April's Party Food: Slow Cooker Sausages for Sandwiches

I love to cook, especially foods that I can make for parties and get-togethers. My boyfriend and I watch a lot of sports around here. We live in Pittsburgh, so it's a Steelers and Penguins household! Occasionally, we will invite friends and family to watch games with us. One of my favorite recipes for game day is simple and easy to make - just throw it in your crock pot, and you're done. Let the Crock-Pot do it's thing. Here's how to make my favorite Italian Sausages for Sandwiches in the Slow Cooker.

First, you will need to make sure you have all of your ingredients ready to go. For sausages, I buy Silver Star brand. They sell them in packages of 6, I buy 2 packages, 1 hot and 1 sweet. Of course, if your grocery store has another brand of sausages on sale that week, by all means buy that brand. In the produce section, pick out 2-3 bell peppers of your choice. I like to 1 green, 1 red and 1 yellow - just for color. I've been known to make this recipe with all green peppers, just because they were on sale that week. It doesn't matter, just get 2 or 3 peppers.

Next, you will need 1 large onion. Again, color doesn't matter in this case. I like to use white onions, because that's the kind I usually buy to use in other recipes. Then, I buy 2 packages of pre-sliced mushrooms. My boyfriend and I love mushrooms, so I use a lot of them. With any of the above ingredients, you can use as many as you want. If you like onions, use 3, if you don't like onions at all, you don't have to add them. It's all up to you. Peppers, onions and mushrooms do go great together when you put them in a soft hoagie roll with a sausage, covered with sauce and cheese. YUM! The last 3 items you'll need are hoagie rolls, tomato sauce and mozzarella or provolone cheese.

For the hoagie rolls, I buy them fresh from the bakery. Most of the time, you'll find packages of 6. Since you'll be making 12 sausages, buy 12 rolls. For the tomato sauce, any brand works great. The variety you use is up to you and your tastes. Any brand that you can find the "Italian Sausage" or the like variety, will go wonderfully. I usually use Prego or Ragu. If you choose to use plain tomato sauce from the can, I would throw some seasonings in the sauce as well - like garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and oregano (those are my choices). For the cheese, you can buy the pre-shredded cheese in the bag, like Kraft and Sargento sell, or you can buy chunk cheese and shred it yourself. Mozzarella and/or Provolone cheese are the best to use with this recipe, since they are the most popular cheeses to use in Italian recipes.

Now it's time to prepare the recipe. It's important to remember not to preheat your crock pot if you're putting cold foods into it. The sausages will be cold, so keep your crock pot turned off until the sausages are inside. Cut open and take the seeds out of the peppers, and cut each pepper into strips. Dice the onion. If you bought the pre-sliced mushrooms, there's no need to cut them. For whole mushrooms, slice them a few times.

In the bottom of the slow cooker, pour about 1 cup of tomato sauce. My trick is to NOT cook the sausages in all of the sauce, and I will tell you why later on. Next, place 6 sausages into the slow cooker, along with some peppers, mushrooms and onion. Layer with the remaining 6 sausages, and remaining peppers, mushrooms and onions. Put the cover on the slow cooker, turn the knob to high and let cook for about 3-4 hours, or until the sausages are fully cooked and vegetables are tender.

The last step is to heat the tomato sauce in a small saucepan over low heat. Guests will be able to put their own sauce on their hoagie roll. Why do I do this? I've found that when I cook the sausages in the sauce, the sauce gets too watery. It's much better to serve it separately. Cut your hoagie rolls in half lengthwise. Sometimes I place the buns under the broil for a minute or 2 just to get them lightly toasted. This is optional.

Now it's time to eat! Let guests pick what kind of sausage they want from the crock pot - not everybody likes hot, not everybody likes sweet, that's why I buy both kinds. It's fun to make a buffet out of this. Have everything set out on the counter and stove. Buns on a tray, shredded cheese in a bowl, sauce on the stove, sausages in the slow cooker. When I make this recipe for football parties, I use my football shaped platter for the buns, because I like to coordinate with the theme of the party. Guests can make their own sandwiches - putting everything right inside the bun. It can also get messy, make sure you have lots of napkins available!

Try this delicious recipe at your next game day party. It's sure to be a crowd pleaser. Enjoy!