Can we talk about how weird Charlotte weather is? For those of you that live in the area, you know where I'm going. For those of you that don't, let me explain. Sunday was BEAUTIFUL - I'm talking 60 degrees at 9am and by noon, it was a nice 73. We went to lunch and sat in the sun on the patio, it was so nice. That brings me to the current weather - it is completely gross. It is dark, grey, ugly and supposed to snow later. Seriously, snow and ice. What happened to my beautiful patio weather??
nopin= "nopin"
Since it is so gross outside I scrapped my original dinner plans of a salad and decided to make something that yelled homey. Forever ago I pinned a something called Lazy Sunday Casserole from Kayotic Kitchen and then sort of forgot about it. After scrapping my initial dinner, I went through my boards and decided this was the perfect dinner for a day like today.
I'm not really sure if I would call it a casserole (as you can see from my less than stellar picture at the top). It's more of a sausage and peppers dinner. I have to tell you though, it was good -- and easy. My favorite kind of meal. Because you know I don't leave anything the way it is, I made a few changes to this. Some of my changes were because I didn't have the right ingredients - others, I hate. I hate hate hate bell peppers so I used long hot peppers, but if you like bell peppers (ick) use them! I think that's one of the things about this recipe I like - you can add all sorts of things and run with it. I also used hot italian sausage but if you don't want to spice up your dish, you can use mild or any other flavored sausage.
Macie and Allen both liked dinner and it was nice to have something simple and yet tasty. Allen even said he wanted all of the leftovers for lunch tomorrow so you know I consider that a success. Yay!
Sausage and Pepper Bake
adapted from Kayotic Kitchen
Ingredients:
5 sausages (beef or pork)
6 potatoes (medium) - peeled and chunked
4 carrots - peeled and chopped
2 long hot peppers - deseeded and chopped
1 large onion - cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves - mashed
8 oz of mushrooms - halved
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
freshly cracked black pepper
2 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
freshly cracked black pepper
2 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl mix the olive oil, italian herbs and chicken broth. Put the potatoes, carrots, peppers, onions and mushrooms into the bowl and toss to coat. Throw the whole thing into a large roasting pan and salt and pepper generously. Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes. In the time that the vegetables are cooking, brown the sausage in a pan. The sausage doesn't have to be cooked all the way through, just browned. Once browned, cut the sausage in half. After the 45 minutes, take the vegetables out of the oven, they should be fork tender. Add the sausage on top of the veggies and pour the balsamic vinegar on top of everything. Put it back in the oven uncovered for 25 minutes. About half way through make sure you turn the sausage and baste with all the yummy juices. Serve immediately and eat it up!
Remember how I told you it was grey and gross today? That doesn't allow for pretty pictures of this dish. Just forget the picture and make the dish - it's just what you need on a cold ick night!
