Greek Pizza

Mineo & Sapio's cheese and parsley sausage is browned.

Pizza dough is swiped with a layer of olive oil.

 Lay a thin strip of cheese around the edges of the pan,

and fold the edges of dough over the cheese. Tuck them under so that there will be a cheesy crust.

Add in several types of mushrooms minced, chopped garlic and olive tapenade.

Layer it into the pan and spread it out evenly.

 Leto made a teeny tiny fairy sized pizza.

 Then add a thin layer of cheese.

Bake at 380 degrees until the crust and cheese are golden brown.

Slice and serve with a large vegetable salad.

Grilled sausage, peppers and onions

Delicious! Packet grilled onions, peppers and zucchini with mild Italian sausages. A light and flavorful dinner!

Frizzante Italian Soda's from Wegmans. While checking out the review, also look at this blog. I love their blog!

Pan fried dandelion flowers for the salad. They are very intense! Want to learn more about their heart healthy properties and how else to prepare them? Check out this link to Kimberly Gallagher's blog.

Calzone - Ground Sausage

Brown Spar's ground sausage and then add to sauce that has been slowly stewed for several hours until thickened.

Thinly slice Mozzarella and layer on top of the sauce and fold in rolled out dough. Bak at 380 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting so that the ingredients don't come sliding out. Serve with a mixed green salad or a hot bowl of soup. This is perfect for cool evenings.

Sweetness 7 Cafe

Sweetness 7 Cafe has been the impetus for the bourgeoisification of the Westside. The shops like S7 walk a  fine edge between consumerism/ brand name/ gentrification that sometimes happens in economically depressed areas that see a gold rush of properties being snapped up, "repaired" and sold for more than the people of the area could ever afford and




the major social improvements that truly benefit the neighborhood and the people who live in it. I could say all sorts of negative things about S7 and equally praise it. I'll leave it to you to decide. It's really like Powerman 5000's lyrics "This is like when worlds collide".






You have this mix of refugees, Boomer Italian Americans who called the Westside home since they were babies in the 30s and 40s, young hip childless or one baby couples, young families who can't buy into Elmwood Village but want the feel of EV, African- Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, the wealthy, the middle class, the poor, the very poor, homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, and more. We are a microcosm of humanity in 14213 and I am very happy to live here in my rental, steps from everything and everyone. S7 allows for the community to connect in a healthier way than it has in the last 15 years and I am glad to be a part of it, despite or because of what it brings to our community. My mixed emotional connection to things that are both a positive and a negative to my Westside leads me to hope, and hope can fill the heart while S7 fills the belly.

While there I had the Scottish Breakfast, sans eggs, and a frothy mug of Tokyo Fog. A delightful pairing! I encourage you to give this a go the next time you visit.

Occupy Our Food Supply - Buffalo's Eat At Home Create & Resist Challenge

As part of my continuing conversation on food ethics, access, and security, I took part in the global challenge on February 27th, of actively engaging in the food system and making it mine. The challenge I set up through Occupy Our Food Supply specifically for Buffalo was:

I encourage you not to eat out today, Occupy your kitchen. Have an eat-in with your family and friends. Engage in a conversation about food, where it comes from, how it got to your table, and what the future of food looks like to you. Take the time, make something not from a box or a can. Sit and enjoy your meal without the distractions of tv, phones, or computers. Think about what you can do starting right now, in making a difference in your home, your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country, your world.

So we Occupied our head space, physical space, each other's space. We read, did homework, cooked, and got together to eat dinner like we do every night. 

We enjoyed a meal made from scratch. The pierogies were made the day before during another one of my cooking classes. 

The floss sauerkraut came from the Famous Horseradish stand at the Broadway Market. The sausages of course were polish and fresh from Spar's European Sausage Shop.

The cream sauce was minced garlic, grated parmesan, cream, and butter. All but the parmesan was local.

I encourage you to Occupy your Kitchen every meal you are able. Talk about your food, have a relationship with your food sources and "Think about what you can do starting right now, in making a difference in your home, your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country, your world."

One Pan Southern Rice, Beans, and Sausage

 Fry up a chopped onion and sweet pepper in olive oil.

 Slice chorizo sausage and add to the pan. Cooking on a lower heat until the sausages are cooked through.

Add well rinsed pink beans, 2 cups of water, 1 cup of brown rice, dry mustard, pepper, and cover. Cook until the water is absorbed.

Creamy Potato and Sausage Soup

Boil 5 sausages (Spar's fresh Polish Sausages) in 1/4 cup of water until the skins are firm. Remove and cut into bite sized pieces. Scrape up any brown bits in the bottom of the pan.

Dice 5-6 large potatoes and add to the pan along with 1 1/2 cups of water. Add the sausages back in. Cover and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

Whip 1 cup of sour cream into 1 1/2 cups of milk. Stir into soup. Partially mash the potatoes, just enough to break up some of the cubes and to thicken the soup. Flavor as you like.

 We love our creamed soups with sun dried tomatoes, and of course loads of fresh crusty bread with butter.

These sun dried tomatoes in olive oil with rosemary are from Mediterranean Organics.

Oven-roasted Sausage, Garlic and Sweet Potato

 8 large sausages
1-2 sweet potatoes
2 large carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Quartered 1 garlic bulb, top sliced off
1/2 cup stock

3 tbls olive oil

3 tbls honey
2 teaspoons dried mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of fresh sage leaves

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Arrange the sausages in a casserole dish with the sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and olive oil, making sure not to overload the dish. 

 In a small bowl, mix together the stock, mustard powder and honey. Pour the stock mixture over the sausages and vegetables, tossing to make sure everything is coated.

 Season with salt, pepper and sage. Roast in the oven for 45 to 55 minutes. Make sure to spoon over any remaining juices into the serving dish.

Bob made an outstanding bruschetta salad and we enjoyed this with a bottle of Magic Hat's Howl.

White Chicken Sausage Chili with Pureed Leek and Japanese Sweet Potato in a Bread Bowl

In a crock-pot, add two large cans of pinto and cannelloni beans. Add in 1 cup of water, 3 tbls of white pepper and freshly cracked or ground pepper, 1 tbls salt, 1 tbls powdered garlic, 3 tsp dry mustard, and 3 tbls of minced parsley. Pan fry 5 Spar's chicken sausages (I recommend the Apple, Bacon, Chive and Herb Sausages). Slice and add to the chili and cook for 4 hours.

Spray the bottoms of four oven safe bowls with olive oil spray. Divide pizza dough and shape into bowl shapes and fit over the bottoms of the containers, resting them onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Boil one medium sized sliced leek in 1 cup of water. Puree with a stick blender.

 Steam bake 1 Japanese Sweet Potato (Paper bag and microwave on the potato setting). Then slice and add to the leek puree.




Puree the sweet potato and then fill a pastry bag with the green creaminess and pipe onto your bowl, either on top or under the chili.

Five nice sized servings contain your day's recommended level of fiber and has been clinically shown to reduce blood sugar levels. Baked in its skin, 100 grams of sweet potato contains 90 calories with no cholesterol and minimal fat. Japanese sweet potatoes contain 11,509 micrograms of beta-carotene, which is especially important to the health of your eyes. An excellent source of vitamin A, sweet potatoes fulfil almost 12 times the daily amount recommended by the Institute of Medicine to maintain a low risk of chronic diseases. The vitamin C content in sweet potatoes is comparable to grapefruit and supplies 30 percent DV, or daily value.

One medium Japanese sweet potato contains 4 percent DV for calcium and iron and contains significant amounts of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium. Sweet potatoes contain B vitamins -- thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folate and B-6. In addition, Japanese sweet potatoes contain essential amino acids.

To learn another way to make this awesome fall vegetable go to this link.

Spar's Heritage Sausage Wraps, Smoked Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits, Organic Carrots, and Mixed Salad

Spar's Heritage Pork Smoked Sausage with Mushrooms & Bavarian Swiss wrapped in a soft buttermilk biscuit. Spar's also carries a number of deli meats and cheeses. In between two biscuits is a layer of their smoked cheddar. The carrots are rough jullienned and steamed. Their flavor was so amazing that they didn't need anything like butter or salt! Simple fair that's simply out of this world delicious!

Poor Man's Dinner - A Modern Take on a Depression Era Dish

During the Depression of the 1930's one of the creative uses for cheap cuts of meats and scraps was to case them and make sausages. Like today, sausages then were stuffed with more than just pork or beef; often bread and herbs and a blend of different kinds of cheap meat including venison made it's way into casings.

As potatoes and carrots and sausages were and still are the easiest to buy when your pocket is lean, this is sure to be the easiest meal you can make in a short amount of time. I like to toss in sweet green peppers for flavor. I suggest you try this recipe just as it is first, and then play with flavors and vegetables the next time.

This one is Spar's Oktoberfest Polish sausage, 2 large potatoes, 1 large sweet green pepper, 3 large carrots, salt, pepper and butter or olive oil. Layer in a large skillet 4 tbls of butter or oil, then potatoes, then sausage, then carrots, then peppers, then salt and ground pepper.  Fry on medium until the potatoes are brown and the sausages are well cooked. Flip over, trying not to mash the potatoes. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes and then serve. This is especially nice with a dark brown beer or a Guinness.