Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings: Sheet Pan Sausage & Veggies And Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins, Limelight Hydrangea

This beautiful shrub at our driveway entrance is a Limelight Hydrangea providing some great mid-summer blooms.

Due to our recent stop at the Wurst Kitchen on the way home from Kathy’s wedding, we had lots of sausages in the freezer and some potatoes and peppers that needed to be used so Pam’s recent post for Sheet Pan Sausage, Peppers, and Potatoes looked like the perfect meal to use them. How could you go wrong with these three main ingredients? Well just read on. I meant to follow Pam's recipe and double everything but the sausage to have leftovers but would you believe I forgot the spices and only used S&P so the recipe I used is below – getting old and forgetful is the pits.

Sheet Pan Sausage, Peppers, and Potatoes

Ingredients:

Salt and black pepper to taste

2 lb. potatoes (Larry used peeled and cut up larger Yukon Golds)

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 orange bell pepper, chopped

2 med onions, chopped

1½-2 tbsp olive oil to taste

4 sausages, sliced on a diagonal (Larry used raw Lithuanian from the Wurst Kitchen)

2 tsp fresh parsley finely chopped, for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

~~Make the seasoning blend by whisking together the garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, paprika, coriander, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste until well combined~~.

Season the potatoes and veggies by placing the baby potatoes, bell peppers, and onions in a large bowl and sprinkling the seasoning over them. Drizzle the olive oil over the veggie mixture, and toss until everything is evenly coated. Side Note: I use my hands to ensure the vegetables are fully coated with the seasoning.

Spread the sausage, veggies & potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and season with S&P.

Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, tossing halfway.

Return to the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, tossing halfway, until caramelized and the veggies & potatoes are tender.

Of course, I forgot the finished pic but here is my plate.

The Verdict:

It was delicious, even without the spices, and the five of us must have loved it as the only leftovers were one small piece of sausage and three potato pieces. Lack of leftovers was due in part because all of my veggies wouldn’t fit on the pan. I may have an oven temp issue as the potatoes were not done after 45 minutes so I flipped another sheet pan over and used it as a lid to steam everything for 15 more minutes. Mine never did caramelize due to the amount of liquid released by the veggies. I look forward to making this one pan meal again and following Pam’s recipe exactly.

The unused potatoes, peppers, and onions were fried the next morning and topped with two sunny side up eggs (big surprise huh).

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins (Bakery-Style Recipe)

I had saved this recipe to use up some blue berries from the freezer and Cindy came upstairs with some fresh berries and announced she was making muffins so I let her compare the recipe she had with this one and she chose it.

The recipe comes from Chef Dennis Littley on his “Ask Chef Dennis” blog. Rather than reproduce the long recipe on here, I will let you just click the link for it and many good how-to pics. These are Cindy's.