Aidells Chicken and Apple Sausage with Apple and Onion

In many of the supermarket I go to here in the U.S., I see this sausage from a company called Aidells. I tried this sausage for the first time when I was still living in California. I loved their Chicken and Apple sausage so I buy this sausage sometimes and chop it and add to Pasta for an easy quick meal.

Well, the other day I was buying this sausage again. As I was paying at the check out, the lady at the cashier told me that she loves this sausage and tried a recipe from their website which was awesome. She told me the recipe and insist that I should try it.

So, I went home and check their website and found the recipe she was talking about. It was easy recipe and had all the ingredients so I decided to give it a try. Here is the recipe from Aidells website if you are interested in. 

Saute sausage and take it out.

Also, saute onion and apple.

Add wine

Add sausage back and also cream

Done!

My husband and kid loved it. (Even though, my son was only eating pasta...)

It was super easy and tasty. I would use less apple next time but this is a great quick meal!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

How is everybody doing? Everyone must be busy with all the Christmas related parties and get together and preparations.

I actually just came back from Japan. I decided to go there spontaneously and stayed there for three weeks. It was a wonderful trip and my family were super super happy to have us. Our son was very happy to have many people to play with every day. He made my family laughed a lot. It was wonderful to see my family laughing and feeling happy.

I off course ate lots of good food while I was there. The weather in Tokyo was quite nice while I was there. Sunny everyday and the average temp was about 15C everyday which is about 60F.

So now, I am back to NY and experiencing this COLD COLD weather. I really don't like cold weather. Oh well, I should be thankful that I don't have to stay outside all day in this cold weather.

Today, I would like to write about the dish which I made before I went to Japan.

I see lots of pumpkins and squash in fall and I love using those vegetables when it is in season.

I saw a nice acorn squash so I made stuffed acorn squash. I actually made this dish before. I checked when I made it last time and found out that it was 2009. 4 Years ago!! Wow, time flies. If you are interested in the previous acorn post, click here.

I mentioned before also but I first ate stuffed pumpkin back when I was living in California. One night, I went to visit my friend who is French. He got hungry so he got some dinner leftover and ate it. I ate some and that was the first time I ever tried stuffed pumpkin. I thought "Wow, I never had this before. I guess this is some kind of French dish."

I believe they actually used pumpkin but since I found good acorn squash at my local supermarket, I use it. And this time, I added some rice to it also.

I didn't measure anything and I just winged it but this is how I made it.

I cut the top of acorn and took the seeds out. Then, add some brown sugar, salt and pepper and baked in the oven till it is soft.

First, I sautéed carrot, onion and celery.

Then, add ground beef with some spices. I used nutmeg, all spice, cinnamon, etc. When the meat is cooked, I added cooked rice.

When the acorn is soft, take out from the oven and stuff it with rice and meat mixture. Arrange extra mixture around it.

Put the lid back on and serve.

It was good but I made too much mixture. I should have made half of this. Also, I tasted too much All Spice. It has some room for improvement.

By the way, Christmas is approaching before you know it. It is just one week before Christmas!! I am not ready at all but we don't have big Christmas party or anything so I don't feel stressed. We might just go to Manhattan sometime to see the Christmas tree at Rockafellar Center or something like that. It will be nice to do something Christmasy with my family. Also, I would like to make Christmas cookie with my son and husband this weekend :-)

What is your Christmas plan? Hope everybody is having a great Holiday!

German Black Forest Cake

We had a visitor from Germany and we had so much fun! We did lots of shopping and enjoyed spending time. Our son LOVED having her with us so he as all over her which means I was able to relax a lot ;-)

One of the things we did while she was here was making a cake called Black Forest Cake.

I tried to make this cake before by myself but the result was not great. I bought cherry liquor from a local liquor store and used it for the cake. This liquor was so strong that the cake only tasted like the liquor.

This time, I made it with my friend whose grandma make this cake all the time. She told me that she actually never made it but I was sure she knows how it taste like and how it should look.

So We baked.

First of all, making batter was quite easy. Then, we baked. The cake came out very flat and we were not sure how it will turn out but we proceed with the rest of process.

We cut the cake then brushed with cherry preserve. Then, add whipped cream, then, canned cherry.

Then more whipped cream. In my book, there is no such a thing as too much whipped cream.

Then cover with the other half of the cake. Cover with more whipped cream then topped with canned cherry. I bought this cake decoration turn table while ago. I didn't have a chance to use it till this day but I was happy to use it. It is much easier to decorate cake with this turn table. I know I need more practice but I think this looks OK.

Then sprinkle with shaved chocolate.

So, I don't have a picture of inside but the color of cake looked little grayish. So next time, I think I will try to add more cocoa power into the batter. Despite the cake color, the taste was super good!

I didn't put too much cherry liquor this time because my husband and my son would eat also.

It was really fun making this cake with her. I like cooking with my friends. She came to visit us in California and I remember we baked brownie that time together. If we live close to each other, we will be baking together all the time.

It was great to have her and I miss her already. She is such a good friends and I feel so comfortable with her. I feel like I don't need to pretend anything. I am glad that I met her through my husband and I am happy that we became good friends!

I am curious what we will be baking when she come visit us next time :-)