Grandma Club

Making Sausage (Honorary Grannies)

Hats off to my friend Nikki who got together with a bunch of friends and made a shit-ton of sausage from scratch. Here are the directions she gave me for making Italian sausage:

80 lbs of pork shoulder, cut it up into good meat (no sinews etc.), bad fat (rubbery fat and sinewy stuff) and good fat (you know, the big slab hunks).

30% good fat, 70% good meat, grind them separately - the fat has to be ground twice to get it the right size, it must also be very cold before going into the grinder, and the meat gets ground once.

mix.

add salt, cracked fennel, red pepper flakes.

mix THOROUGHLY

cook a  bit to taste test

add more seasoning if needed

mix again

clean casings inside and out

stuff.

We were at it from 10 am to 6 pm.

that's a lot of sausage!

 
Images from the sausage party (oh, that sounds dirty).

Us grannies won't be doing this any time soon seeing as two out of three of us are vegetarians, but I'm so happy to see a large group of people getting together and spending time with each other this way. If you and your friends are doing grandma club adventures, let us know!

Cocoa Mix + Marshmallows

On Sunday the grannies got together and made three different type of marshmallows and cocoa mix. I believe I will be finding cocoa in my kitchen for days to come from the fun mess we made. That doesn't matter though because we had lots of fun making both of these food stuffs. We each made a different flavor cocoa mix and marshmallows to split three ways (so we all left we a nice selection of flavors). Here's what we did:

Noel made traditional cocoa mix and vanilla marshmallows.
Donovan made mint cocoa mix and peppermint swirl marshmallows.
I made winter spiced cocoa mix and spicy hot cinnamon marshmallows.

     
You can see more images from this project here.

We decided to stick with marshmallow flavors that matched our cocoa mixes. The only changes made to the recipes were done on Donovan's side. She couldn't find mint chocolate chips, so instead she bought Andes mini mint chocolate bars and chopped them up. They look really nice in the bag, especially with the layered effect she did. The other change was that she didn't add the egg that Martha Stewart's marshmallow recipe had because she couldn't see how it could be shelf stable. It turned out just fine, although we later figured out that the egg may be in the recipe to slow down the setting process so you can make the swirls easily. She made them happen anyway.

Marshmallows are really sticky while in the making. Because of this, you should definitely spray your pan liners and any utensils you use in pouring the marsh-mix. Powdered sugar is also really helpful when cutting your marshmallows; it helps them from sticking to each other. If you don't, you might end up with a marshmallow puppet like Noel did.

The finished spread:

Here are some other recipes we were considering but didn't go for: corn syrup free marshmallows, strawberry marshmallows and white chocolate cocoa mix.

Noel's Oat & Honey Vodka

Making/infusing liquor is an upcoming GC project. Until then, here is a liquor recipe tested by Noel.

 

Total: 10 mins, plus infusing time  | Active: 10 mins
Makes: 1 liter
Adapted from Blue Hill Stone Barns

INGREDIENTS
* 1 liter top-shelf vodka
* 3/4 cup raw honey
* 2 cups rolled oats, preferably organic (not instant)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine all ingredients in a large glass jug with a screw-on cap or a nonreactive plastic container with a tight fitting lid. Seal the jug or container and shake well. Leave vodka in a cool place overnight.

2. Refrigerate for 5 days, shaking the mixture vigorously about once a day.

3. Strain mixture through a cheesecloth-lined fine-mesh strainer into a clean container. Keep refrigerated.

4. Serve infused vodka on the rocks or blended with a little half-and-half to make a Quaker Shaker. Shake well before using.

Extracurricular Activities

 
We grannies tend to do many grandma club-type activities outside of the group. While we will try to share the projects we do on our own here, we don't always get around to it. I know for certain Noel has been very busy in the canning department; she recently made Habanero Gold Jelly with her sister and I think she did some pickling as well.

Anyway, Donovan and I got together on Sunday and made some more of that tasty Strawberry Lemon Marmalade she created for our first canning adventure. This time around she made a lime version and I made the regular lemon version, giving us 14 small jars each. Some will be used as gifts and some will go onto our toast.

To go along with the nice batch of jam we made, I ventured into making the French treat, Pain Brioche. It is an extremely good bread, but I would only suggest this recipe to people who have stand mixers. It took a long time to "knead" in my mixer and I cannot imagine someone having to do it by hand without their arms falling off. The recipe is a little long to type out, so I've scanned it and posted it here for anyone who would like to try it.

I will be posting about another honorary granny soon. I'm so happy that our projects are influencing others to explore making things from scratch! Our next meeting is in two weeks and involves cocoa, marshmallows and a guest granny. See you then!