Cabbage Bundles

My recipe posts lately have been all sweets and no savory recipes. This cabbage bundle recipe is originally my mothers and I have made some small modifications.

Cabbage Bundles
1 Head Green Cabbage (large works best)
1/2 Lb. Hamburger
1/2 Lb. Ground Pork
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
1 Tbsp. Chili Sauce
1/2 C Cooked Rice (prefer Basmati or Jasmine)
8 C Beef broth (can sub with bullion cubes)
2 C Water (or more beef broth if needed)
1 Egg beaten

Pour 8 C beef broth in large pot, heat to a simmer. Place 8-10 large outer cabbage leaves in broth for 1 min. until soft. Remove leaves from pot, set on large plate til ready to use.
In large bowl combine hamburger, pork, salt, pepper, chili sauce, rice & egg. Spoon meat mixture into wilted cabbage leaves and roll up. Use toothpicks to hold closed, place back into simmering broth, if the liquid does not cover the bundles, add water until they are submerged. I like to boil the remaining cabbage, cut into quarters, on top of the bundles.
Simmer 1 hour.

*I purchase the 1 lb sausage rolls for this recipe, the other half of the sausage will be used in a soup recipe that I'll post shortly.*

Banana Caramel Stuffed French Toast

Here's another tasty breakfast idea for you! If you would prefer strawberries instead of bananas, click HERE for that recipe.

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Filling

1 C Cream Cheese - softened

1/2 C Powdered Sugar

1/2 C Cottage Cheese

Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar, once well mixed add in cottage cheese and mix until well blended. Spread approx. 1/4 C cream cheese mix onto 1 piece of bread, top with banana slices and 2 tsp. caramel sauce and top with another slice of bread. Place in freezer 5 min. to firm up. The egg wash I did contains 3 eggs, & 1/3 C milk. Heat up pan on medium heat, dip bread into egg wash and cook until golden on both sides. Plate immediately and top with whipped cream, banana slices, walnut pieces, and caramel sauce.

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The filling mixture is all ready to go. I prefer to make this in a leftover container as you won't use all of it for 2 stuffed french toasts. Here the filling is being added, the one on the left is ready to be topped with a slice of bread and the one on the right is waiting for some caramel sauce.

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Banana caramel french toast all plated up and ready to be gobbled down!

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*Have pets? If so, take the leftover egg wash, add in another egg and more milk, some leftover veggies and cook up for a breakfast treat for your furry friends. Our Pugs got breakfast this morning, but I also added in the remaining banana pieces, they are so spoiled!

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Chocolate Walnut Pie

This pie is a twist on the classic Pecan Pie. I was shopping for some pecans and holy cow they are expensive! At $11.99 a pound for pecans, the walnuts were much cheaper at $7.49 a pound, so I axed plans for a pecan pie for something more economical.

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Basic Pie Crust (homemade for best taste)

3 Eggs

1 C Corn syrup

1/2 C Granular Sugar

1 Tbsp. Vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. Salt

1/4 C Butter - melted

2 oz. Unsweetened chocolate - melted

1 3/4 C Walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees. Roll out pie dough in 9 in. pie pan. In large bowl beat eggs, add in corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, salt & butter, beat until evenly mixed. Add in melted chocolate and walnut pieces. Pour into unbaked pie shell, bake at 425 Degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees (at this point I covered the edges of the pie crust to prevent them from getting too dark). Continue to bake 20-25 min. longer until the filling has slightly puffed up with the edges set but the center slightly wobbles. Let cool completely. Serve warm or at room temp for best taste.

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Goodbye Seattle

On our last day of sightseeing in Seattle, we took a quick trip to the Westlake Mall where the Monorail runs between their and the Space Needle.

Riding the rail is really affordable, $4 roundtrip ticket and runs every 2 minutes between locations.

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Another gorgeous day in Seattle. I was a bit burnt so no tank top for me today. The water fountain was really cool, reminded me of the Bellagio fountain in Vegas, as it is set to music. We didn't actually go inside the needle but had a wonderful time anyways.

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Got a bit confused trying to locate the Kobe Bell but ended up walking around quite a bit of the area so not a bad detour. The bell was a gift from Japan, it is really beautiful, unfortunately vandals have peppered the inside of it with graffiti.

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We rounded out the day with a Sounder's soccer game against the San Jose Earthquakes. Sounder's won 2 to 1, yahoo! We were happy that our hotel was across the street as there was a ton of traffic.

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You can see the people still hanging out after the game, it looked like this for a while after the game. We enjoyed our quick tour of Seattle and hope to be back for another visit.

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Pike's Place & Waterfront

We made 2 trips to Pike's Place, the hotel had a free shuttle, so we were able to browse and go back for items we saw the first time around.

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Had to laugh at the signs advertising Copper River Salmon, this is Alaskan Salmon, and was a huge seller at the fish monger stands. The fresh produce was amazing!

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The original Starbucks store is located at Pike's Place. I stopped in for a Caramel Frappuccino, the special of the day, and picked up a couple of mugs that bear the original Starbucks logo.

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Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, lots of Yummy looking baked goods at the market. We took a small rest stop in the market and left our mark, shhh...don't tell!

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Incredible unbelievably gorgeous flower arrangements for super cheap. The most expensive bouquet I saw was only $5, these arrangements here would sell for $50 or more.

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Beecher's cheese, was just a fluke as I was looking around, I spotted this little cheese shop and we stopped in because I absolutely LOVE fresh curds and hoped they would have some, which they didaa :-)

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We only ate some of the fresh curds and saved the rest for a late night snack after the Sounder's game we attended that evening.

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Spotted these beautiful peppers at one of the produce shops across from the entrance into the market. There vibrant beautiful colors really caught my eye and I couldn't help snapping a couple of photos.
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A local artist at the market, he is in the process of painting a piece for us. Just me, at one of the entrances into the market, it was beautiful weather for the days that we were in Seattle.

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The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory has a shop near Pike's and they were giving away free samples of there chocolate dipped apples. I first had these awesome apples when I was a teen and I spent the summer with my sister & her husband when they lived in Alabama.

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We had heard about the Crab Pot Restaurant located down on the Pier and wanted to try it out. We got a crab & shrimp combo, they pour the mixture on your table, its covered with butcher paper, and then you have a go at it with little wood hammers. And yes, Kyle was enjoying himself, contrary to the above picture, he was a bit overwhelmed at the massive pile of food which we never did finish. LOL...his paper apron really cracked me up!
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In the know

In Seattle, the ATM's that Kyle installed are located at Qwest Field. This is where the Seahawk's Football Team and the Seattle Sounder's Soccer Team play/practice at. Kyle was able to pull in a favor and get us visitor passes. We were even able to walk down on the field!
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Seahawk's games run around 45K fans and Sounder's games are around 29K fans, that's a lot of seats.
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Kyle walking around the field. They had just painted on the lines for a Sounder's game.
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We appreciated the staff taking the time to give us a private tour of Qwest Field, we really enjoyed it.
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