Jim’s Faux Jambalaya

1lb polish sausage, sliced
1 package Lipton Cajun Rice and Sauce
1-2 large onions, diced
8-10 garlic gloves, sliced, chopped or pressed
1/2 – 1 can kidney beans (can use hot/chili beans)
2 cups water

Sauté sausage and onion until onion is caramelizing. Add garlic and sauté to briefly cook the garlic and develop its aroma.

Add other ingredients and cook, uncovered, until rice is done.

Mary Ann Pennington’s Hamburgers

1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bulk sausage
1/2 C Italian bread crumbs
1/3 C catsup
1 egg

For a pound of ground beef, mix in a half pound of bulk sausage. Stretch it with a half-cup of Italian breadcrumbs, and about a third of a cup of ketchup. One or two raw eggs to seal it together.

Note: With the bread and the sugar in the ketchup and the protein of the egg, these can burn easily.

Mary Ann Pennington, Emerald Beach

Kielbasa-Rice Pilaf

4 cups julienne green pepper
2 cups ringed onion
fresh minced garlic to taste
20 oz canned garbanzo beans, drained
10 oz frozen black-eye peas, partially thawed
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 1/2 lb polish sausage
2 1/4 cups hot water
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Sauté green pepper and onion, in olive oil, until tender-crisp.  Remove from pan.  Add rice and stir to absorb oil.  Add water, garlic, salt, pepper and black eye peas.  Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add garbanzo beans.  Slash polish sausage at one inch intervals around outside edge.  Place atop pilaf and continue cooking an additional 10-15 minutes.

Variation:  I like slicing the sausage into rounds and sautéing to brown.  Then removing from the pan to continue with the recipe as above.  Then add the sausage back to the pan with the rice.  A chopped red pepper can be added for color enhancement.