I made the Healthier Italian Sausage, Healthier Southwestern Pork Sausage, and Healthier Sienna Style Italian Sausage this week.  The turkey levels in each worked out well and I’ve added notes to each of the recipes.  I did brief tastes on each after cooking and was very happy with each of them.  The texture of the Seinna style Italian sausage is very good.  A bit more body than a standard pork sausage which is very good.

I was going to make the Healthy Andouille but canceled plans after multiple problems with sausage stuffers.  I purchased a horn style sausage stuffer after feeling that the kitchen aid stuffer was to slow and painful for significant use.  The horn worked better but required lots of force to push sausage through.  It made it a two person job.  When I last use the horn, I put it away but lost the screw that held the plates at the end of the push rod for a nice fit.

I took the push rod to home depot to find a new screw (stainless steel) and when I took my bags, I somehow left the push rod behind.  A week later, they still haven’t found it so I assume another customer did and took it for scrap/parts.  Such is life.  I started looking at the vertical stuffers and then for water stuffers.  I came across the Dakotah Sausage Stuffer and am planning to purchase before I make another batch.  At $200 for the both the sausage and jerky kits, this looks to be a good bargin and the video and reviews suggest that it works very well.

I didn’t do any winter crops this year so there isn’t to much activity around the garden.  I just finished cleaning all the hop hills including moving three hops from their existing hill to a new hill that double stacks the hops.  I won’t add any replacement hops this year but this gives me room to add 3 additional varieties next year.  I’ll also add another series  of each of the hops that I had on the west side.

As with each of the last three years, I purchased a bundle of asparagus a week ago.  As with each of the last three years, I told myself I need to put these in the ground today before leaving the store. As with previous years, by the time I got home, I had other stuff to do and set them aside.  This year we got a great weather weekend and I planted them into the ground one week after I purchased them.  We might have a shot at fresh asparagus this year.

I’m starting a new series of posts.  I’m finishing up a round on HCG and a few days away from phase 3.  In phase 3, fats are allowed back in but no sugars  and starches.  This causes a huge issue with many food items that have sugar in them.  Even sausage is hit by this.

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