"not so cheap" imitations

Many of you have maybe never wondered what you would do if you couldn't get good pork sausage so you could make a batch of holiday sausage and cheese balls. Well, over here, we think about what to do when you can't get a lot of stuff, but especially pork products! Fortunately, there are some really smart women living abroad that have thought of substitutions for practically everything it seems. And someone actually developed an imitation sausage recipe. Can you believe it?! (Too bad we can't find a substitute for a good pork chop, huh?)

So here's how you make imitation sausage . . .

Add to a pound of ground beef: 2 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. yellow mustard, 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and 1 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix it all well with a fork, and shape, cook, use as you please!

That solves the problem of having no sausage. How about Bisquick? Well, another really intelligent woman has developed a substitute for that as well. For the recipe I have, I had to use powdered milk. We looked everywhere for it a few months ago with no success. Then all of a sudden someone in our country discovered it in a warehouse kind of store. The catch? It costs about $20 for a kilo of the stuff!!! Is it worth it? Absolutely!!! (And it only took about 1/3 cup of powdered milk, so there's plenty more for another batch or two.)

I made my first batch of imitation sausage and cheese balls last night, and they were "melt in your mouth" delicious! There was no pork involved, but we sure made "pigs" out of ourselves when we started eating them.

So there you have it . . . our "not so cheap" imitation sausage and cheese ball post-holiday treat! If you ever get tired of the real thing, give this beef sausage a try . . . and let us know what you think!!!