Food Friday: New Food Invention!

 Early this week I was hankering for a hot dog (or sausage!) in a big way.  I am trying so hard to avoid them because I believe they are detrimental to my health.  I was out and so close to the hot dog stand that I was sure my wheels would just turn in.

However!  Before I got to the turn I remembered we had some prepared refried beans (we had acquired the dried refried beans at the Home Storage Center ages ago) in the refrigerator.  The only good hot dog has sauerkraut, onions, and mustard on it.  It occurred to me that I could make a "Polish" burrito bowl. So I did!

A scoop of cooked refried beans, a big scoop of sauerkraut, a handful of chopped Vidalia onions, and a drizzle of honey mustard made up the bowl.  It was SO GOOD!  I have now had that same meal three times this week.

Go ahead!  You know you will love it!!!

At least I know that I love it! I would love another bowl right this minute....

Sauerkraut and Pizza?

Tonight was a night for quick and easy food.  I went over to the old apartment and loaded up, and I DO mean loaded up, my carrying bag with refrigerator things and some things from the cupboard.  Also I filled the ice chest with freezer things.  I managed to go down the stairs backwards moving the loads from step to step.  At the bottom I realized I needed to call for help.  Dear One answered the call and rescued me in a flash.

When I got back to the new apartment he had a frozen pizza almost ready to eat.  I put a big slug of sauerkraut from Verboort into the microwave.  When the pizza was done and cut, I covered one piece with sauerkraut and ate it. 

Very very good tasting!  About as good as pizza with dill pickles on it...and that is a winner every time!

Now my question is:  does the warmed up sauerkraut nutritionally take away the curse of the cheese and white flour badness on the pizza? I hope so.

Sauerkraut: Failure!

What a bust!  I started some sauerkraut "going" thirteen days ago intending to let it "work" for two weeks.  Thirty days is often recommended in recipes...but I didn't think I could wait that long.

Today I decided that it did not look very good and opened it up.  Yep.  Fail!  There was a nasty white bunch of glop on top.  Even with these supposedly foolproof covers, the vegetables spoiled.  Well, I did use a head of cabbage that had been in the refrigerator a LONG time, so I am not giving up.  I really really like sauerkraut.  In fact in the last week I have had Reuben sandwiches twice.  Yummy!

These are pictures of the sad facts in the matter:

Nasty looking business on top of one jar.  The other jar did not look bad...

...until I opened the second jar.  This is what I found on top of both of them, so out they went.  I pulled out the glass marbles I had used to hold down the cabbage and carrots, and rinsed them off.  (I put them in a can that had had sweetened condensed milk in it when I made some key lime pie that I will talk about soon!!!)

After removing the marbles I poured off the scum then started shaking the jar to move the cabbage into the garbage disposal since there are no ways to do composting around here as far as I have been able to ascertain.  About halfway through the jar I started pulling the sauerkraut out with my hand.  Huh!!!  It was not slimy.  It was firm and crisp.  Is it possible I was dumping some perfectly good sauerkraut?  I don't know. I was not brave enough (or maybe stupid enough) to try it.  

Now the jars have been scalded and are ready to try again with so fresh (though it is March) cabbage.  Maybe I will wait until harvest time then try again.  I will not give up the ship on this...