Pasta with Parmesan White Sauce and Summer Sausage

When I was visiting my family for my niece's birthday, naturally the dinner choices were either go out or I would need to cook. Since we had already been out twice during the visit, I decided to make dinner. My mom presented me with a package of summer sausage, and I remembered that the magazine I read on the plane had a recipe for Summer Sasuage Alfredo. I figured that if I made a simple white sauce it would probably be a little healthier so I made the following...

Pasta with Parmesan White Sauce and Summer Sausage

12 oz pasta

1 package summer sausage

3+1 sliced green onions, separated 

1/2 to 1 cup sweet peas

4 cocktail tomatoes or 2 Roma, cut into quarter sized pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for garnish 

Parmesan White Sauce

2 tbsp Parmesan 

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp floor

1 cup milk

Dash of salt

Cook pasta and sweet peas according to their packages. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Slice the sausage into bitesize pieces. When the oil is hot, sauté the sausage in the skillet. 

Meanwhile, make the sauce by heating the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the flour and sauté for a minute or so. Slowly whisk in the milk as the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat to low. Add the salt and Parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. 

Add three green onions and tomatoes to the sausage and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the pasta, peas, and sauce. Spoon into bowls. Top with more Parmesan, and the remaining green onion, salt, and pepper. 

Notes: when I make this again, I'd like to try swapping the peas with either green beans or broccoli and top it with some fresh parsley. 

Parmesan Flat Bread

To start out the grilling season, Ryan and I made kabobs! Thank you to my sister and her husband for the awesome flat skewers! We had chicken, onions, cherry tomatoes, green bell peppers, zucchini, and pineapple (pictured right). The chicken, veggies, and tomatoes were spread with barbeque and grilled to perfection. For the pineapple, we marinated chunks in red wine for a few hours before grilling it. Then for some carbs to go with our kabobs, we made some Parmesan Flat Bread. Mmmm!

Parmesan Flat Bread

2-3 inch ball of Spent Grain Bread dough

Flour

3 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and pepper

1/4 c shredded parmesan

Preheat a grill to medium heat. Sprinkle the ball of dough with flour. Spread out into a flat, round crust. Press chopped garlic cloves into the dough (alternatively you could mix the chopped garlic into the dough before spreading it out). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill one side of the bread until golden brown. Flip the bread over and sprinkle with parmesan. Grill until this side is also golden brown and the parmesan cheese is melted.

                   Before                                                                                                         After

 

Parmesan Turkey Burgers and Yellow Squash

My sister made these burgers for the first time years ago.  I never even thought about making burgers out of other ground meat (besides ground beef) until she had me try these.  The recipe is quite basic, but feel free to try adding or substituting other ingredients to it.  Different toppings also can add new and exciting flavors.  Ryan and I are constantly making up "new" burgers.  We love experimenting.  For a base, we switch between ground beef, turkey, chicken, or pork.

The Original Parmesan Turkey Burgers
Makes 4 turkey burgers

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 T chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1/8 t salt
• 4 hamburger buns
• Red onion rings

Heat grill for direct heat.  Mix together the turkey, Parmesan cheese, chives, pepper, and salt.  Shape into 4 patties, about 1/2 inch thick.  Grill patties for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning once, or until no longer pink in the center. Grill onion rings, if desired.  Serve patties on buns with onion rings.  Add extra toppings, if desired.  Be creative.  The first night Ryan and I ate these we added BBQ, tomatoes, and pickles to them (pictured above).  The second night, we just added Fire-Roasted Salsa to them, which made them pretty much the best turkey burger I've ever had!

Whenever we grill burgers, we like to also grill some vegetables to go with the main entree.  The day we made the turkey burgers, we grilled up some yellow squash.

Grilled Yellow Squash

• 1 yellow squash, cut in half length-wise
• Pepper
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt

Sprinkle pepper and seasons salt on squash.  Grill flesh side down until tender.  Flip over and grill for one more minute.