Since BF's Grandma passed away a few months ago, his family has been kicking themselves for not learning certain family recipes from her while she was still alive. Since then, his dad has been obsessed with teaching everyone in the family traditions, recipes, etc. Two of these traditions are "sausage and dog biscuits."
From the time I met BF, I have heard about his family's home-made sausages. The first time I met his family, they made the pork links for dinner. Dog Biscuits are a type of cookie. No, not for the pooches, for people. Essentially, the recipe is just a biscotti cookie, but without the cinnamon and sugar or chocolate topping, etc. BF's grandma used to make them at Christmas, or for Easter, she would form the dough into little Easter Baskets.
*Side Story*
A family friend learned how to make the Dog Biscuits from BF's Grandma last year, so she made them for everyone for Christmas... BF's family has complained for a week about how "nasty" they were. I thought to myself, "How hard can it be to royally-screw-up a cookie? Maybe they aren't really nasty, everyone just likes the old version better." So I decided to try one. I took a bite, tried to chew it twice as I started to gag, spit it out on BFs' mom's kitchen floor, and wiped my tongue with a napkin to try get the taste off of it!
How could someone royally screw up a cookie!?! The only ingredients are sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla, and Crisco! It tasted like a stale-mold-poop-cookie-with-an-undetermined-funky-aftertaste. ICK! I then found out that the family friend was trying to make a "healthy" cookie (if there is such a thing), so she substituted the all purpose flour with wheat flour, and only added 1/2 the amount of sugar. I pondered this explination for a minute, and realized that EVEN IF that was all she did differently, the cookies still wouldn't taste this bad...
Anyway, today, Rick (oh, that's BF's dad), decided it was high time everyone learned how to make dog biscuits- the right way, and sausage. We had a great time, and got to eat our projects for dinner!
The Ingredients for the Sausage
Rick didn't even measure the spices; he seasoned to smell... and then made us all smell it so that we "know how much of everything to put in"
A bowl of pig's intestines, otherwise known as "cat guts." I stayed away from this area, it was a little too "ode to Breaveheart" for me
From L to R: Anthony, Flor, Mike (BF's brother, and "the M's" dad) and Rick
Since BF is a chef by profession, it was his job to recreate the recipe for the Dog Biscuits, he did it!
Flor and I making the cookies... See don't they look like little doggie bones?
Where does BF work as a chef?
ReplyDeleteHe works at a restaurant called Circo in the Bellagio.
ReplyDelete