Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Sausage and Sauerkraut 7/10/14

A big THANK YOU TO THE Methodist Church for their generosity in hosting a community appreciation day.  This was in thanksgiving for the community support given while recovering from the anguish suffered in the loss of their church to a fire and the rebuilding and dedication of their new church.  My daughter and I planned to attend but got wrong signals and had the wrong time in mind.  That is what white hair will do to you. (I do not think that coloring it will make any difference!)

I have a big secret that I will share with you if you promise to not tell my kids!! Last weekend I went to Ft. Wayne to a grand-nephew’s wedding. It made me nervous taking my billfold with my credit cards, etc., in case I was too relaxed to keep an eye on my purse constantly.  So I removed them and put them in a secure place.  I went shopping for groceries and to the post office to mail several things. On Friday evening, I realized that my billfold was not where I thought it should be. I became frantic and searched through my several purses and looked in all of the dumb places that I thought I might have put it.  Finally in desperation I cried out “God, here I am again, I need help”. In order to teach me a lesson, that help did not come immediately.  I had an eight o’clock appointment the next morning and hoped I could pay for my hair do with tears. I guess I should just go to bed and spend the next day searching. In my nervous attempt to go to bed, I noticed a purse which I seldom carry, protruding from a place that I had placed it out of sight the night before. Prayers of gratitude flooded from my lips and heart.  That was short lived because all of my credit cards, etc. that I had removed were not in my billfold!  So here goes another nervous search of the house. All that I remembered was having them in my hand a few days earlier when I removed them from my favorite stash spot!  I finally just gave up and went to bed, with my mind imagining all sorts of scary things about a missing credit card.  At least I now had cash to pay for my hair do.  I was surprised at the amount of sleep I did have. Just before I left the house, some unknown urge told me to move my paper towel dowel. Now I think it was my guardian angel, because clear at the back of the counter, nesting peacefully, were all of the things that I had removed from my bill fold. Prayers do get answered in God’s time not ours. I really think my nosey friend, whom I have not seen for quite a while, reminded  me of her existence and sneaked in and hid them from me.  I think I am going to have to hire someone to follow me around and tell me if I had it, what did I do with it!

What can an old lady do with a day that has no social obligations and no expectations of any company?  I decided to fix me something to eat.  First of all, there were a few potatoes that had been in my special bin for them too long.  I decided to make a little potato salad. After chopping an onion, some celery that had been in the refrigerator too long, (salvaged it by having it wrapped in aluminum foil, which I had a long time ago read in a cooking hint column), shredding a carrot, adding some shredded cheese, pickle relish and several hard boiled eggs I had more than I had planned without adding the potatoes.  That did not stop me. I made some homemade dressing like my mother used to make. The end result was darned good potato salad but four times as much as I had planned on. My daughter stopped in so I sent a generous container home with her and plan to give some more to another daughter who is a caretaker for my sister-in-law who loves potato salad. Guess too much is easier solved than not enough!

While we are on the food subject, I purchased three ears of fresh corn at the local grocery. Yesterday I decided to do one in the microwave with the husk on for two minutes.  That was a success, so I went down memory lane and remembered when we were kids growing up we ate peanut butter on our “roasting ears”.  I think I mentioned that once in my column and lost a good friend from it. That is exaggerated, because he has since gone on to his heavenly reward but he just looked at me and shook his head and said. “Boy, I do not know about anyone who eats peanut butter on corn!”  Remembering this, I cautiously put peanut butter on three rows of my buttered corn. Guess what, the next thing I knew I was putting it on the rest of the ear.  Don’t turn up your nose until you try it. Also, do not ask my sister, who is my only sibling left, because I am over three years older than she, so I remember things like that better. Don’t tell her that I said so.

Let’s just continue with food and try this simple entrée. Oh, yes. I did try the rice and peas one that I gave you a few weeks ago. I was so skeptical of it that I was so pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. It sounded as if it might have been all that that was in the house to make a meal of. I grew up on that kind of meals and served a great many to my family.  The only criticism that I would make was that I would put less rice in it.
                        
SAUSAGE AND SAUERKRAUT
1 pound smoked sausage
1 jar (32 oz.) sauerkraut, drained
2 cups unpeeled potatoes, thinly sliced
½ cup sliced onion, more if you prefer
Place sauerkraut in large casserole.  Top with onions and potatoes. Cut sausage into serving pieces and place on top of the potatoes and onions. Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.

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