Breakfast Sausage Patties and Eggs

We're very fortunate to be able to buy our plain ground pork from a local Amish farm. It's very lean, about 10% fat, yet cooks up very moist and tender because of the maple syrup. It can take some patience and digging on the Internet to find affordable pasture raised proteins, but it's worth the effort. This is my newest (and our favorite) version of breakfast sausage. Great with eggs over easy for Jeff and scrambled for me. Serves 3-4

1 lb lean, unseasoned pasture raised ground pork sausage
1 rounded tsp dried sage
1 rounded tsp pinch kosher salt
1 rounded tsp fennel seed
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
2.5 tsp organic maple syrup
3 pinches crushed red pepper flakes

4 pasture raised eggs, room temperature
pinch of kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
4 dashes Tabasco (optional)

Preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients so they're evenly distributed. Wet your hands with tap water and form 5 equal size patties. Cook 5 minutes on each side so they're no longer pink but still juicy. Remove to a dinner plate and cover with a skillet lid to keep warm while you cook the eggs.

I added a TB of EVOO to the pan and cooked 2 eggs over easy, and then 2 scrambled with Tabasco, so they pick up all the fond (caramelly bits) left in the pan from the sausage.