My Popular Sausage Zucchini Muffin Recipe

I have been asked for some of my Zucchini recipes and what to do with this popular summer Squash. If your at work and people want to give it away, you will find most people will take a few at first, then nobody wants any more. However you can do more with it than most people know, I mean I like to get out my seasoned cast iron fry pan and mix it with Yellow Squash and Onions.

Dehydrating it is great, and I will add this same recipe made with dehydrated Zucchini Squash later. My goal is to show you what to do with it while it is fresh and everywhere you turn. If one will grow, you will get others until the plant dies. Or other people will get sick and tired of them, along with some people who grow them for fun, will just give them away....

Now I am not known for top rated cooking, okay I am a awesome trail cook and a self proclaimed Gravy Master, but there are some recipes I have gotten or I create on my own. This one was modified from a souffles recipe I made up, but it was better as a muffin. I had too many eggs on hand and was being creative and stumbled upon this idea/recipe.

From Boy Scout meetings to Swim meets, these became a family favorite very quickly. Then during parties these just disappeared and rave reviews were heard many times. If your looking to get married, remember the way to a mans heart is through his stomach. LOL... Enjoy... Jason

Sausage Zucchini Muffins

2 pounds of (any) sausage
3 cup zucchini, grated
3 large egg
1 medium/large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup reduced sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
2  teaspoon garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
cooking spray
******Note at bottom*******

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
Cook Sausage, let cool.. Grate zucchini on medium side of grater. In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients and season with salt & pepper to taste.

Fill each muffin section to the top, pushing down on the filling with your spoon so it's nice and compacted so they don't fall apart when you take them out of the tin.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden. Remove by inserting knife around edges after they are cooled some, about 10 minutes.

****** Because you can make these with different types of sausage, they can be served at different times of the day. If you make the recipe with breakfast sausage, I do suggest, you can eat/serve them for breakfast. If you want to make these for appetizer's or as an hors d'oeuvres, use a mini muffin pan and reduce cooking times by a third or a little more. In any case be sure to make plenty and be on guard because once your family realizes and has what your making, they'll never be safe again when cooling, trust me. ******  

Fall Colors and Seasons of Change Means Shifting Gears

I like Autumn, it does close Summer and puts a lid on the harvest season and opens a whole different mind set on the Homestead. I will be pulling down the solar water heater as the snow and temps no longer support it. The fall gathering of wild mushrooms, nuts and other free goods mother nature hands over is the final reward before hunting season opens.

Hunting season for me isn't about bagging the big buck, and so if he walks in front of my deer stand I will harvest him. I take no real reward in his rack, if it pleases the guy in the next stand over he can have him. I just want to get a buck that is legal and fill my other Doe tags for the food value. I always pass on smaller Does as I know there are plenty of older Does ready for canning. I also grind them up for Sausage, Bologna and Jerky. This year I am going to be keeping the Deer Liver for a Liver Sausage recipe that I found.

I look forward to small game hunting as well as fall turkey season with Joshua who just loves to bird hunt. This year he is excited to turkey hunt as I teach him to use a new turkey call. If I had dogs I would be shifting towards hunting more rabbits, but I am considering raising rabbits next year for food because having a beagle right now isn't on my list.

I will be priming the smoker this weekend for this years seasoning of food for me and my friends. Getting everything ready for winter means putting everything away and stored properly until next spring. I am considering setting up the Greenhouse but haven't decided to do it. I was thinking of putting it over the cold frame.

You have not heard me mention wood splitting as we did split some, but last year it was so warm, we have plenty of wood left over. We processed so much maple syrup, we will be selling off all of our goods this year. That money will sure up my SS fund pretty nice. I still have a few projects to wrap up for the season and do some clean-up and get ready for the holidays, hunting, and wintertime.

Sugar Season Is Coming, Get Your Pork Bellies Ready

Last summer Joshua and I headed into the woods to mark our own Maple trees. Armed with a Canadian flag and pictures of types of Maple trees, we started scouting in the middle of the front yard. Joshua spotted our first tree. Using blue plastic marking tape, we tied the tape around every tree we found that we could tap for sugar season this year.

We found 39 trees on the homestead that could be tapped, 14 of those are sugar maples. So then I decided to gather the two different saps separate in order to sell off the batch made from the sugar maples as the syrup is a better quality. I see that syrup is going for $88 dollars a gallon, so I hope to sell some to pay for the new barrel I had to buy and cover other minor cost. I had wish listed most of my supplies so I consider those as gifts in order to keep my SS fund above $1K. 

Make the task of gathering the sap easier, not knowing how much snow will be on the round, we mapped out our trail around the property to gather the sap. Than I decided it would to our advantage to clear and trim out the path around the property. We removed old logs, used some as firewood, cut limbs below head level. We drove the tractor around to decided which approach would be the safest for us. 

As the cold weather is here now, the smoker is cured and ready for meat. This years bacon video will include a smoking how to as well. In order to the best use of the smoker, we are going to smoke the sausage and bacon together but do two separate videos. As I type this, I have bacon in the fridge curing...

Its a simple 3 ingredient cure and any one can make/smoke their own!!!