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Armadillo Droppings…. a Ryan Holiday Tradition

on Dec 22, 2018 in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

First, I’d like to start by talking about blogs.  I have a sister who says she hates blogs.  She just wants to get to the recipe and get on with it.  Doesn’t need to read a lot of inconsequential fluff.  I do agree with how she feels, I find myself scrolling down to find the “meat and potatoes” of the blog and what I am looking for.  That being said,  I’m blogging and jabbering.  Feel free to scroll down to the “meat and potatoes” but I must warn you…unlike most recipe bloggers, I rarely have the actual recipe in one convenient spot.  If I  do, you found the prize in the Cracker Jack box!  This may or may not lead me to lose 3 out of my 5 readers.

So on with the droppings.  Back when the internet was fairly young and Facebook wasn’t even a gleam in Zuckerbergs eyes, I found a site called “Iwon” and well along with trying to win (something that did not happen) I discovered message boards, or was it called a chat board?  I don’t remember, what I do remember is spending a lot of time conversing with folks all over the states and world.  (Several of whom I’m still in contact with).  During that time, someone posted a recipe for Armadilla Eggs (I believe it was Trapper), I decided to give it a try that Christmas.  They were a hit but a lot of fuss and very large, so I decided to turn that yummy hors devours in to something more manageable.  And that is how the Armadillo (I have a hell of a time spelling it correctly) droppings came to be.

Ok, so lets get cooking!!!

First we shall gather the parade of parts.  ( You might have to access a previous blog of mine to get what I’m referencing)

Line up!!!

This recipe calls for bisquick, fiesta cheese (a combo of cheddar and Monterey jack….or whatever you want),  2lbs of ground sausage, garlic powder, crushed red peppers, eggs and jalapeno’s.  These jalapeno’s were pretty large but I stuck with twelve.  You can always adjust to your own taste and could even substitute less (or more) aggressive peppers, but what would the good in that be.  (You could even be like anther of my sisters and remove the peppers all together, but than they are no longer Armadillo droppings they are just sausage, cheeseballs.)  So we begin by chopping and if you desire you can remove the seeds.  I try to remove most seeds. I highly recommend during this step to use gloves!  Too many times I’ve ended up with jalapeno burn in my eyes and numerous other areas (???????).

Fun Facts. Gloves are used in the Foodservice Industry for minimizing contact with ready to eat foods. Generally, foodservice employees are required to wash hands before starting work or putting on single-use gloves. Due to the incidence of latex allergies, many people switch to vinyl or nitrile gloves. Poly gloves are a very inexpensive alternative. Latex, Vinyl and Nitrile gloves are available in powder and powder-free varieties. The powder in the gloves are made of USDA cornstarch. Powder-free gloves are generally more expensive than powdered gloves because gloves must be powdered to be removed from the mold they are made on. The majority of disposable gloves are manufactured in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

After we chop the peppers put them in a large bowl with the sausage, 1 to 2 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. Depending upon how you feel about working raw meat with your hands, you may want to grab another pair of those cheap gloves.  So now just start kneading all of those ingredients together.

Because high cholesterol is currently on my mind, thought this fact might be interesting to those in the not know. Red pepper flakes are known to aid in reducing blood cholesterol levels.

After you have that all incorporated, I added the cheese.  Like previously mentioned you could use any combo of cheese that makes you happy.  I put 5 cups of that fiesta blend in and again work it well.

“age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are cheese” Luis Bunell

After that is worked well, I add in the eggs.  I have decided this is probably not necessary and if you have an egg allergy, I highly recommend you remove them!  I used two and that was just fine.  I made a little well in the meat mix , I’m not sure why I just thought it looked like I knew what I was doing by doing so.

Why can’t you tease egg whites?
They can’t take a yolk.

And our final ingredient is bisquick.  You want the meat balls to be sticky but not so sticky that you can’t bind them and that is where the bisquick comes in.  Normally I just toss ingredients in willy nilly but since I wanted to share a workable product, I actually measured everything.  (So not me)  It took 2 and a half cups of bisquick to get the consistency I like.  Once again everything is worked well into each other.  So many recipes tell you to not work things too much or the opposite.  Armadillo droppings are not finicky, they don’t care if you work them a lot or a little.  If you are squeamish when it comes to hand mixing food maybe just mix until you are sure they are incorporated, it you are feeling stress you might want to squish and work the mix more!  It is all about what makes you feel good!

nothing to do with the blog but it is the holidays so this might be important. “Knead Pain and Stress Relief? Try Massage Therapy
As research on the benefits of massage therapy continues to grow, more people are turning to this ancient form of healing to improve their health.”

As I mentioned, I don’t normally measure things so I took two balls and did a test run on how long and how well they would hold together or if I’d need to adjust my recipe.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” ~Hippocrates

So after the test, I determined they tasted wonderful and that the correct cooking time and temp was 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Of course if you make your balls smaller or larger you might want to adjust time.  Mine are about the size of golf balls.  So at this point I continued baking and cooling my droppings.  My recipe made 50 Armadillo droppings, minus the ones I had already consumed.  (I believe that was only 4).

“Aim for the moon, if you miss you may hit a star”

 

Because I make them for the holidays and don’t want to spend all of Christmas day in the kitchen, I cool and freeze my droppings.  Generally, I’ll just put them in one of those small crockpots on low to heat when we are ready for them.  I mixed up a Dijon

“Mosquitoes remind us that we are not as high up on the food chain as we think.”

Lemon Aioli for dipping .  (On a side note, we had bratwurst for dinner last night and my husband used the aioli on his brat as well).  Here is were I don’t have specific measurements.  I put about 1/2 Cup of Mayo (Olive oil) into a bowl, squeezed a bunch of Dijon mustard over it, added some minced garlic and some lemon  and mixed it together.  When I plated the Armadillo droppings I garnished the aioli and droppings with Herbs de provence and paprika.  Paired with an nice  red wine from the great state of Washington and dug in!  I hope you enjoy these Armadillo droppings as much as myself and my family does. Always remember, it is NOT an Armadillo Dropping if it is just cheese and sausage!!!!

 

I hope that you and your loved ones and those you tolerate will have a blessed holiday and a wonderful 2019.  Seasons Greetings from the Pikkel household!


Families are like fudge – mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
Les Dawson

 

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