The sausage supply places I do business with have many books on sausage making and recipes. My favorites are- Alliid Kenco, Butcher Packer, and The Sausage Maker. These companies are great to do most business with. Its where I found the high melting point cheddar cheese in a fine diced cut, as well as the dried beer flavor. I use dried sweet green and red peppers in some of my Italian types. I NEVER try to get my sausages to look as white as store bought, thats just WAY TOO MUCH FAT!!! Instead, I use a litte water based fat replacer, as well as soy flour for 'fillers', but these are maybe a cup or two for 15 pounds of meat. I do not use pork FAT BACK or SALT PORK as these are both cured and salty. If gound and added to sausages, the melt and run out very fast, and leave a mealy, dry, wet sawdust consistancy to the sausgae meat. My sausages usually have about 25% prok fat ONLY. Also, for the chinese type, grind some fresh ginger and garlic, then add some of the Ah So Red BBW sauce for ribs. Its a really good sausage combination! Recently, I made about 300 Peking Ravioli (AKA Pot Stickers), and even used finely diced water chestnuts and water chestnut powder (instead of cornstarch) to firm up the filling once they were cooked in the pasta shells. I used to go to a site with about 500 recipes submitted by people all over. Many recipes were very similar except for the herbs amounts used. The site has since gone down. Wish there was another like it, but have not found any yet. Most of my various sausages are made from many different recipes, as I like to experiment with herbs and their combinations. Most of my batches of breakfast sausages are the same, however, with pepper, coriander, and sage as the basics. Polish Kielbasa are usually made with Marjorum, and garlic. The companies listed also have seasoning kits for most common sausage types. Butcher Packer has the dried beer and cheddar cheese.

Ann, the menu started off with, 3 diff. kinds of oysters,done 3 ways. 2 were raw with different sauces, one was breaded fried with an aioli/tartar sauce. Next up was a spring green salad with a potato and blue cheese soup. Pork roast, roasted potatoes, sauteed cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, and beets were the main course. The pork roast was stuffed with a blue cheese stuffing (was one of the best stuffings I have tasted). Fresh bread and housemade butter. Dessert was a creme brulee based on a flavored tea (which I can't remember) and was excellant. Then chocolates donated by a chocolate shop. Most of the food was donated, so the menu was based around that.

Christmas Eve was always meatless-- salmon loaf & oyster stew ( tho that was probably Dad's ( Irish ) tradition. Mom ( Polish) always made cheese pierogies , almond soup ( which is like a soupy rice pudding) , kapusta & scallopped potatoes-- there was rye bread, pickled beets with horseradish -- then after Midnight mass it was kilbasa sandwiches on rye ( Dad made his own--never smoked it was always serve fresh-- boiled a bit in white wine & water then covered into the oven ). Christmas Day was a sweet picked ham Dad had pickled-- more Polish sausage--

I do agree about salmon. I make it all the time. A whole salmon whenever i can but more for a family gathering of 10-15 or close friends, 10-20. Special occasion when i get my hands on a wild caught fresh. But then again, if i did this for DH, i would do a seafood theme like a big lobster, king crab bake/boil. Lots of oyster shucking, some on the grill. All outside, newspaper covered table, Salmon and charcuterie inside with fresh veg chips and more snack things....end of June b-day appropriate. Pretty, That is in Ontario. Citarella in NYC does similar for catered parties. Love when i see it. Had it a couple times this past year. Back to veggies... Fresh veg is nice as 'chips'. Us veggie lovers love veg instead of tortilla chips. On a mandolin it is a just a few minutes to zip through a dozen veggies. Best if your market sells singles so you can just but one or two of each and select the big ones. On the left is a quick pickle. Then some i made earlier for dinner....a bed of thin veg under a cod fillet. Same idea that i serve with my hummus. (not the steamed, the fresh) But, you need mandolin skills. It is a super tool and so quick. Should be in every kitchen. It also makes very thin veggie sticks for spring rolls. The new model Benriner is my favorite. A glove is a must. The older Paderno is the best spiralizer i think. I like that it folds up but you cannot make chips on it. I can do so much more on the mandolin. Spiralizer is fun for some noodle meals.