Hubby bought some casing, and used our grinder to make rabbit sausages this weekend. He added some pork for fat, and made them just like brats. Not bad for his first attempt. I'd like to see him find a bit better recipe, I didn't care much for the spice mix he used. Sunday morning, my brother who was visiting us, fried up some rabbit sausage patties with what was left of the sausage mix, added a fried egg, and some cheese, then put it on toast for a yummy little sandwich. That was good!

Yesterday, to use up the cut up rabbit they didn't use this weekend, I slow cooked it in some cream of mushroom soup in the crock pot on low all day. It was great! Couple baked taters, and instant supper!

Hubby is really getting into this, and I have a feeling we'll be adding rabbit to our weekly meals alot more often!

What spices did your hubby use?

I like fresh chopped sage and apple in rabbit dishes with freshly ground black pepper and allspice.

I'm not really sure what the exact mix was, Maggie. I'm gonna dig out the recipe, and find out.

I just uploaded a video to you tube last night with 2 recipes for sausage. We ate the Herb De Provence one tonight and it was excellent.
Here are the links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwcSz_El ... AAAAAAAEAA

Dan

Oooooooooooo... Herbs de Provence is an amazing mix! You have to be careful with it, or the lavender will be too strong. But it's really, REALLY good!

I bought the HDP premixed. I am going to plant the ingredients this year in my garden so I can try and make my own. My is to have at least one batch of sausage made from 100% from my .50 farm that will require me to feed a lot of grass clippings, weeds ect.

Dan

Oh, I buy it premixed, too... maybe my mix just has more lavender than most. I got a little to liberal with in on a beef roast, and boy, could you taste the lavender!

Rabbit sausage is an interesting idea. I may have to try that sometime.

Offtopic, I love your avatar pic there, Geri. I checked out your Etsy page, some nice stuff, but I particularly like the swallowtail on hostas.

Hey, thanks for the additional info on the sausage mixes, I'm going to pass this on to hubby tomorrow! I'm positive he's gonna get the urge to try another batch now!

David, thank you for the compliment on that image, and for checking out my Etsy page! Appreciate that! I have to tell you, that particular picture was my biggest "save" of everything I took this summer. I had been out waiting for those butterflies to land on my lilies. The lilies were in the sun. I shoot in manual mode, so I had set my exposure for that type of light. I had turned around to see the butterfly land on that hosta plant, which was in TOTAL shade, so my settings were completely wrong. It wasn't staying put long, so I had no time to adjust for shade, and I just fired off 5 or 6 shots in a row hoping to get one decent one with the wings fully open. The image was way way way underexposed, but I gave it a whirl, and was able to save it. I was so happy with the way it turned out, and that I was able to get the wings fully open too.

Ah, the wonderful thing about shooting raw! I've saved one or two that were nearly black as well, it's always astonishing how much colour data is still present.

What kind of camera and lenses do you use?

http://www.bostonchefs.com/recipe/rabbit-sausage/

This is my favorite. You can also substitute curry for the mace.

Yes, raw shooting is THE best option! I have a Nikon D700, and I believe I was using my 70-200mm 2.8 VR with that one. Awesome lens! I need to get a macro though, those small close ups are way to difficult to get good clear crisp images with a full frame camera!

Dana, thank you for the link.........I forwarded everything to my hubby! He really enjoys the info.

Damn, that's some nice hardware. I'm hoping to be able to pick up a macro lens later this year, but as far as cameras go, I'm still more than content with APS-C (which is good, 'cause I could never afford full frame ).

There's also nothing wrong with extension tubes and any old (short) prime for macro work. 50mm of tubes with a 50mm lens will get you 1:1 magnification. A 50mm f./1.4 or thereabouts is a good option for this, though really, any will do (since you're shooting at smaller apertures anyway, due to razor thin depth of field).

The only reason I have the equipment I do, is because I sold another small business I had to finance it. Otherwise there is no way I could have afforded it either. And just because one has a really nice camera, does not mean they are a great photographer! It's the skill behind the camera that the person has. I'm a work in progress, completely self taught, on my own, and I have a long way to go yet. I just enjoy playing in photoshop, which makes it alot more fun! You don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures, and I've seen some of your work also, and it's pretty darn good.

I have something in the works right now, that should take play in the next few months. With taxes this year, I'm going to be picking up a used Canon. I've had a couple requests locally to help some beginning photographers, and I'm going to hopefully put together a small 7 session class for the very basic digital camera lessons, and then work up to a small home studio 101 class for those who want to learn just the basics of lighting to take pictures of grandkids and family...........natural light, and studio light. I used to shoot Canon, and I want to refresh myself on their menus so I at least know the basics of each one, so when I get the questions, I can answer them. It's a goal to get going over the next few months, so going into fall I can start offering these classes right here in my home. I have a very basic studio set up here........very small. I'm excited about this.

I used to have a 50mm 1.4, and then sold it because I never used it. Over the summer I just picked up the 50mm 1.8 because I needed it for something. Personally, the cheapie $100 1.8 is just as good as the 1.4. It's not worth it to spend the extra $200 for the little bit of extra speed you get. I do like the 50mm though, it's a nice basic lens for everyday, and it's really crisp, you can get alot of detail out of it.