How to be a bridesmaid

L. (The Bride): Do you want to go to Hot Doug’s tomorrow and then come pick up/try on your bridesmaid’s dress?
Me: Yes.

Habas alla Catalana (Bean and sausage stew with mint)

It’s still chilly out, but the sun is shining. I want winter food, but I also want to wear skirts without tights even if I get goosebumps.   This recipe combines fresh springtime flavors like lamb and mint with a hearty bean stew in a tomato base.  It’s adapted from Joyce Goldstein’s Mediterranean the Beautiful Cookbook, which looks to have adjusted in price since last we cooked a recipe from it.  Go get yourself a copy.

When I say “adapted from” I also mean “simplified.” Joyce soaks the beans overnight and cooks them from scratch.  I crack open two cans of white beans, drain, and rinse them.  Joyce suggests chorizo or butifarra (a sweet lamb sausage).  I used merguez.  Recipe below:

Fat and juicy weiner

That subject line should bring me some interesting search terms, yes?  Chicago is a great sausage town with an embarrassment of encased riches (Hot Doug, I know you’re not single and I’m not single, but I still think we could make it work. Call me!).  But this Slotkowski knockwurst from Leon’s Sausage Company is almost obscene in its juiciness and flavor. I first spotted them at Gene’s Sausage Shop on Lincoln, but I passed them over.  When they showed up right next door at the HarvesTime, I couldn’t resist.  Grilled in a stove-top grill pan and garnished with some spicy brown mustard, this might be the best hot dog I have ever eaten.

Frittata with sausage, onion, and potato

I learned how to make frittata from The Velveteen Rabbi.  Her recipe involves onion, garlic, potato, chorizo or linguica, and eggs layered in a skillet and baked into an egg pie.  It’s endlessly flexible based on what you have around:  Spinach, feta, green onion, potato.  Roasted red pepper, italian sausage, potato, onion, garlic.  Sometimes I like to sprinkle the top with hot Hungarian paprika and fresh chopped flatleaf parsley.

I made one today to break a streak of eating like a sad graduate student, using a sweet/spicy chicken apple sausage, tiny red potatoes, and half a yellow onion.  Complete photos here, recipe after the jump.