Sausage, Pepper & Onion Sandwiches with Oven Frites

Josh and I both stayed home on Friday- me because it's my day off, he because it was his "snow day", despite the fact most of the snow we got had melted by sun up. Anyway, I usually don't cook Friday nights, but we had decided to go to Chipotle Thursday night instead. That left me holding the bag for Friday's dinner. I got the idea for these sandwiches from Jane at This Week For Dinner. She uses chicken sausage and mustard. I had some Italian pork sausages in the freezer, so I went in a slightly different direction. And these frites helped me keep up with one of my cooking resolutions as it comes from one of my cookbooks, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: Original Classics. I got this for Christmas from my mother-in-law and it's chocked full of great recipes which I looked forward to trying, especially if they come out as nice as these frites did.

Sausage, Peppers, and Onion Sandwiches with Oven Frites
Recipes adapted from This Week For Dinner and Martha Stewart Original Classics












Sausage, Pepper and Onion Sandwiches
2 links Italian Pork Sausage
1 bell pepper (I prefer green), ribbed and seeded, sliced lengthwise
1/2 white onion, sliced
1/4-1/2 cup jarred spaghetti sauce
Olive oil
2 wheat buns
Butter

• Butter the cut sides of your buns and toast in skillet over medium-high heat. Once toasted, wipe out frying pan carefully, to remove crumbs, and add olive oil. Add sausage to pan and cook till sides are well browned. Remove from pan.
  
• Add more oil if necessary and add peppers and onions to pan. Season with salt; cook, stirring occasionally, till softened. Meanwhile, cut your sausages in half crosswise, then each half in half again lengthwise. Add sausage back to skillet, cut side down to make sure cooked through.
• Once peppers and onions have softened and sausages are cooked through, add sauce and stir to combine. Divide between buns and serve.

Oven Frites
2 medium baking potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place a heavy-duty baking sheet in the oven. Scrub and rinse potatoes. Cut lengthwise into batons. Place potatoes in a medium bowl. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
• When baking sheet is hot, about 15 minutes, remove from oven; place prepared potatoes on baking sheet in a single layer. Return to oven, and bake until potatoes are golden on the bottom, about 30 minutes. Turn potatoes over, and continue cooking until golden all over, another 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

My notes: These sandwiches were delicious, but messy, ha. Almost like a pizza sandwich. Mmmmm. I used wheat hamburger buns because that's what I had, but the sandwiches would probably be a bit messier with split hoagie rolls. These frites were really good too, Josh commented on them several times. The only thing I'd do differently is cut them a bit thicker than I did. I'll definitely use this recipe again.

Super Soup

Don't you hate it when you make a recipe you think your significant other is just going to love, and they give you an "it's okay", in response? Well, no matter what Josh thought of this soup, I thought it was fantastic. I don't have a picture for it, it was so good the thought didn't even cross my mind before I dug in. But I wanted to tell you about it anyway. This recipe come from Jane at This Week For Dinner. She has plenty of great recipes, so definitely check them all out, but here is the recipe that I made and happily gobbled up.

Lentil Soup
Recipe from This Week For Dinner

1 cup dry lentils
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
4 cups beef broth
1 7.5 ounce can tomatoes, cut up
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 lb. fully cooked smoked sausage links, sliced - or chopped ham

• Rinse lentils, set aside. In a large saucepan cook onion and garlic in hot oil until tender but not brown. Stir in lentils, beef broth, undrained tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, thyme/oregano, pepper, cumin, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add carrot and celery. Return to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until lentils and veggies are tender. Stir in meat - heat through. Discard bay leaf.

My notes: I used thyme, and I opted for ham. It was delicious, but I think next time I'm going to try turkey sausage to see how good that is. This made enough for Josh and I to each have a big bowl for dinner and I had enough leftovers for two lunches. I don't really get why Josh wasn't head over heels for it, it seemed like such a man-pleasing soup, but he does have particular taste at times. He liked it, but just wasn't as head over heels for it as I thought he would be. Like I said, I'll definitely make it again and try changing it up a little just to see how it comes out each way.