The secret ingredient is...

... red cabbage!  My bf's mom dropped off some Korean food (cuz we all know I can't pull that off) this week as well as some miscellaneous produce.  When I saw the cabbage I was taken back to the last time we squared off: junior year of college in my organic chemistry lab.  The task: isolate the essential oil.  The challenge: gagging my way through each noxious step at 8:00 in the morning.  Yep, that day red cabbage won and since then I've kept my distance.
Well, I have a hard time throwing away perfectly good food (except for the red onion; had NO problem throwing that monster away) so I turned to my trusty sous chef, allrecipes.com, and tried to find a way to even out the Erica-Cabbage score.  I present:


Sausage Smothered in Red Cabbage

Ingredients

• 1 small head red cabbage, shredded
• 1 apple, cored and diced
• 3 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon butter (didn't need because I skipped the next ingredient)
• 1 small onion, chopped (definitely omitted)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar
• 1 pound kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces

Directions

1. Place the cabbage in a large kettle, and add the diced apple, 2 teaspoons of the salt, lemon juice, and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, about 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
2. In hot butter, saute the onion until golden. Add the onion to the cabbage along with 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, vinegar and sausage. Cook, covered, 20 to 30 minutes until sausage is heated through. To serve, spoon the cabbage onto a heated platter, topping it with the sausage.

I expected a bitter-tasting dish so I doubled the vinegar and used apple cider vinegar instead because I thought that would tie in the apple flavor well. It did, but came out a little salty so I would cut back to maybe 1-2 teaspoons salt and probably add another apple. (Korean mom practically gave us a bushel.) I served this alongside smashed potatoes (too lazy to peel them) and voila! Dinner is served :)