• 2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 2 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 medium red onion, saute sliced
• 3 pounds beef oxtails
• 1 (35 oz) can peeled plum tomatoes, with liquid
• 2 cups water
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 rounded tablespoons of Hungarian sweet paprika

1. Heat a dutch oven (Le Creuset) with vegetable oil on medium high heat. Add carrots and onions and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove the cover and continue to simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from heat and use a spoon to spoon off the excess oil. Serve.

We were inspired by a post on FXCuisine to buy a spaetzle scraper. This is our first time using it and even though I can only vaguely remember the one time I made it in culinary school, I felt daring and wrote my own recipe. This was mainly because I didn’t want to go out and buy any ingredients so it had to be made with what we had. The result was just as good as any spaetzle I’ve eaten.

Spaetzle

• water for boiling
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch white pepper
• 2 tablespoons half and half
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Fill a 4 quart pot with water, salt it, and bring to a boil.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together half and half and water. Alternate between adding liquid mixture and eggs into the dry mixture. Mix until smooth.
3. Turn water down to a simmer. Press dough into a spaetzle scraper over the simmering water and cook for 4-6 minutes. Drain and serve.

I threw in some roasted potatoes and it was the ultimate comfort food. We both stuffed ourselves with 2 or more plates like this.

I wanted to make a cabbage relish to go with the sausages but I didn’t want it to be so potent that you couldn’t eat more than just a smear on the sausage. It was going to act as the vegetable portion in our meal too so, here it is, a Red Cabbage Relish-ish. It was exactly what I had hoped for and we each ate a big pile of it.

Red Cabbage Relish-ish
~4-5 servings

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 red cabbage, shredded (roughly 1 pound)
• scant 1/2 cup mango butter
• 2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high heat.
2. Add onions and stir until starting to soften, about 1 minute.
3. Add shredded cabbage and stir.
4. Add mango butter and stir until evenly distributed.
5. Add cider vinegar and sprinkle with salt. Cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes. Check periodically to see if the liquid has been absorbed. You may need to add 1/4 cup of water to continue cooking.

My lunch was a hit with Lon. He loved how the sausages didn’t taste like nitrates and the relish-ish was perfect match. Luckily, we had some left-over biscuits too. Yum!