Tonight, I was sort of loathing dinner. Before our challenge started, Fridays were usually our go-to date nights. We would go do "something" nearly every Friday night--even if that just meant going out for errands, we were out together. Sometimes we would go to dinner, sometimes not, but it was still fun. Since the holidays, and starting the challenge, we still spend the equal amount of time together, but we don't go out--per se. Also, I took something out of the freezer that usually isn't my favorite protein to prepare: smoked sausage.
Smoked sausage is usually what I would purchase when it was on sale, stash a few packages in the upright garage freezer, and then only prepare when we would tire of chicken, beef, pork, venison, fish, rabbit, and pretty much everything else available. I don't know why, but I always try to purposefully forget that it's there for us to eat. I like the flavor and all, but I would still almost always choose any other kind of meat over smoked sausage or kielbasa-type sausages.
Enter the cast iron standby-- my giant Lodge skillet (I need to name it something fancy). I chopped up the smoked sausage that had been in the freezer since who knows when, finely diced an onion and peeled and cubed up three sweet potatoes from our October garden harvest, and added some frozen diced red bell pepper pieces from the late summer garden harvest. A tiny bit of olive oil and seasoning, a medium-high flame, and I let it cook until crispy, flipping a few times with the spatula in the process. Two ears of July sweet corn from the freezer for a side, and dinner was done.
It looked good, it smelled good, but I still had my doubts. The only hash I had ever had prior to this one was corned beef hash out of a can smothered in ketchup. I was skeptical, but if I've learned anything from cooking shows, or reading recipes or cookbooks, it's that hash recipes are helpful in using up a bunch of things that normally wouldn't go into a meal, and that they usually taste pretty good. This was no different-- lots of freezer goodies thrown into a skillet, with a few fresh sweet potatoes and some onion. Boom.
IT WAS AWESOME.
So awesome, I'm considering drizzling a tiny bit of maple syrup on the leftovers, scrambling up a few eggs on the side, and re-serving it for breakfast. I'm sorry for not having more love for the sweet potatoes or the smoked sausage. Today, I think I saw the light.
--SH