Lunches, Snacks, and Bites

Some days I like "grazing", where I eat bits of food throughout the day, other days I have meals.  In the end they're all meals varying in size.  I thought I'd share what I eat for lunch when I'm home, some ingredients will repeat, and there is a "formula", usually some grain, mainly rye bread in various forms, meat, veg, and cheese, sometimes with soup, sometimes with tea, or a smoothie, a milk shake, or freshly squeezed lemonade.  At times, it's not only dinner ideas that people get in a rut with, it's boring to eat the same stuff for lunch all the time too.  Here are some examples of what I like to eat, very easy, nutritious and filling lunches or snacks:

Fresh carrots, savoy sauerkraut (home made), pickled beets (home made), and Smoked Sirloin Tip (Ogonowka in Polish) on a piece of pumpernickel.

Very crusty walnut cranberry bread with a slice of salted butter.  

Brussel sprouts, with butter and maple smoked unrefined sea salt.

Leek and horseradish sauerkraut (home made, one of my very favourite flavours), rye grilled cheese (Irish old cheddar), and carrots, made with butter.

Goose liver pate with cumin sauerkraut (made by me; I love sauerkraut).

Pumpernickel with lard, lardons, and raw maple smoked rock salt.

Rye with butter and a slice of pig skin sausage - amazing!  I get this sausage at Sausage Partners in Toronto; they make it on site.

Zucchini, smoked Polish sausage, parmigiano reggiano, lachsschinken, kale, sautéed in butter.

I'm not sure what this is called in English, but it's a type of blood sausage, with fat chunks, and tongue; it's delicious.  I find congealed blood tastes a bit like chocolate, the two go well together in recipes.

Here is the blood sausage from above, on rye, with fresh cucumbers, and tomato soup.

Avocado, my caraway bay sauerkraut, Calabrese salami, fresh greens and parsley, grown in my kitchen.

Pumpernickel, Calabrese salami, sauerkraut, creamy tomato soup.

Pumpernickel with lard, lardons, and my delicious home made sauerkraut.

Scrambled eggs with sausage, onion, and rye.

Pumpernickel with lard and lardons and dill pickles, which my dad made.  When I say dill pickles I mean real pickles in brine, not vinegar.

I hope some of my lunch and snack ideas will help you try new things, and keep lunch exciting.  When I work, I always make and bring my own lunch.  It always gets comments and people start making excuses why they don't make their own lunch.  In reality, tasty, healthy, and filling food doesn't have to take  a long time to plan or make.

Figs, tasty on their own, or with a variety of meats and cheeses, also great in tarts with caramelized onions and cheese.

Kalon Digor!  (Breton)

Sausage Class and Black Pudding

Last Wednesday I went to a sausage making class.  It was fun, there were only six of us.  Class finished an hour early, so with that much time left over, I think it would've been better, if we were working on our own, instead of in two teams of three.  Anyway, at the end of the day, we each left with eight sausages.

We got to grind out own meat, and then stuff it into natural casings.  We didn't get to be creative with spices, only used salt and pepper.  The teacher said that he likes to taste the good quality meat.  I love meat, but using the right spices in the right amounts doesn't mask the quality,  it compliments it, giving the sausage depth.  He also didn't have set measurements as to how much salt and pepper to use per whatever amount of meat, and just poured both out of their containers.  That's how I do things, though I try to give some measurements here.

When I boiled the sausages, I added some marjoram, thyme, and garlic powder to the water.  Not the same as having the spices in the meat, but it still added a bit more flavour, and took the meaty edge off.

I sauteed the green and yellow beans in butter, and then sprinkled with maple smoked rock salt.  I added some 10% M.F. plain yogurt to the mashed potatoes.  Sometimes I use sour cream or butter.  I don't like using anything liquidy, like milk or stock, because of the taste and texture. 

I still have a few sausages left, so I will make a different dish with them, and post in another blog.

After class, I picked up some pig skin sausage, Cotechino, it's amazing, the texture and flavour.  It was pricey, but what a treat!  I also got a black pudding, because I love black pudding and blood sausage.  Depending on country of origin/ recipe, there are so many variations.  Sometimes they are too salty, but this one was great.

I fried it up with shallots.

I also fried up some zucchini in butter, and sprinkled with maple smoked rock salt (I love this salt).

It was a very tasty lunch, and very filling.