Breakfast Sausage

We butchered a hog yesterday, ending up with 22# of meat/fat for sausage.  Here's my recipe for breakfast sausage...

22# ground pork and fat (about 70/30)
7 T Sea salt
1 cup rubbed sage
1 teaspoon each:

• Paprika
• Cayenne
• Ground cloves
• Ground Ginger
• Savory
• Mace
• Nutmeg
• Black Pepper
• Ground Thyme

Cut meat and fat into cubes, chill for at least an hour.  Sprinkle seasoning over meat cubes then grind with a coarse plate.  Make a patty and fry it up to check seasonings.  Make any adjustments in seasonings and run through the grinder a second time. 

The Best Cake I Ever Made!

We've been able to buy and put up more cherries this year than I can ever remember doing in a year.  As a result I have several new "products" in my pantry to experiment with.  Today was one of experiments...

Cherry Filled Chocolate Coconutty Cake.

1 Dark Chocolate Cake mix

1/2 stick butter

1/3 cup oil

1 1/2 cups water

3 eggs

1 qt cherry pie filling

1/4 pt cherry-almond preserves

1 cup coconut

1 tsp almond extract

In the workbowl of the mixer blend together the dry cake mix and the butter until the butter is well incorporated.  Add eggs, oil, and water and mix well.  Add coconut and almond extract, stir until blended.  Pour into a well greased bundt cake pan and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until cake tests done.  Allow cake to cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan. 

Allow the cake to cool completely, then with a bread knife remove the top 1/4 of the cake.  Use a spoon to hollow out the center of the bottom layer of the cake, then fill with pie filling.  Carefully replace the top of the cake, using toothpics to sure up any cracks if needed. 

Use the cherry-almond preserves to glaze the assembled cake, arranging the cherries and almonds on the top.