Hi Everyone: Happy Sunday afternoon. Yesterday I moved a lot of my stuff out of my old house into my new temporary residence – it was hot and not a lot of fun. 😦 But when my friend Tim met me in Rhode Island he came bearing a gift – a copy of Jacques Pépin’s cookbook Fast Food My Way checked out from the Library. It is mine for three weeks! 🙂 I was very happy to see that the sausage recipe came from this edition of the cookbook so that I can share it with my eager readers.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon good olive oil

4 medium onions (about 1 pound total) cut crosswise into halves

12 small Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 pound total) peeled or not peeled

About 16 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 Italian sausages (about 1 pound total) 3 hot and 3 sweet

1 pound kielbasa sausage, cut into 4 pieces

2 springs fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley

Jacques writes in the introduction to this recipe: Baking the stew in an aluminum foil packet makes it especially easy and eliminates the cleanup. This is a great winter “picnic” dish.

The recipe yields 4 servings (but if you eat like I do, it’s more like 6 or 7 easily!)

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Arrange a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil about 18 inches wide by 36 inches long on a cookie sheet so that half of the foil covers the pan and the remainder extends beyond it at either end. Pour the olive oil over the foil covering the pan, then rub the onion halves in the oil to coat them. Distribute the potatoes and garlic around the onions and sprinkle with the salt. Finally, scatter the sausages throughout the vegetables and place the rosemary on top. After making certain that the ingredients are in one layer in the foil on the pan, fold the foil overhang over the mixture and fold in the sides to secure the stew in a tight casing.

Bake the foil package for one hour. Using pot holders, transfer the package from the pan to a platter. Open the foil carefully, sprinkle the stew with the parsley and serve directly from the package.

This makes a great meal even in the hot days of summer – as you probably recall, Tim, Nicole and I all enjoyed this fantastic dish last week 🙂

YUM:

In case you are wondering… I had a fantastic homemade Belgium waffle this morning with blueberries, a little warmed syrup and a sliver of Earth Balance on top. It was fantastic!

During the move yesterday I had a sandwich on flat bread of tomato, lettuce, low sodium turkey, half a slice of Alpine lace Swiss cheese and a touch of dijon mustard. It really hit the spot during the move. I also consumed several Sigg bottles of water and a Sam Summer after I was done!

I hope you’re all having a good weekend. I’m going to try out Jacques thirty minute cassoulet at some point this week. I cannot wait to let you know how it turns out. Stay tuned!