Sausage with Dipping Sauce

I served this recipe as the regional dish for the Pittsburgh Steelers for our Super Bowl party. I found the recipe online by googling “steelers recipes” after I couldn’t find anything with my searches for Pittsburgh or Pennsylvania recipes. I didn’t really have very high hopes for it, but it turned out great. I thought it was delicious and by the time I went back for seconds, I was out of luck. The dish had been wiped clean.

Sausage with Dipping Sauce

Adapted from the Post Gazette

1 lb of sausage like kielbasa or farmer’s sausage (I used farmer’s sausage from Costco)
1 cup beer (I used Mt. Begbie Tall Timber Ale)

Sauce:
2 cups chili sauce
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
3/4 cup brown sugar

Slice the sausage into 1/2 inch-thick rounds. Place in a skillet with the beer over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook stirring for about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain.

Mix all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve the sauce warm with the sausage slices.

Quick Beer Bread

Yesterday morning, I was feeling a little restless and wondering what I would have for lunch. I didn’t really feel like any of the soups I had kicking around. I looked in the fridge about a dozen times, hoping that something tasty would appear. A half empty beer that C had opened the night before caught my eye. The beer hadn’t been particularly good and I would probably end up throwing it out in a week or two, so I decided to try it as a beer bread.

The recipe came together really quickly as it is a no-yeast, no-knead bread (which was good since I started it about an hour and 15 minutes before I had to go to class). The crust on the bread was surprisingly crispy which I really liked, however the weird taste of the beer that had caused it to remain un-imbibed in the fridge also gave the bread a somewhat weird taste. So while I would make this recipe again, I would use a beer that I actually enjoyed drinking as well.

Quick Beer Bread

Adapted from A Year in Bread
Yield: 1 loaf

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups beer (I used Howe Sound Brewing’s Father John Winter Ale)

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Spoon the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool 10 more minutes on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (This bread can be frozen).