From "More" Magazine

I read this this morning and cracked up:

MIDLIFE STRESS-STUFFED CABBAGE

• 2 sets of aging parents, rapidly deteriorating
• 1-3 (or 5) wise!@# teenagers, or more in blended families, growing up alarmingly fast
• Escalating auto insurance rates
• Way too many college applications at any given time
• Inadequate college savings amounts
• Life-sucking jobs, yours, his, or both
• Enough wisdom to recognise all the mistakes you've made over the years
• Not enough wisdom to correct them
• Large cabbage leaves, as needed
• Olives, peppers, debt, and despair, for topping

1. Combine the first 8 problems (and you can use up any others that are rotting in your pantry). Pulverize into a pounding headache.

Stuff the cabbage leaves and, while performing this tedious task, think about doing rebellious things you did when you yourself were a wise!@# teenager, like getting some extra piercings or hitching a ride to Guatemala.

Top with olives, peppers, debt and despair and bake until everything and everyone has a complete meltdown. Serve with a flaming temper.

from "Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife," Fireside Publishing, copyright 2009 by Nava Atlas.

xoxox

Apple Sausage Quiche

This is a recipe I've adapted to my own use. I use the basics from a recipe I found online from the 1801 First Inn in Napa, CA:

Apple Sausage Quiche

One package chicken & apple sausage

2 Granny Smith apples

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 Tbsps. brown sugar

4 Tbsps. butter

1/2 chopped onion

2 cups milk

4 eggs

1 cup baking mix (Bisquick, Jiffy, or your own)

Cut up your sausage into bite-size pieces, and dice the two apples. You can leave the peel on if you like, or peel and core them and then dice them up.

Melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the sausage and sprinkle with brown sugar. Cook it all together about 5 minutes. Add the apples and stir them around just to coat and pick up the flavours, about 2 minutes.

Spray the bottom of a quiche pan with nonstick spray. Place the cooked sausage, onions, and apples in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the cheese over the whole thing.

In a blender (or in a bowl with a wire whisk), mix the milk, eggs, and baking mix. Whizz it up until smooth. Pour over the ingredients in the quiche pan.

Bake at 400 degrees until a toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Jen's notes:

1. Use buttermilk if you want this really rich. Or skim if you don't need the calories.

2. I always get the chicken-apple sausage at Sam's Club, usually Emeril's or some other brand. Any kind of sausage will do, though.

3. You can use another kind of apple, but the Granny Smith will hold up to the baking the best.

4. If your kids don't like onion, you can use the dried minced variety, and just sprinkle it over the sausage as you cook it. Or add the minced dried onion to your milk and baking mix. Either way works and you still get the flavour without the texture of the actual onion.

rating: 4 stars. Bug loves this and Hunk O Man chows it down.