Ideas Post 83 and a Flop: Breakfast Sausage Patties

Reflecting on the amount of time I have to blog, the delays caused by recipes from ideas posts that aren’t quite/ever ready for prime-time, and the fact that we are going to move again eventually.... I’ve decided to tackle my 2020 cooking resolutions in 3 parts:

1. Cook/bake one “project” recipe at least once a month. I love project recipes, but with the multiple steps they usually involve, it’s not practical to plan to make them any more frequently. They’re also a labor of love to post, and I’m guessing most people aren’t coming here for that kind of recipe.... although I personally feel like feedback on whether a project recipe truly works and is worth the time is super valuable.

2. Cook/bake one “easy” recipe at least twice a month. These can be “standard” or appliance-related (e.g., instant pot, slow cooker, smoker, ice cream, ...).

3. Start meal prepping/ideas gathering from my heaviest cookbooks first, to determine which ones are really worth keeping around to warp my bookshelves, and which ones shouldn’t get moved next time.

One of my original plans with this blog was to post not only about the recipes and cookbooks that I love, or at least like enough to share, but also to post about some of the recipes that totally failed for me. The breakfast sausage patties recipe from Bobby Flay’s Brunch with Bobby definitely fell into that later category for me.

Bobby’s recipe calls for either ground pork or turkey as the meat options for his breakfast sausage. I used ground turkey, and I was careful to go for the 90% fat rather than 99% lean, but maybe I should have used pork.... My first round of sausage patties turned out crumbly, dry, and barely edible at the specified 5 minutes on each side. To try and retain a little moisture, I lowered the heat on the second batch to medium (rather than medium-high) and cooked them for only 4 minutes a side. That batch of sausage rounds was still dry, my house stank of hot oil and meat, and the spice mix was overwhelming but not good-tasting. Bobby’s breakfast sausage was easy, but a big flop for me. Such a big flop, that I didn’t even save the pictures....

The sausage recipe, along with the gingerbread waffles from Brunch with Bobby, which were fine but very meh and not worth a repeat, left me really hesitant to make any of Bobby’s newer recipes. Actually, all of Bobby’s latest recipes have caused me to be distrustful of “his” work. I keep trying though, because I have had some really great meals at Mesa and I’ve created some great food from that cookbook too.

So, to kick of 2020, I thought it best to reboot the Recipe Vote series with the Bobby Flay cookbooks I’ve been hanging onto. Without further ado:

A) yogurt creme brûlée from Brunch at Bobby’s

B) tarte flambé from Brunch at Bobby’s

C) blackberry hazelnut sticky buns from Brunch at Bobby’s

D) Moroccan eggs from Brunch at Bobby’s

E) Blackened sea scallops with green onions and roasted tomatoes from Bar Americain

F) gold corn Johnny cakes with bbq duck and cranberry butter from Bar Americain

G) wild mushroom salad with quinoa, aged goat cheese, and caramelized shallot marmalade from Bar Americain

H) smoked chicken with black pepper vinegar sauce and green chile spoonbread from Bar Americain

Tell me which of these recipes you’d be most excited to hear about (and see, if they turn out well). I’ll do my best to make one or two over the long weekend!