Helpful Husband

I was feeling particularly unmotivated last Friday when I was planning my menu for this week. My usual Internet recipe search left me unfulfilled and I was too tired from staring at spread sheets all day to thumb through our library of cookbooks. I decided to get Forrest involved in the planning phase of this whole process. So as I left for the gym I gave him the challenge to find one recipe to add to the weekly menu. It could be anything, from any source, with any ingredients - as long as I didn't have to find it myself. As a self proclaimed control freak this was a huge feat for me. I knew relinquishing control of the deciding factors of the meal could be dangerous, but it was a price I was willing to pay.

As I returned from the gym he had a relaxed settled appearance when I entered the house. He was watching TV with only the remote in his hand. I fully expected him to be buried in cookbooks or researching recipes on the Internet. He boasted that he had picked the recipe 5 minutes after I left. He went straight for his favorite cookbook. The book is titled "Who's Your Mama, Are you Catholic, and Can you Make a Roux?" - Forrest doesn't like this book because of how it is structured or because of his past successes with its recipes. He has never even cooked from it - he likes it because of its catchy name and the fact that it is written by a lady who was born and raised in St. Martinville, LA (a town some of his relatives live/lived in as well). After he settled for the source he said he came across a recipe very quickly that he knew he wanted to try. He decided on something called Southern Sausage Cake. Coming from a sugar deprived Type 1 diabetic, anything with the word cake in it has to be a winner and according to him "cake and sausage are his two favorite foods". He was inspired - it "HAD to be good".

Although I was a little skeptical, I couldn't turn down the help I blatantly requested. So this weekend I embarked on making Southern Sausage Cake with a heavy heart. It sounded weird and I had no idea what to expect. I couldn't even imagine what it would taste like. I liked all of the ingredients of the dish so I was definitely intrigued as I put them all together. As the cake baked in the oven I told my mom about it. She said "it sounds like stuffing". And she was right! It tasted like stuffing bars. It was AMAZING! This dish could be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. It was very satisfying with such an appealing flavor. Job well done, Forrest!

Southern Sausage Cake
Adapted from "Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?" by Marcelle Bienvenu

1 pound of hot bulk sausage
1/2 cup of chopped onions
1 cup of chopped red bell peppers
1 cup of chopped green bell peppers
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of grated pepper jack cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon of Tabasco
1 1/2 teaspoons of a combination of salt, black pepper and garlic powder
2 cups of biscuit mix
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of sour cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the sausage and vegetables in a skillet over medium heat.

Drain off excess oil. Add the cheeses, egg, hot sauce and seasoning mix.

Make a batter with the biscuit mix, milk and sour cream.

Gently fold the sausage mixture into the batter

and put into a greased 9x9 inch baking tin.

Bake until light browned, about 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. At this point, it can frozen for later use.

To serve, cut into squares.