Cooked Cabbage with Spicy Pork
Mmm, today I had a hankerin’ for some delicious cooked cabbage. In this crazy economy, I’m trying to save money every which way I can, so I’ve been stopping off at the 99¬¢ Store before I go to the regular grocery store on shopping days. You really can find most workaday products there — cleaning, laundry, kitchen accessories, etc. True, the brands are often weird and you have to use your educated shopper’s eye to choose products that will deliver over products that are awful (like the sawdust-tasting coffee I got last week), but you can save loads of money before going to the regular grocery store and getting your necessities that the 99¬¢ store didn’t have.
I’ve always skipped over the food choices they offer… A combination of weird sounding brand names, old looking products and a lack of diet food options kept me away. But they have produce sections and freezer sections now that a brave bargain hunter can scan through if she is brave.
Today I got some nice Del Monte canned sweet peas and canned new potatoes, a very healthy looking head of cabbage, a package of Farmer John extra spicy sausage links, a package of fresh Roma tomatoes and a package of fresh mushrooms. Here’s what I made, I made all these recipes up from half-remembered dinners in Nashville so change whatever you want:
Buttermilk Biscuits
I make these almost every day, sometimes from scratch and sometimes from Bisquick. Bisquick is just as good, so get some and use buttermilk instead of regular milk.
Tomato Salad
6 Roma tomatoes (or any kind)
Fresh mushrooms
Vinegar
Cheap Red Wine (something that’s plentiful in my household)
Cut up the tomatoes into hearty chunks. Ideally, put in a resealable container, mixing tomato chunks and halved mushrooms together. Pour in 2/3 white vinegar to 1/3 red wine mixture so that the tomato chunks and mushroom bits are sitting half covered (not submerged) in the liquid. Add a dash of nice quality olive oil if you like. Let this soak and chill in the fridge, it’s good to make this first so that it can be soaking while you’re making the cabbage.
Peas and Taters
This one is easy, open the cans, drain off excess liquid, put in a little pot and simmer with some butter while everything else is cooking.
Spicy Cooked Cabbage
1 head of cabbage, core removed and cut into thick wedges
1 package spicy sausage links (8)
2″ of butter (yes, I measure all kinds of food in inches, I’m an idiot)
Salt
Bring 1/2″ water with some salt to a boil in a big, deep pot. While that’s doing, cook up the sausage links till brown. Pour the grease into the cabbage pot, chop the links into small nuggets and put them in the cabbage pot, too. Pile in the cabbage, mix them around with a wooden spoon or whatever and turn the heat down to simmer covered for about 8 minutes. Take the lid off, gently turn the ingredients over and simmer another 8 minutes to cook down the liquid. Near the end, put in the butter and mix it in. You want the cabbage tender and slightly al dente, not a mushy mess. so take it off the heat sooner if need be.
