Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Baked Scotch Eggs

How to Make my version of a Scotch Egg








These are amazingly yummy. easy to make and last very well when you can't refrigerate something.

A short note on food safety.  when making this it is important to THOROUGHLY cook your ingredients.  I tend to slightly over cook my eggs and  the final item to be absolutely sure the egg and sausage are done.  I also tend to put a slightly thicker layer of biscuit on it to ensure it does not break open.  these are all done to be sure that they don't go bad and will not make anyone sick.

Ok, on to the how to's


Ingredients:
eggs
sausage in the chub
Biscuit dough ( I use Bisquick and milk)

Preheat oven to 375 or so.  use the temp listed on your biscuit recipe)

Step one Hard boil you eggs.  place all the eggs you are going to use into a pot and cover in cold water.  put on your stove and bring to a rapid boil.  boil for an additional 12-15 minutes.  turn off heat and drain water.  fill container with room temp water and let sit until ready for them.

While your eggs are coming to a boil make your biscuit dough.  you want the dough to be firm enough that you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin.  I usually start with the amount of mix it tells me and then add in more a little at a time until it is a elastic, but not sticky dough.  set this aside until ready.

if you would like to season your own meat this is the time to do so.  I usually by the sage pork or turkey sausage in the plastic tubes.  just cut off the tip and squeeze into a bowl.


you will need a few baking sheets for this as rarely do I ever make only enough for 1 pan.  :)
I grease my pan with vegetable oil or use parchment paper.  prepare these and get ready.

Shell your eggs while still very warm/ hot.  you don't want to hurt yourself but this works much better if they are still too hot to eat when they go in the oven.

the rest of this is, for me, a little time sensitive.  I want the eggs still hot, as hot as I can safely handle without injuring myself  that way the center is already at temp.


1) take a golf ball to egg size portion of the biscuit dough and roll out on a floured surface with your rolling pin.  this needs to be big enough to wrap over everything and seal on itself.

2) spread out some sausage,   I have found to do this a bit off center so that you save a flap of dough by itself.

3)  place the shelled egg in the center of the sausage and start folding over the dough to envelop it.  be careful to not tear the dough.  we want this outer layer to stay in tact if at all possible.  if any dough does break, it is ok.  Just be sure they stay refrigerated after cooking.


place flap side down on the cooking sheets and place in oven.  the biscuit recipe on the box says something like 10 minutes or until golden brown.  I have found they usually need about 20-30 minutes.  and watch the color.  don't let them get to dark while in the oven.  light brown/ mid gold is good.  do not pull them out too light.  we are aiming to get that sausage cooked  all the way through.


if in doubt pull one egg from the tray and cut it open ( I have no problems sacrificing one to the food gods.)  if the dough or sausage is not finished cooking leave them in for a bit.


once they are cooked, pull them out and let them cool on a towel so the bottoms don't get mushy and there you go.  a high protein grab and go meal for those that can't sit for the full plate service.  they travel well and can be rolled up in foil to be heated on site as well.  Hope this helps those who were wanting this recipe.

Largesse Happens

As many know I am the Administrator for Largesse Makers on Facebook.  When the creator came to me about taking it over I was astounded.  I felt honored that she would give this to me to make my own.  I made a few changes and now it is open for all members of the medieval group we are a part of world wide.  I still can't believe that the page has grown as much as it has.  just WOW!

The Group's address is https://www.facebook.com/groups/121369587947475/

I took on the challenge because I believe in Making Largesse and Why we do it.  What is Largesse?  Well it means something different to some people, but what it means to me is a gift of appreciation, freely given without expectation.  it is something you give to say thank you and I appreciate what you have done and Way to GO!  For me there are differing levels of Largesse.

Personal Largesse-  something you make/ buy to be given out yourself as a personal thank you to the general populace.

Local Largesse- what you donate to the shire/ barony that you participate in locally, so that they have things to give out to other people in the local group as thank you for hard work, prizes for tournies, use by the group itself. ( Please note that at no time in this description does it say give to the barony to give out to other groups.  that is something different in my book.)

Common Use Largesse- this is when your group is gathering items for gift baskets to go elsewhere in the shire/ barony's name.  you are donating to the local group with no intention of any of it staying.

and finally Royal Largesse- This is the stuff you donate to the "Kingdom" or "Principality" level for gifting out as the Crown/ Coronet deem fit.


This is all Largesse and is meant to be a positive uplifting experience.  Make sure that when working on projects that when you say who made you include everyone involved.  for example.  if someone sews a haversack and they had tagged it when they gave to the group. and now that group give you the bag to decorate, don't just pull the other person's tag off and replace it with your own.  add your tag to it.  that way the recipient knows person A made the bag and Person B did the decoration.

Over the coming months I plan to share with you various items that I have made, or with permission, things others have made for Largesse.  this is meant for inspiration in your own work.  The information is freely given for use in the non- profit setting.  it is not ok to take this information and financially profit from it.


Friday, August 1, 2014

Well, I totally admit I am a slacker.  :)  Here it is August already and I STILL haven't gotten any pics up.   ok I will put batteries in the cam this weekend.  WHy?  beause I really do need to get these ideas out of my head and somewhere I can refer to them.  ALso I have several interested people that want to see what I have accomplished.  For 2014 so far I have completed several kumijimo cords, a knitted/ felt bag, cleaned a bunch of wool and alpaca, and oh yeah the biggest pat of the year was getting rid of the VAST majority of my stuff (Sadly to include my 4F project)  and Moved to a completely different corner of the country.

That was a ery stressful part of my life, I will not lie about that.  and doing that with ME made it even more interesting.  We are moved, unpacked to a livable degree and are working at our respective jobs.  Next step?  get a raise.  lol that way we can afford to go more places.  oh and get hired on permanently with the company so I don't have to watch the calendar for April. (1 yr contract).


As or my medieval arts and modern crafts, I have started spinning again and finished a neat little skein of merino wool in peach, white and green. I then navajo plied it on itself varying the chain loops to keep the colors/ transitions with themselves.  I think it turned out pretty good.  It started out as my go to event random color spinning project.  where I would just grab a section of color and spin it for a bit and when it got close to running out I would grab another color.  as I wrapped it on my spindle I noticed I ahad started to wrap the colors individually and had naturally started working up and down the shaft so the transitions followed the Pattern "Peach, white, peach, grean, peach, white, peach green."  lol can you tell what had the most fiber?  lol  I cant wait to figure out what to make with it.  it has a lovely sock weight to it and is so soft.

I am also working on a tablet weaving pattern. (grumble grumble grumble)  it isn't one of my own, and I am having trouble concentrating long enough at one time to really figure out how it was started.  I have seen people start in different places and I don't recall this person indicating where the A-B line was in relation to the beginning of the weave.

My roommate got some killer fabric and wants a couple of fighting shirts and eventually I need to stop wearing my under gowns by themselves.  lol I have the cutest tan an white plaid that I want to use for an over dress.  I had made my beloved a tunic out of my tan that was supposed to go with it, but as it turns out we both have a green under tunic so we will coordinate without doing that whole tourist matching Hawaiian shirt thing.  <shudder>

Mundane wise I get to do hand work at work between calls when it is slow so I have started crocheting 4" squares to make a checky skirt for work.  when it is done I plan to play with some Jacquard dyes.  I hope to have the skirt done before Christmas

Next up on the list is to get cracking on the measurements for yardage.  I need to do some of that nasty stuff called math to figure out how much fabric is oing to need to be woven next year and how much yarn needs to be spun for it.  oh yeah I am crazy  I am only giving myself another 5 years.  mundane life got in the way of my original goal of having a reproduction Eura Dress made from fleece to fabulous by 50th anniversay.  oh well it will give me more time to do more research.
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Well Tomorrow is going to be another long day, so it is time to hit the hay.  oh !  and a big shout out to Kesha Butler!  nd long distance friend from the company I work with.  She has an interest in all of this and I can't wait to introduce her to some awesome people on the East Coast.