Thursday, August 18, 2005
hotwurst
Boy have I been unmotivated to write lately. I haven’t jumped off any docks or won any trivia lately so it’s all pretty hum drum at the moment.
As for all that soccer stuff I mentioned, well let’s just summarize by saying that while soccer in the US is still a new phenomenon, US Soccer is going strong. The US won the regional championship (Gold Cup). The club season is just starting in Europe and some of the very biggest of the big dogs came by the US as part of their preseason and played some MLS teams. While the local teams all lost, they each played quite well. There are a ton of mitigating factors that cloud the judgment of just what it ‘means’ for our MLS puppies to show that they can run with the wolves. Setting all that aside, let me just say what a thrill it is for a fan like me to see the guys from ‘my league’ out there with Paolo Maldini and Arjen Robben. The gap is closing quite quickly…
I fell into a new sausage recipe last weekend which was fun. I was planning on making some bratwurst for a cookout with some of the frozen pork in the freezer. The night before, our neighbor had lent us two bottles of hot sauce which he likes. The one bottle was regular stuff but very hot, more so than our longtime favorite. The second bottle was Mad Dog Inferno Hot Sauce and this is in a different class all together. I’m not wimp when it comes to spicy food and this stuff made me uncomfortable. Just a dab on my pinky and pretty soon it felt like the soft tissue at the back of my mouth was swelling up. It only lasted a few minutes like that, but that was enough. In honor of our neighbor I thought it would be fun to add some of this stuff to the mix, to create a hotwurst if you will. So I set aside about a pound of the seasoned brat mixture and added 2 Tbl paprika (so the sausage would look different than the regulars), 2 Tbl brown sugar and 1 tsp of the Inferno stuff. Boy did these turn out well. Quite spicy and yummy. They had one of our friends coughing and hiccupping, but for everyone else they were just spicy enough to be interesting but still edible. Of course our neighbor enjoyed them but would like more heat. Apparently he eats this sauce straight up on crackers. Right. So I’ve promised to make him a special batch of hotwurst. I’m thinking I’ll try 3-4 times as much of the hot sauce to see how that works for him.
Boy have I been unmotivated to write lately. I haven’t jumped off any docks or won any trivia lately so it’s all pretty hum drum at the moment.
As for all that soccer stuff I mentioned, well let’s just summarize by saying that while soccer in the US is still a new phenomenon, US Soccer is going strong. The US won the regional championship (Gold Cup). The club season is just starting in Europe and some of the very biggest of the big dogs came by the US as part of their preseason and played some MLS teams. While the local teams all lost, they each played quite well. There are a ton of mitigating factors that cloud the judgment of just what it ‘means’ for our MLS puppies to show that they can run with the wolves. Setting all that aside, let me just say what a thrill it is for a fan like me to see the guys from ‘my league’ out there with Paolo Maldini and Arjen Robben. The gap is closing quite quickly…
I fell into a new sausage recipe last weekend which was fun. I was planning on making some bratwurst for a cookout with some of the frozen pork in the freezer. The night before, our neighbor had lent us two bottles of hot sauce which he likes. The one bottle was regular stuff but very hot, more so than our longtime favorite. The second bottle was Mad Dog Inferno Hot Sauce and this is in a different class all together. I’m not wimp when it comes to spicy food and this stuff made me uncomfortable. Just a dab on my pinky and pretty soon it felt like the soft tissue at the back of my mouth was swelling up. It only lasted a few minutes like that, but that was enough. In honor of our neighbor I thought it would be fun to add some of this stuff to the mix, to create a hotwurst if you will. So I set aside about a pound of the seasoned brat mixture and added 2 Tbl paprika (so the sausage would look different than the regulars), 2 Tbl brown sugar and 1 tsp of the Inferno stuff. Boy did these turn out well. Quite spicy and yummy. They had one of our friends coughing and hiccupping, but for everyone else they were just spicy enough to be interesting but still edible. Of course our neighbor enjoyed them but would like more heat. Apparently he eats this sauce straight up on crackers. Right. So I’ve promised to make him a special batch of hotwurst. I’m thinking I’ll try 3-4 times as much of the hot sauce to see how that works for him.
