Spicy Turkey Sausage

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted! We've been so busy. James has been sticking to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for three weeks now. All of my food preparation has paid off. I've been keeping at least sausage and soup in the freezer, and we've only run out twice. So whatever else is going on, there is something James can heat and eat if he gets hungry.

I've been doing things like peeling and de-seeding tomatoes, for fresh, organic spaghetti-style sauce and for ketchup. Both turned out fantastic. I'll be making more, and when I do, I'll pay attention to measurements so I can post some kind of recipe. I need to get a canning set-up so I can do huge batches and get them in jars. Especially for the ketchup.

The last time I made sausage, I made four pounds. I got tired of making it so often, so I did a huge batch. It's lasted almost a week.

The pork sausage turned out to be too fatty for James to tolerate, so I've been making it with turkey. He's at the point now where he can have things like garlic and peppers, so the sausage has gone spicy!

I started with this great recipe from Joyful Abode. I used turkey instead of pork, and I omitted the onion. Sadly, onion is in the next phase.

I added all of the ingredients from the recipe to a big bowl of ground turkey. Then I added minced garlic and super-finely-chopped jalapenos, red bell peppers, and funky little purple peppers that taste a bit like licorice. (For four pounds of turkey, I used 4 garlic cloves, 1/2 a big bell pepper, 4 jalapenos, and 3 little purple peppers. You can use as much or as little as you like. The sausage tastes fantastic even without these additions.) I mixed and mixed and mixed until I was sure all the ingredients were well blended with the meat. No one wants all the cayenne pepper in one bite.

Then I formed the meat into a log on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and rolled it in the parchment as tightly as I could and poked some holes in it. I baked at 350 degrees F for a little over an hour, until a meat thermometer said it was over 160 degrees. After it cooled, I sliced it into sausage patties, which I placed on another parchment-lined cookie sheet in the freezer.

This particular mixture smells amazing and tastes even better. I'm always in awe of my will power when I don't eat the entire log as I cut it up.

One little word of warning: if you don't poke holes in the parchment, there will be a geyser of hot and spicy turkey juice when you remove the meat thermometer, and it will shoot out all over your stove, oven, floor, counter...the only thing that saved me from getting burned was the partially closed oven door. So don't forget to poke the holes!