I'm that person that hates coming to a party with some boxed brownie mix. Don't get me wrong. Boxed brownies rock, and I secretly think that anyone who makes them from scratch is pretentious. There are some things that you can't get out of a box. Cookies. Those boxed or tube cookies are disgusting. But boxed brownies? Delicious.
That said, I don't like to show up at parties with them. My fans expect more. They want me to make mini-quiches or chorizo puffs. And I always like to bring about double what I think the party will actually need. Now Kevin on the other hand is the guy that bought a large pizza, had the guys at the restaurant double-cut it, and that was what he brought to a party of 30. So, when we're invited to a potluck party, you can imagine that we have different ideas about what to bring. Entirely.
Well, we're invited to a Superbowl party this evening. And, I'm in such a bad mood about this cooking thing lately that I am simply making what Kevin told me to. I'm dumping sauerkraut into a crock pot and then cutting up some kielbasa and putting it in. Well...kind of. I don't want to make it that simple.
I'm going to make this dish "special" in the only way I can think of in my stunted culinary-mind. I'm going to cook some barley into the sauerkraut. The nutty flavor seriously elevates it, and it's a good, sneaky way to get some whole grains into anyone's diet. I also bought some really nice, stone ground mustard to put on each little round.
And, with those two simple additions to my wonderful husband's idea of a good potluck dish, I think we might have come up with something that we can both be proud of. Now, if I could only have convinced him that we needed four rings of kielbasa instead of two, we could have both been completely content.
