Christmas Notebook

We enjoy oven-roasted vegetables, and cabbage is one of our favorites. We often roast slices of cabbage with chopped bacon and olive oil drizzled over the top. Today I made roasted kielbasa and cabbage.

Oven-Roasted Kielbasa and Cabbage
Serves 4-6. Depends on if you serve it on its own or add sides.

2 14-oz. packages of kielbasa sausage (We use Hillshire Farms Polska Kielbasa)
1 head of green cabbage
Bacon grease or olive oil or butter
salt and pepper

Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

• Slice the kielbasa into half inch slices. Or bigger, if you like.
• Slice the cabbage into 1″ slices.
• Lay the cabbage on the cookie sheet. Spread it with a few tablespoons of bacon grease or butter, or drizzle olive oil over it.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Spread the kielbasa slices over and around the cabbage.

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Bake on center rack at 400°F for about 45 minutes, stirring or turning the sausage about half way, if you want to.

Serve warm with some crusty toasted bread or with a side of fresh garden salad. Corn on the cob would be good, too. It stands alone as a filling meal, though, and doesn’t need the extras unless they appeal to you.

This is one of our favorite meals. Delicious for the fall season. Good all winter!

I slice the cabbage horizontally, with the stem in the middle. No need to cut out the stem. After roasting, it is tender and tasty.

~~Rhonda

Middle Daughter is at college and not able to come home for a few weeks, due to commitments there, so Snow White and Rose Red helped me put together a care package for Auntie. We made hot chocolate mix and mug cake mix.

Snow White added the chocolate chips to the hot chocolate mix.

Rose Red added the marshmallows to the hot chocolate. Over time, the marshmallows become dehydrated, but they come back to life when heated in a mug.

When the mixing was done, Snow White wrote out the directions for the mug cake mix and Rose Red ran a taste test on the hot chocolate. She declared it “delicious!”

Double Chocolate Hot Chocolate

This recipe makes a lot. Use a very large bowl to stir the dry
ingredients together.

• 25.6 oz. box of nonfat dry milk (8 c.)
• 16 oz. pkg. mini marshmallows (7 1/2 cups)
• 12 oz. pkg. mini chocolate chips (2 c.)
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 3 c. Carnation Coffee-mate nondairy creamer Lite
• 1 1/2 c. baking cocoa powder

Serving ~ 3 T. of mix to one mug of hot water or milk.

If you like it sweeter, just add more sugar or sweetener.

This delicious mix makes great gifts for teachers, co-workers, church
staff, etc.

The mug cake mix was pretty easy to make, too. The grands mixed this themselves.

We used the recipe at this link: Chocolate Mug Cake Mix / We doubled this recipe.

• Mix the dry ingredients together.

• 1 cup flour
• 3⁄4 cup sugar
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄4 cup dry milk
• 1⁄4 cup cocoa
• 1 dash salt

To make a mug cake, measure 4 Tablespoons of mix into a mug. Add 2 Tablespoons of water or milk. Cook in the microwave on full power for 40 seconds. This amount made about half a mug of cake. Vary the amount to find the right portion for your mug. The proportion is two tablespoons of mix to one tablespoon of water. A larger amount than the recipe states may take five or ten seconds longer to cook.

The mug cakes would be delicious with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.

The grands had a good time measuring and mixing.

And the final verdict was “Deee-licious!”

Enjoy! ~~Rhonda

I found myself with six small to medium zucchini to use for supper and I came across a recipe to try at the “I Breathe / I’m Hungry” blog site. This was a new recipe for me and I am so glad I tried it. It was delicous. DH complimented it, too.

Click this link to see Mellissa’s version. Easy Cheezy Zucchini Gratin

Here’s my version.

Zucchini Gratin

5 or 6 small to medium zucchini, sliced 1/4″ thick, peel left on
2 T. butter
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 oz. regular cream cheese
1 T. dry onion
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. dry parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In the microwave, melt the butter in a small casserole dish. Mine was about 8″x10″. It would work in a pie plate, too.

Use the melted butter to grease the dish, then add the remaining ingredients to the casserole dish, except the zucchini and the cheddar cheese, and heat in the microwave for about a minute, until the cream cheese is soft enough to mix the ingredients together with a fork. Pour the resulting sauce into a measuring cup or small bowl.

Line the casserole dish with half the sliced zucchini. My dish made three rows with halved slices down one side to fill the gap.

Put half the cheese on top the zucchini. Pour half the sauce over the cheddar cheese. Repeat: zucchini, cheddar cheese, sauce.

Bake in a 375º oven for 45 minutes, uncovered.

We ate is without thinking to snap a picture of the finished product. I will add a picture next time I make this recipe, which will be soon, I am sure.

I had planned to have hamburgers to eat with this dish, but DH was about an hour later than usual getting home from work. At that point, the casserole had been in the turned-off oven for about 45 minutes past the cooking time, and DH was hungry. Didn’t want to wait on hamburgers. The casserole was still great and actually made a filling meal. It’s good to know it will do fine waiting in the oven till needed.

Notes:

The sauce may seem to be too little, but the zucchini will give off some moisture as it bakes and that will increase the amount of sauce.

Also, if I had fresh basil and fresh parsley on hand, I would have used that instead of dry. I do have to use dry onion as DH is allergic to fresh. You can substitute fresh, sliced onion to place between the zucchini slices, as suggested on “I Breathe / I’m Hungry,” if desired.

And, finally, this would be delicious with some cooked, crumbled bacon sprinkled over the cheese layers. Next time!

~~Rhonda