Fried Apples & Smoked Sausage

Sliced Melrose apples cooking over medium high heat with a tiny bit of Canola oil and butter.

My mom used to make us fried apples, or I should say, sauteed apples as a side dish.  She used Jonathan apples usually, for their red skins and good apple flavor. She cooked them over medium high heat in a large well seasoned cast iron skillet.  Jonathon's  hold up well to cooking.  As soon as the apples were cooked through and beginning to brown, she added a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar and a pat of butter and tossed and cooked the apples a minute or so until the sugar melted and formed a syrup. Sometimes she added a little cinnamon as well.

I've turned the apples and added slices of smoked sausage.

The other evening I started to saute an apple to have along side some smoked sausage.  I hate getting two pans dirty so I decided to combine the sausage and the apples.  I had turned the apples once before I added the sausage which was good because since the sausage is pre-cooked it browns very quickly.

Adding brown sugar/dry mustard mixture. The apples could have browned more before adding the sausage.
 

Next I mixed a teaspoon of brown sugar with a pinch of dry mustard. As soon as the sausage and apples were nicely cooked through  I took them off the heat and sprinkled the sugar mixture over all. Then I tossed the apples and sausage together.  The hot food melted the brown sugar mixture and formed a syrup.

Sausage and apples glistening with the brown sugar syrup.

This is half a large Melrose apple with about three inches of Hillshire Farms smoked sausage, a green salad of oak leaf lettuce still good from my garden, walnuts, raisins, Parmesan cheese and homemade lime/honey vinaigrette. You could substitute other types of sausage such as a country style sausage patty with sage. That would be very good as well. 

Green salad and apples with sausage makes a nice lunch.

Change this up for breakfast. Add some maple syrup on top and serve over pancakes or waffles. With a big glass of orange juice, that's a big yum!