The Betty Crocker Project : Southwestern Sausages with Spicy Corn

I really just don’t like real-time strategy games; they’re way too hectic for me. “Oh no! His axemen are attacking my fort! Better go click on these archers and send them over. Oh wait crap, those are the cavalry. Are cavalry strong against axemen? I forget. Oh crap they’re not, they’re getting slaughtered. Better send them into the fort to heal. Ack, I had the archers selected; now they’re not firing on the axemen anymore. What happened to those cavalry? Oh great, they’re dead.” No thanks.

The thing is, I THINK that I like RTS games. Or maybe I just want to like them. I don’t know. But despite years of playing these games and not really enjoying any of them (Command & Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, etc etc etc) every time some flashy new one comes out I think “Ooh, that game looks good!”

This weekend, there was a King Arthur game on sale for like 75% off on Steam. I LOVE King Arthur. Had this old bound illustrated storybook when I was a kid and everything. “I’ll have to try this game out,” I thought to myself. “Oh, look though, it’s an RTS. But it’s such a good deal… I’ll just try it.” Two hours later, I had a pile of dead cavalry and was thoroughly annoyed with myself for yet again falling into the trap of forgetting my own personal preferences.

I do the opposite of this with fresh salsa. Annie always gets it at Trader Joes, and I always think to myself “Hmm, I don’t know, I don’t really like fresh salsa.” And then we get home at eat it, and I’m always like “Oh damn, this is really good! Note to self for next time: you like fresh salsa.” And then the next time we’re at Trader Joes, and Annie puts it in the cart, I go “Hmm, I don’t know…” And the circle is complete.

Today we’re going to hopefully hammer this message into my feeble little brain once and for all, by making our own fresh salsa. It’ll be the perfect condiment for our sausages, prepared with Betty’s delicious Southwestern Rub. Future self, if you’re reading this post, please listen to me: you really like fresh salsa. And you don’t like real-time strategy games. Really.


Salsa

• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 small green pepper
• 8 green onions
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon jalepenos (chopped)
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• ½ teaspoon salt

You’re gonna start with the tomatoes. Cut them in quarters, and scoop out all the juicy seedy parts on the inside. Just leave yourself with the skin from the outside—like you’d cut a pepper (foreshadowing!). Chop that part up into bits about the size of nickels or dimes, depending on how chunky you want your salsa to be. Chop the green pepper and green onions next, into pieces smaller than the size you cut the tomatoes into.

Mix everything together in, well, a mixing bowl. Make sure all the tasty little bits are pretty evenly distributed through the tomatoes.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for at least an hour. No sweat if it stays in there longer than that. You’re just giving all the flavors time to have a big party with the lights off and get their flavors all into one another. That sounds filthy.


Southwestern Rub

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 large garlic (chopped)

Mix all the goodness together in a small bowl. Nothing tricky here, just blend it all up. That’s it.


Spicy Corn

• 2 cups corn (frozen or canned; if frozen, thawed)
• 1 tablespoon margarine (we always use Earth Balance)
• 1 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning

Put the corn in a microwave-safe bowl, and put the margarine on top in a dollop. Sprinkle the creole seasoning on top of the margarine, so that when it melts the seasoning will coat the corn. Microwave for two minutes. Stir when done.


Sausages

• 1 pack Field Roast Chipotle flavor sausages (thawed)
• Enough hot dog buns for your sausages (we used whole wheat bakery ones, and they were GOOD)
• Salsa (see above)
• Southwestern rub (see above)

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a glass baking dish, cover the sausages in the southwestern rub. Spoon the rub on there in a generous helping, and then using your hand, rub it into the sausage—and there’s no delicate way to say this, so I’m just gonna say it—like you’re giving the sausage a hand job. A spicy, grainy hand job. It’s all in the wrist.

Bake the sausages in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn over, then bake for another 10 minutes.

Once baked, stick your sausages in the hot dog buns and top them generously with the salsa. Serve with corn on the side. Or, if you really want to go nuts, you could sprinkle the corn on top of the sausages as well. Do what’s in your heart.