Brews & Brats

Adding hops

Today's post is a bit off topic but we had so much fun making beer and sausages (both from scratch) that I had to share!  Yesterday was the epitome of Sunday Funday, we had some friends over to break in the new meat grinder attachment for our Kitchen-Aid mixer.  Let's get a hooray for wedding presents ;)

Admittedly, it's a pretty gross process making sausage.  Unless you are someone who truly enjoys playing with raw meat...I've never met such a person but to each his own :)

We were so excited we made THREE different types of sausage!

• Maple Breakfast Sausage
• Cheesesteak Sausage
• Chicken Bacon Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage (say that three times fast)

After careful taste testing we voted that the cheesesteak sausage was the true winner so I've posted the recipe for you below.

Cheesesteak Sausage

• 3 lbs beef chuck (Cut into 1 in. cubes)
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 onion
• 5 garlic cloves
• salt & pepper to taste

Sauté the peppers and onions.  After coarsely grinding the beef combine all ingredients and put in the freezer for about a half an hour then grind again through the fine plate on your grinder and into the casing.  Make sure that you chop or grind your garlic before the fine grind or you'll end up with pockets of garlic love as we did, which was interesting but luckily didn't ruin the overall flavor at all!

Round it all out with a delicious red pale ale and you too could have an awesome Sunday Funday with friends!

Chicken Bacon Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage