I can never make this great sandwich come out as good as the ones I can but from vendors at our local indoor/outdoor markets. I buy Italian sausage w/fennel. Cook as required. I wonder what I am doing wrong. OK, my creation is good but not anywhere as good as the ones from the vendors. Anyone know what I am doing wrong? I use Italian bread, not the junk stuff. Do they add some special ingredient that I don't know about?

PS, I'm saving my home made soup for the weekend snow bonanza. The freezer is filled with soup, stew, and tomorrow I think I'll make corn chowder. My freezer is small so I have to plan my cooking based on the space available to freeze it.

One of my favorite sandwiches.

I cook the sausage first, set aside, then in the same pan - saute the peppers and onions (and mushrooms, if that's your thing). Salt, pepper, red chili flakes. Just before the veggies are ready, I add a couple of garlic cloves (smashed and minced) for a minute or two. Bring back the sausage into the pan to rewarm with the veggies. Then fold everything into the roll, including the oil. The oil is now flavored with everything in the pan, and that - to me - makes the sandwich.

Sounds like you're doing it right - but maybe it's the garlic that's missing?

maybe a tomato salad.

Here's a recipe that I posted some time ago for kale salad with dried cherries. It actually came from the Christian Science Monitor.

Kale Citrus Salad

2 bunches of kale (about 1 lb), rinsed and dried, center ribs and stems removed, leaves thinly sliced crosswise

Juice of 2-3 lemons

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts or almonds

1/4 cup dried cherries, cranberries or currants

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheeses plus some bigger shavings to top the salad with

Sea salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Place the thinly sliced kale in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice and olive oil (add more of either thing if you feel like there's not enough to cover everything.) Massage the mixture with your fingers until all of the kale is well-coated and looks a bit darker in color. Let sit for a half hour (or not, if you're in a hurry!)

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat. Give it a taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. Top with the shaved cheese and serve.

And after I thought about it, I remembered it was you.


Cher

love the way wife makes corn bread.
Jiffy mix and use cream style corn instead of water.
so good.

I just finished making it, and am letting it cool a bit before chowing down. It came out great! No baguette in the house, so I made garlic croutons from a couple of stale hot dog buns.

It's early here on the Left coast, but I don't care. Supper is early tonight!

I pulled some baking powder biscuits out of the freezer and will microwave them to warm them up.

I was wondering how those projects were coming along.

Do you know I have never had split pea soup in my life? And I'm a boomer. I was thinking about this for the storm.

I'm going to ask the RG to make me some.


Cher

It's been in the single digits here and hit the spot. I have enough left over to have again tomorrow night and will probably freeze the rest.

Enjoy it. It's extremely good.

had 4 tonight, and it's gone. I have 3 kids here, 2 in college. I guess I should make it 1.5 lbs. of ground beef including all the other ingredients expanded. My wife travels, making it 4 sometimes.

Because we weren't sure how many were coming for dinner. Better to have too much--I hate running short of food. I used two pounds of ground beef and several different types of beans.

my diverting from the original recipe means improvement...sometimes not, but usually it improves.

We like the beans and ground beef, but added veggies get applause each time, while making it healthier. One of my favorite veggies now is kale. I look for ways to add it. If I see parsley in a recipe, I try to use kale though it's color is darker. In stews and soups, I prefer it now.