“I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” — Rita Rudner

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  I love the thought of dinner out on Valentine’s Day, but then I run from the “special” menus and the prices that go with it so I am going to plan something delicious at home.  More on that later now on to last night’s dinner…

Once again after another freezer diving expedition my choices were decent, but big roast type things, hams, turkey were quickly eliminated  because I didn’t have a great deal of time to prep and fuss.  With no time to thaw and prep the chicken bratwurst won out especially because I was determined to use a beautiful head of red cabbage.  After a quick thaw the brats were simmered in beer that had been perked up with onions, caraway and celery seeds then left to cool down (covered) in the beer bath for several hours until grilling time.  Just before grilling I reduced the beer bath with additions of little brown sugar, a wonderful German mustard and horseradish.  I tasted along the way to be sure none of the additions overwhelmed the beer glaze.  It took about 10 minutes to reduce at a low simmer.

Now for the star of the show, red cabbage…I couldn’t find my old recipe for sautéed red cabbage and several friends offered up a few suggestions, but I finally settled on one from a friend, Alex’s recipe, but I did save the other suggestions for another time as the cabbage was wonderful.

I was out of a couple of the ingredients starting with the applesauce, but I did have plenty of mountain apples to make a quick what I call a little chunky”big girl” version of applesauce…spiked with Apple Jack and cinnamon schnapps.

Rose’s Boozy Brown Butter Applesauce

5-6-7 apples – a mix of apples like granny smith, Fuji and Gala peeled, cored, sectioned and chunky chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons brown butter
1 shot of Apple Jack
1/2 shot cinnamon schnapps
*pinch of salt

Brown butter in a large sauté pan add apples and sauté for a few minutes stirring often for 5-7 minutes.   Add the booze and simmer until reduced slightly.  The apples should not be totally mushy as you want chunks…

Apple juice and cinnamon substitutes, but not as much fun…