MORNING BLISS

Sometimes the little things in life are what matter most. For me, breakfast sausage is one of those little things. I ordained my sausage stuffer by filling it with ground pork, sage, garlic, and ginger, and creating 3 feet of pure joy. It was a huge success, and I am now hopelessly hooked on homemade breakfast meats. I used the recipe for breakfast sausage in the book, "Charcuterie." It was just right, except that I overdid the salt a little tiny bit. The recipe was for 5 pounds of meat, and I used 2 pounds 4 ounces. I just halved the recipe instead of figuring out the exact proportions, which is probably why the salt was a bit heavy.

Here's my 2.25 pounds of diced pork butt, fresh from the freezer. Sage, Garlic, Ginger, Salt, Pepper, and Chile di Arbol were minced together and added to the pork...

Here's the whole setup: kitchenaid mixer with paddle attachment, meat grinder, sausage stuffer, frozen bowl, and ice cold meat...

Once the meat was ground and mixed, it took less than five minutes to stuff it into the casings with my new sausage stuffer... It was like a meat fountain.... amazing!!! The new tool really makes the whole sausage making ordeal quick and easy, removing the most tedious part of the process.....

I cooked the sausages very gently with a little bit of water in the pan...

Once they were cooked through, I cranked up the heat and gave my little babies a nice tan...

And here they are... moist, tender, flavorful.... a breakfast sausage like none I've ever had before...

Notes for next time? Less salt, more Chile di Arbol.... I used 1/2 tsp in this recipe, and would bump it up to 3/4 next time... the chile gives a nice slow, back of the throat heat that is just perfect in the morning....

I challenge anyone to come up with a better way to start a weekend... It's just not possible as far as I'm concerned.