Day #10 - Gravy, Italian Sausage and Whoopie Pies

It is raining, again, that means no softball, no running, no nothing!  I don't know how many days of rain we have had, but I am done, I need some sunshine! My wonderful, Italian husband is going to make some homemade "gravy" today with the rest of last summer's tomatoes. Our garden will be planted on April 19th, we plant on the same day every year, we put in between 6-8 tomato plants, some jalapeno's, green beans, cucumbers and last year I ventured into the world of herbs with some basil (NOTHING smells better than fresh basil).  A few years ago I started freezing my tomatoes so we could enjoy them all year, that way we would have them  for "gravy", chili and soups. I have never made Italian sausage, but my husband's grandma would come visit his family at Christmas and make all kinds of yummy food with Tom's dad.  I remember the deep fried cauliflower, it was dipped in some sort of batter and then fried, the funny this is, I am not a huge fan of cauliflower!  Well, one of the things they would make every year was Italian sausage, 100 lbs of sausage!  Unfortunately, Tom's dad and grandma are no longer with us to give us a little guidance in the sausage making, so we are just going to wing it and I think we did a pretty good job for our first time!

Chop up the meat

Send it through the meat grinder

Add the seasonings and mix together

We needed to sample it to see if it needed any additional seasoning, so we fried up a patty.

Then we decided to add some sauce and parmesan cheese and a meatball, it was delightful!

I decided we needed some sort of sweetness to eat, so I decided that I was going to make some Whoopie Pies.  This isn't totally my grandma's recipe, except for the frosting, she call's it "Mock Whipped Cream Icing" and the funny thing is, I saw this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's web site!  The Pioneer Woman was making "Devil Dog's", she used a Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe and the Icing to make these, both of these recipe's are in my grandma's cookbook!  When we go visit our friends, Andy and DeAnn in Oklahoma this summer, I am going to make these "Devil Dog's", I can't wait!

Ingredients for the Whoopie Pie cake/cookie portion

Mix all this together

Drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet and bake

I have to admit the first time I read the Mock Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, I was a little skeptical, the ingredients seemed a little strange to me, but when I saw it on the Pioneer Woman's web site, I thought, "it has to be good" and I have to say it was tasty!

Cook milk and flour, until it is thickened, let cool completely
Then with a mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar and then add the cooled milk/flour mixture and beat for about 10 mintues.
To assemble the Whoopie Pies, take one of the cakes, spread some frosting on the bottom and top with another cake.  They are like big Oreo cookies

By the way, the gravy was wonderful!  My husband out did himself again!