Happy Hands

With the cold winter weather and holiday cooking and cleaning, I notice that my hands are even drier than usual and that I have been using my hand cream more often. I was very excited to find a new bottle of my favorite lotion under the Christmas tree a few weeks ago. Every time I pump out a handful of Cucina hand cream made by the Canadian Fruits and Passion, it makes me smile. Cucina lotions contain three olive tree extracts which help regenerate skin and improve its elasticity. First-cold-pressed olive oil and olive unsaponifiables moisturize and protect cooks’ damaged hands. In addition, olive leaf extract stimulates the skin and helps to heal minor cuts and burns. The best part is this lotion smells delicious and does not interfere with the flavor of foods because they contain the same ingredients that are in your favorite food dishes. There are seven different fragrances of which I have tried Coriander and Olive Tree, Sicilian Lemon and Ginger, and Lime Zest and Cypress. Coriander and Olive Tree is my personal favorite, but all them are truly yummy!

Homemade Hot Italian Sausage

Everyone is a little stir crazy. So yesterday on a wild hair, the guys went to one of their favorite hangouts, Bass Pro Shops. They came home with #32 Lem meat grinder. A large metal monstrosity designed to grind 5 to 6 pounds of meat per minute. Eee Gad!

We spent the rest of the day researching sausage recipes and contemplating the sausage making fiesta that would take place today. Dom called his Aunt Rose to get his grandmother's sausage recipe as well. Before bed, we set out a pork shoulder from the freezer to thaw.First thing this morning, Dom went to Costco to purchase 2 pork butts and then to DeKalb Farmer's Market to buy some fresh spices for the seasoning mix. We spent the rest of the morning chopping the pork and mixing the spices.

First Run Recipe: 

• 25 lbs. pork
• 7 Tablespoons salt
• 4 Tablespoons fennel seed, crushed
• 1 Tablespoon coriander, crushed
• 10 Tablespoons paprika
• 1 Tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons cayenne, ground
• 2 teaspoons black pepper

Then we ground the meat using the coarse grinding plate. We made a patty with some of the ground spiced meat and fried it to do a taste test. It was darn good! We added a little more coriander and cayenne to the ground meat.I soaked the pork casings (pig intestines) in water and rinsed them out. Ick!

We then put the medium grinding plate on the grinder along with the sausage stuffing attachment. I loaded the casings on the stuffing nozzle. It was actually quite fascinating to watch the meat fill the casing and come out looking just like the Italian sausage you see in the grocery store. Twenty five pounds of pork makes a lot of sausage! We put several large links in the refrigerator for dinner and packaged the rest for the freezer. It should last a LONG time.