Good for you!!! I had a similar experience when my cat had a puncture wound and I had to use a syringe to get into the wound and inject an antibiotic in there every-single-morning. She tolerated it, then all was forgiven. And that is a pretty cat.
My mother's New Year's Day sausage and sauerkraut balls are very sour, but it keeps you from eating too many at once (sometimes). I've always wanted to try putting a crust around them, but what kind of crust? HOW TO MAKE PAPER-THIN STRUDEL DOUGH This looked like fun, so I made sausage and sauerkraut strudel. The only thing I didn't have was a "lightly-floured tablecloth." ( Do they sell those on Amazon? ) Also added X-sharp cheddar cheese, just for the heck of it. It was very good, better than it looks. Should have quit while I was ahead, but wanted to try Swiss cheese instead, because it was still very sour. Monday night I made another with Swiss. Put it on a sheet of parchment paper, on top of my mother's heavy-duty 1950s broiler pan. Halfway done it was cooking too fast on top, so I pulled it out of the oven to move to the next shelf down. Hot pan, very heavy, tilted downward, the whole thing slid off (because of the paper) and landed on top of the bottom burner coil. The paper caught fire, and I had to scrape strudel off the coil. It became food for the possums, but I did get to try a bite. Too much filling this time. The 3rd time will be the charm. This strudel dough has way fewer calories than pie crust, and it's more fun to make. I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for pot pies from now on.
I have never made anything that even closely resembles that, Nancy. I had no idea that strudel looks like German phyllo dough. Did you stretch it out on a table? Did it tear (or seem like it was going to)?
I had never done this before, so I didn't make it paper thin. Was afraid it would tear. It was thin enough for what I wanted. The recipe calls for only 1 cup of flour. The first time I stretched it in the air, but only used half the dough, two times---one for a top and one for a bottom. Half didn't seem heavy enough to stretch itself very well. The second time I used the whole thing, but it was little too dry to stretch well and ended up on the tablecloth. Third time will be the charm (yeah, right).
Reminds me of the time I made a Baked Alaska, except I bet my nightmare was worse than yours (not that I'm into comparative pain.) You make a round brownie base in a cake pan, then turn a big bowl of homemade ice cream out on top of the base so as to resemble an igloo, then you ice it with a cocoa meringue and pop it into a 500° oven to crisp up the meringue. The first time I did it, the amount of meringue seemed too much, so I did not use all of it. I popped the Alaska into the 500° oven and the meringue slid off and seared itself to the hot oven floor. I pulled the Alaska out of the hot oven, threw it in the freezer, let the oven cool, then cleaned the seared egg white off of the oven floor. I tried again and used more (but not all) of the meringue and repeated the disaster. Again, I put the Alaska back into the freezer, let the oven cool, and cleaned the oven. My third attempt I got a clue (did I mention that I no longer tell blond jokes?) and used the entire recipe of meringue...you gotta use it all to provide structure when it hits the heat. Then it worked. I'll never try that again.
Nancy--those look good to me. Do you make your own kraut? You might try something like frozen puff pastry to make life a little easier, though you did good.
Yes, I thought about puff pastry. Isn't it very high in calories? Fat between multiple layers? Closer to pie crust dough in calories. There's already enough fat in the sausage. No I would never make sauerkraut from scratch. I remember seeing it as a child in my grandmother's basement in a big crock. It imprinted on my mind's eye forever.
Kraut is very easy to make; you should give it a try. Do you happen to have that crock? That way you can adjust the sourness to suit yourself; the longer it is left to ferment the more sour it becomes. I'm not sure about the calories in puff pastry. It couldn't be too bad for an occasional treat. (But it is fun to make the pastry!!)
No but I have a cute little stoneware canning jar. Maybe holds a half gallon. My grandfather was the one who made the sauerkraut, not my grandmother. He was always tinkering around, experimenting with things, usually trying to save money. The stoneware one I saw seemed awfully big, maybe 12 gallon size? Who needs 12 gallons of sauerkraut. A little goes a long way, imo. But no, I won't be trying, even a half gallon.
I've wanted to make sauerkraut, but the process of scraping off mold and eating what's underneath scared me off.
I have to admit I still do that with cheese. It's my mother's fault. She made us do it. She would not waste anything.