By Life-Over Easy by Adele Stackhouse
Today we started off our morning with some “Life-Over Easy,” which is essentially sausage patties and eggs cooked over-easy. I actually started preparing the sausage patties yesterday night, as the recipe said they could keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. I love that!
The patties weren’t too challenging to make, but you do need a food processor. It would be really difficult to make them without one.
The recipe also calls for “pork fat (from the butcher)” which was not actually available at my butcher. Or the next butcher I checked with. Or the one after that. I finally found some at an Asian grocery store, though.
The sausages had to cook for longer than the recipe initially indicated, but once finished they were really good. A little too fatty for me, but my husband had no issues with them at all. In fact, he’s planning to make the rest of them for his breakfast tomorrow (it made 12 patties).
The eggs were VERY good. Instead of regular eggs over-easy, they have you cook the eggs in bacon fat. Mmmmmmm…. so tasty!!!
Taste: Eggs 10/10, Sausage 8/10
The eggs were amazing – I LOVED them. And the sausage tasted really good, but was a bit too fatty for me. My husband, however, didn’t mind the fat at all. So to each his/her own!
Difficulty: Somewhat Easy
The recipe wasn’t too challenging to follow, but there is some prep work involved that isn’t listed in the instructions (i.e. obtaining bacon grease by cooking bacon). It also involves a food processor, which not everybody has in their kitchen.
Cost: Average
The pork for the sausages was the biggest cost here, but overall it costs less if you make your own sausage patties then if you were to buy them pre-made.
Suggestion:
I would eliminate the extra pork fat they add to the sausage patties. It would taste just as good without the added fat, and be fewer calories!
Sweet Tea by Jason Stackhouse
This is my favorite recipe so far! They’re not kidding when they say “sweet” tea, but it wasn’t nearly as much sugar as the lemonade I made yesterday. My husband said it was “just on the edge of being too much sugar” for him, but I loved it. I used regular Lipton black tea bags, but you could use some fun flavored-tea for this one and it would still be really tasty!
Taste: 10/10
This sweet tea was SO good! And with a squeeze of lemon, it was perfect.
Difficulty: Easy
This was extremely easy to make.
Cost: Cheap
The only costs here would be tea bags, sugar, and lemon.
Suggestion:
I wouldn’t change a thing, personally, but if you don’t like things overly sweet you could easily cut back the amount of sugar on this one.
What a Fried Chicken by Sookie Stackhouse
This recipe asks that you cut up a full chicken into pieces, but then doesn’t explain how. You would have to go online to find out exactly what to do. I already had some chicken drumsticks in my fridge, so instead of spending money on the full chicken I just used those.
I poured our entire bottle of vegetable oil into the pot to fill it about 2-inches deep, and it took quite a while for the oil to heat up to the correct temperature. I went out and bought a candy/fry thermometer for this purpose, and I’m really glad I did! I would have assumed the oil was hot enough way earlier, and then the chicken wouldn’t have cooked correctly.
After coating the chicken in the flour-mixture, I dropped the chicken into the oil. The oil bubbled A LOT. I was a bit concerned, since I couldn’t actually see the chicken underneath all of those bubbles to monitor it, but I kept them in there for as long as the recipe called for and it was cooked perfectly.
The outside was crisp, and the inside was moist and cooked all the way through. I thought it was really tasty, and it was husband-approved as well. For those who enjoy fried foods, this one is well worth it. I personally wouldn’t make it again, as it felt like a waste of vegetable oil, but if you cook fried foods often then you could recycle the oil and use it again.
Taste: 9/10
It could use a dipping sauce, but otherwise was very good!
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
If you were to follow the directions through exactly and cut up a whole chicken, it would be a bit more challenging. But without the chicken-cutting, it was really easy.
Cost: Average
The biggest cost here was the chicken, but it would be cheaper to buy a full chicken and cut it up then it would be to buy it in pre-cut parts. And though vegetable oil isn’t really all that expensive, don’t plan on saving any unless you will be reusing it again for future frying.
Suggestion:
Find a nice dipping sauce to serve with the chicken. It doesn’t necessarily need it, as it’s tasty on its own, but it could take the recipe to the next level.
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