What's Cooking Home Skillet??

We had a real lazy weekend.  

We needed it.

But there was one thing that made it an over the top weekend.  Nope, not the Blackberry Sangria I sucked down at dinner on Saturday, (but it was a close call).  It was the successful dinner I put together for our St. Patrick's Day feast.  

St. Patrick's day is normally a corned beef and cabbage day.  This year I had been trolling the internet for new inspiration and guess what?  Sucess.  I found a recipe for a braised Kielbasa and sauerkraut recipe.  It included beer and brown sugar and simmering all day long in a crock pot.  It called to be served on hard rolls.

I loved the idea of these flavors but had to make it mine by making a couple of changes.  Isn't that the way it always is?

Here is the recipe as it came to fruition in my kitchen.

3 lbs of Conecuh Sausage.  
32 oz of sauerkraut
1 cup of brown sugar
12 oz beer (I used a dark Irish beer here.)
red pepper flakes
1 tbs of dijon mustard
salt to taste
cracked white pepper to taste

In a saucepan combine sugar, beer, red pepper flakes and dijon mustard.  Simmer on low until sugar is dissolved and thickened.  Set aside. Cut up the sausage into manageable chunks and add to the Crock-pot.  Add sauerkraut.  Pour sugar mixture over sauerkraut and sausage.  Add salt and pepper.  Cover and set on low to cook for four to five hours.

I used Conecuh sausage because I love this stuff.  If you can get your hands on this sausage try it.  Even if you don't make this recipe, this is some good stuff.  In fact this is one of our go to grillers for boating in the summer.

We chose not to serve this over rolls.  Instead we did a side dish of sauteed cabbage (a recipe for another day).  Everything turned out really well and dinner was an unqualified success.

So from my happy Irish family to yours...Happy St. Patrick's Day!