Pork Sausage with Bacon Braised Slaw

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We have some big news in our family… Jeff and I are buying a house.  AHHHHH!!  It is a literal dream come true to get to find a place to grow our family and our lives, some place to truly call home.  We started looking a couple of weeks ago, figuring it would take us some time.  We have quite a few demands…shocking knowing me I am sure, so we figured it wouldn’t be a quick process.  To our surprise, the second day of house hunting we found “the one.” I know, it’s crazy, but the moment I walked in, I knew it was the house for us.  Nestled on one and a half acres of pure green grass bliss lies our perfect home, filled with light and possibility.  Even with all those demands, we still planned to find a home we could renovate and truly make our own.  So, with that, we are busy making plans and doing tons of Pinterest pinning, of course.  It is all so exciting, but of course, it’s pretty crazy stressful, especially since home buying is never quite as smooth as it should be.  It is a lot of hurry up and wait and keeping our schedule open so we can act quickly.  Since patience isn’t exactly our strong suits, it’s been a trying, yet exciting, couple of weeks.

Along with that enormous change looming, to say the last two months have been busy is an understatement.  This is the first week in over two months that I am home all seven days.  I have been busy in the past for sure.  We are a young couple with family and jobs, of course life is busy, but this was a new kind of stressful.  I won’t go into the details today, honestly I am still trying to process it all, but let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of time, or energy to make tasty meals.  That is how this dish came to be, and it became a true staple in our house.  Honestly, I think it helped us get through some of those most stressful days.  It takes almost no energy, especially if you buy pre-sliced cabbage, which I for sure did a few times, and yet has all the comfort and flavor you could want.

Food is so much more then fuel.  It also heals your body, and your mind.  During the last couple of months, a truly home cooked meal that didn’t cause me stress, or make me feel even more tired, was hard to come by.  That is why this became such a staple.  Not only could I mentally be anywhere and still get through executing this dish, but the smells of smoky bacon, sweet sausage, and sour sauerkraut seemed to melt the stress away.  Once completed, and we could sit and eat our meal, processing through the day, or week, or month.  Each bite seemed to sooth our souls.  It was warm, rich, and yet tart, overwhelming our tastebuds with flavor.  It seemed to nourish far more then just our tired bodies, but our worn souls.  I feel like this dish was part of what kept my husband and I together through these fractured months, where I was traveling and he was finishing up his two year project and beyond belief busy and exhausted.  This simple dish allowed us to spend more time together, helping each other with what we needed.  I know this may seem like a lot to put on a dish, but this is what I mean when I say there is true power in delicious, nutritious food.  It often forces us into brief meditation, where our minds are, maybe the only time in the day, on our present, enjoying each bite, letting it move through our mouths and quiet our minds.  We have all experienced this, after a long day, eating something truly delicious.  You close your eyes, you take in the moment, that current moment, and nothing else.  This was exactly what Jeff and I needed during this time and this dish provided exactly that.

I honestly can’t think of any flavor combination that I love more then the rich, fatty deliciousness of bacon and pork sausage, melding with bright sauerkraut and sweet cabbage and apple.  It’s good.  It’s really good.  It’s simple food at it’s finest.  Celebrating each ingredient, bringing light to new flavors and textures they couldn’t produce on their own.  It’s dishes like these that remind me the importance of cooking.  It’s the original form of self-care.  The fact that it is also super budget friendly, being that we are buying a house, made it even better.  And, when you are done, only one pan to clean.  I hope this dish fills your soul as much as it did ours.

Talk soon and Happy Feasting!

Tedi

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