and fold the dough every 30 minutes. If you wait an hour each time to knead and fold the bread, the results will differ from the author’s.
With bread recipes,following the process closely is often more important than precisely following the ingredient measurement.
This also applies to recipes in general. The process is more important to follow in more complicated and time-consuming recipes. If you don’t marinate the pork loin for the same 12 hours that Frankie Barbecue marinated his, it may not turn out the same.
The fault of recipe confusion cannot always fall on the consumer. The author of the recipe can often forget to include an important part of the process. Even a famous chef and author can forget to write something down.
Maybe, after draining ten bottles of wine, a celebrated chef may forget to mention pounding the filets before breading them.
The differences in
measuring techniques and recipe processes may make cooking seem more daunting.
Challenges and possible disappointment may not appeal to everyone. The thought
of an important dinner party being ruined by an imperfect recipe scares the
hell of many amateur cooks.
One important tip, when
attempting a new recipe, is to taste it and modify it before serving it to
other people. If you want to change an ingredient to suit your needs, do it. I
usually change something from the recipes I’ve read, and I make a note of the
changes.
When a recipe attempt
leads to disaster, don’t worry. If it didn’t work, try something else. You can
spend time backtracking to find out what went wrong, but that’s crazy.
No one needs to waste time
investigating what happened, just move on. You can rip that recipe out of the
cookbook and set fire to it. Then you can turn on your exhaust fan, grab the
fire extinguisher, and move on to the next recipe.
I spend a lot of time in
the kitchen. Creating recipes and cooking is a profession and a hobby. When I’m finished in the kitchen, I like to
dissolve into the couch to watch a good movie.
My film reviews will not
include the SPOILER ALERT heading
above a potential spoiler. I hate that. I try not to include spoilers in my
reviews, but if I do I will use the simple heading, Further Reading May Ruin the Movie for You, Don’t Read No Mo!
Today’s Film Review: Suspiria ꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳
The Original 1977 Classic, I also recommend the remake
Dario Argento’s Suspiria premiered in 1977 and changed the nature of horror films forever. Suspiria is visually stunning, extremely violent, suspenseful, and hard to get out of your head once you’ve seen it.
It is a great film and one
of the creepiest ever made. The first fourteen minutes are an endurance test
for the viewer. If you can tolerate the tension and horror established in the
opening, you may be able to make it to the end.
The story involves a young American woman, played by Jessica Harper, who travels to Germany to join a famous dance academy. If you dislike films that focus on ballet dancing, that’s OK. Dance plays only a small role in this film.
Two of the dancers notice
strange things occurring at the academy and wonder if witchcraft is involved.
The actors deliver strong performances, but they are outshined by Argento’s
nightmare world.
The atmosphere of Suspiria relies on the director’s
experiments with color and sound. Unlike
most horror films, bright, primary colors stand out in nearly every frame.
Color, most notably a red
glow, is used to make the ordinary seem a little strange. From the opening
scene of the picture, the airport passengers and the airport itself, at first
glance, appear normal.
The Airport
A sinister, red light
greets the passengers as they depart the plane.
Most of the passengers
wear grey or black, but some, walking behind Suzy( Jessica Harper) look like
Crayola models- if there is such a thing.
A woman in a bright red
suit, a father with a bright green tie that matches his young son’s bright
green purse, and a woman with a blinding, red blouse and yellow pants contrast
Suzy’s look of innocence.
Suzy, in white, looks out
of place compared to the rest of the colorful fools around her. As she walks
toward the airport’s exit, she becomes uneasy and seems frightened by an
unknown presence surrounding her.
I mention the airport
because it’s important to notice how quickly the tension and suspense are
established during the first five minutes of the film. The slightly-off set
design and insane music soundtrack act as separate characters themselves.
The soundtrack, by Goblin,
is a pounding, rhythmic, and sometimes repetitive force that drives the
narrative along. It increases in intensity and volume when something nefarious
is about to happen.
It is not easy to listen
to, but it complements the film’s frantic nature. If you want to scare the neighborhood kids at
Halloween, play the Goblin soundtrack and you’ll have plenty of leftover candy.
The Taxi Ride and Red Building
Suzy takes a colorful cab
ride to the academy when she leaves the airport. Her cab coasts through the
city and enters the forest while the lightning casts strange shadows on the
barren trees.
One shadow resembles a
hand holding a curved blade. Although this was intentionally created by the
filmmakers, you can miss it if you’re not focused on the film.
As Suzy approaches the
academy, a bright red building comes into view. It is one of the most haunting
and beautiful shots of the movie.
Argento has a talent for creating a scene that can be both disturbing
and attractive.
The building has ornate,
gold trim around the entrance. Its red paint seems to glow under the pounding
rain and lightning flashes. It is
pretty, but not inviting.
An unknown voice behind
the academy’s front door instructs Suzy to leave. She reluctantly returns to
her cab and drives away. The events that follow lead to the film’s first, gory
murder.
The Violence
The murder sequences in Suspiria are brutal. Argento forces the
viewer to witness every action that the killer performs. Every stab of the
knife, slice from a razor, and bite to the neck are on display.
I haven’t mentioned,
besides Suzy, any of the character’s names in this review. I don’t want you to
know who was murdered before you watch the film. However, I can mention some of
the violent sequences. You should know what you’re getting into.
Some of the ghastly
highlights include:
– A close-up of an exposed
beating heart with a knife plunging into it
– A victim falling through
stained glass while being hanged
– Maggots raining from the ceiling
– A witch snoring
– A victim falls into a
room filled with barbed wire
– An animal attacks at a
city square formerly occupied by Nazis
The violence is not for
the faint of heart. However, it never feels like a B-movie slasher. The
violence is stylish and exaggerated, but it’s never gratuitous.
The dubbed English in the
dialogue may irritate some viewers, but it’s overshadowed by the psychedelic
imagery and deafening soundtrack.
If possible, turn off the
lights before you watch this film. Enjoy it, if you can!
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