Arduous Process

Baking cabbage burger is an arduous process.

Okay, not really .... especially if you do them

the lazy man's way like I do.  

It would have been nice if someone in the family had 

written down a recipe.  But no, in our family, we don't write down recipes.

Years ago, Sister Two put together a cookbook with recipes

from Dad's side of the family.  One would think with 60 Germans

there would be at least one cabbage burger recipe.

But no.  

There's a recipe for pierogis.
  Another one for Chinese cashew chicken.
Or how about garbanzo bean salad?
Pink lemonade salad?

Does that even sound remotely German?

But believe it or not, I did figure out how to make cabbage burgers.

On my own.  By myself.

Will wonders never cease?

 

Here's what you'll need to make cabbage burgers:  hamburger,

cabbage, onions, garlic salt, onion salt, minced garlic, Rhodes dough balls, and butter.

I've already got the hamburger frying, but before you can begin the rest of the prep work you need to crank the tunes up as loud as they will go.

That way you'll block out the sound of the braying donkey.

The braying donkey who is letting you know 

he wants his daily ration of sweet mix and nose rubs.

Murphy is very insistent when it comes to sweet mix and nose rubs.

But I forgot to buy any.  Sweet mix, this is.  Bad, bad donkey owner.

I figure my music will drown out his attempts to make me feel guilty.

Of course I'm a frequent flier when it comes to guilt trips, 

so I took apples out to them.  They seemed to be okay with the

substitution and I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.

Back to business.

The hamburger needs to be liberally seasoned
with garlic salt, onion salt and minced garlic.

Of course, before you can do this you must check the expiration dates.

 

Especially if you're making them for Ms. Simpleton!

Not many people use garlic in their cabbage burgers.

But I do.  Lots of it.  About two tablespoons per pound of meat.

Plus all of the garlic salt on top of that!

While the hamburger is cooking, it is time to chop the onions.

Mardell suggested using the food processor for this step

but did you notice the knives in the lower right
hand corner of the first picture?

I'd had a really crummy day at school and 

my students had frustrated me to no end.

It's called knife therapy.
Trust me, it work wonders.

By the time I was finished with the onions,
most of my frustrations were gone and I was instead crying.

Not really.

But only because I know the secret trick to chopping up
onions without bawling like a girl (which is never a good thing).

 

Light a stick match and put the non-burnt end 

in your mouth after you blow it out.

Try it --- it works wonders.

I did 50 pounds of onions for our fund-raiser this way.

By the way, my picture is mis-leading.
  I only photographed half of my onions.


  But that's only because the other three looked like this:

Not really.
Those were from last summer.

Really, they were, Ms. Simpleton.

Next, I chopped up my two heads of cabbage.

 

Once again I used the knives.

Heads of cabbage are even more therapeutic than onions!

While I was slicing and dicing and chopping the cabbage,

I began adding the onions to the hamburger.

Then I slowly added the cabbage and let it cook down.

While it was slowly melding its flavors together,
we began rolling out the dough. Dough balls are the only way to go.


  Especially if you make 226 dozen.
Which I never recommend that you do.
Under any circumstances.

We like to use the pasta machine.

 

But that's only so that we can say that we've actually used it!

We dial it to number six, mash two dough balls together and let 'er rip.

Next I measure half a cup of filling and put it on the dough.

I carefully and lovingly fold it up and place it gingerly

on the awaiting cookie sheet which is lined with a silicon sheet.

If you don't have a silicon sheet for your cookie sheets,

I highly recommend that you invest in one.

We bought ours for $2.36 on clearance at Hobby Lobby.

 

After the burger has rested a bit and plumped
up, it's off to the oven.

We bake them at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

 

Be sure to relax while they bake.

Let 'em cool for about thirty seconds after 

removing them from the oven and rub the tops with a stick of butter!

Library Sherrie --- I have some filling left that I froze.  I'll send a batch down to you

when Mardell has her next quilt class and then you can elect not to share!