10 January 2011

The Five and Dine - Cold-weather Cooking Recipe

This is today.

I talk often with my Story Circle Network online sisters about simplifying our lives, eating locally, and matters of aging. Those topics have me thinking about daily meals, and how we cook in this household. Hubbs and I both love to putter in the kitchen, and we're both pretty good at food prep, but we tend to get maybe a bit too global and elaborate sometimes. It's really not necessary to have Sunday meals every day of the week just because you like recipes and food. So we've been trying to downsize our menus, and we actually do have quite a few recipes that are one-pot and with limited ingredients. Here's one of our favorites that we had today:

Cabbage and Noodle Stir-fry

1 lb. fat egg noodles boiled and drained according to package instructions

1 lb. hot Italian sausage, bulk or removed from casing, then fried in a hot wok

1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced, added to sausage in wok, continue frying

1 small head of green cabbage, cored and sliced, add to sausage and onion in wok, keep cooking

Add boiled egg noodles

Soy sauce, Braggs, or even Teriyaki sauce to taste (it will take quite a lot - just splash away!)

There you have the basic five ingredients and instructions. Easy peasy. Now you can adapt to your own taste with different vegetables (adding sliced red bell pepper is nice for color and flavor, for example). The addition of garlic or fresh ginger can also add a tantalizing layer of taste. The magic in this recipe, of course, is the savory flavor of the hot Italian sausage, which marries so beautifully with the more bland noodles and vegetables. If hot isn't your thing, or if you have children, mild is also fine just not as zesty. Be forewarned that this makes a lot, but freezes very well for future fast meals.

If memory serves me, the recipe comes to me via my mother from a German magazine decades ago, and has long been a family favorite. Great on a cold snowy day like we're having!

What's cookin' on your stove today?

Temp: 10/-14 windchill advisory -25 Brrrrr
Started: A blog book tour for Little Pickle Press
Finished: A knitted watch cap for my nephew
Word count: 100

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...