Guest Post: Kielbasa & 'Kraut

{a fave pic of mine--Jenn back in the day}

{My BFF is so awesome, she's guest-posting for me today while I do baby things. Maybe even have one :) Jenn is hilarious and needs her own blog. Please tell her so in your comments hehehe. Take it away, Jenn!}

So my best friend asks me to do a guest post while she takes "maternity leave" from her blog (Who DOES she think she's kidding anyway? Like she could keep her craft-happy little paws off the keyboard for long. I'm telling you, this girl is going to be making up-cycled formal wear out of hospital gowns and latex gloves before this is over.) So anyway, I get propositioned to do this guest spot and and I think "Ok, Betty (Crocker) (Martha) Stewart (June)Meat-Cleaver, what's in the arsenal that's a good fit for this spot?" Something that goes with the girly, crafty, upcycle-y atmosphere of this blog...and I got nothin'. I start getting the stage fright (blog fright? web fright? Whatever, I'm antsy as heck because I can't come up with anything).

And then it hits me: I'm good at cheap, and I'm good at easy. What's cheap and easy? A meal that I typically refer to as Man Food: Kielbasa and sauerkraut, cooked in beer, served on a bun with mustard. Pardon me if I accidentally grunt a la Tim the Toolman Taylor before this post is through. I kinda get it honest.

I'll freely admit that I don't cook as much as I used to, and when I do, I'm typically baking. This, however? This is an easy, tasty, bad-for-the-arteries favorite in my house. It didn't come by its "favorite" status easily, though. My husband gets full credit for introducing me to this dish–I grew up hating sauerkraut, though I can’t recall ever actually tasting it, so I think I just hated it because my mother did. She proved it by never forcing me to even take “just one bite.” Regardless, he convinced me I hadn’t lived until I’d eaten Kielbasa and Kraut his way–and he was right!

Grab these:

1 lb kielbasa

1 can/bag sauerkraut

1 bottle beer (we used Coors Light this time, but we’ve used an amber brew before and it worked just great too!)

And do it like this:
Slice the kielbasa in whatever shape you want--coins, halves or quarters (make these about the length of a hot dog bun), and cook them in a skillet over medium heat until it starts to brown. *Grunt* Dump the kraut over the sausage and half the beer over the whole mess. Stir until you’ve got a fairly consistent mixture and all of the kraut has been mixed through the beer (except for the little kraut-lets that fling themselves screaming from the pan and all over your stove. They really do this, it's a fact).

{this is the hubby's big hairy arm, not mine...promise}

(I sincerely hope I don’t have to tell you what you’re supposed to be doing with the OTHER half of the beer. Waste not, want not, my friends!) *Grunt* Increase the heat to medium high and let it brew, stirring occasionally, until most of the beer has cooked out–about 15 minutes or so.
When the beer in the pan has mostly cooked out and the beer in the bottle has been appropriately disposed of, grab a giant spoon and throw enough of the mess into a hot dog bun that the bottom of the bun almost splits. Top with mustard. *Grunt* Bite. Resist urge to scratch privates and burp.

This works great for lazy weekends or small gatherings (read: football game, race, poker night–not so much for baby showers and proper Southern tea parties though...unless you've got *quite* a group of ladies.)