Necessity is the Mother of awesome recipes in the kitchen!

So, I wasn't going to post again until I write the piece about my Grandmother, but I made such an amazing dinner tonight that I had to share with you all (i.e. three friends and a handful of family. . . but whose counting? Oh yeah me!)!

Earlier today my daughter wanted to make soft pretzels. I love them and they are a fun thing for us to cook up together in the kitchen so I said what the heck, lets do it! Well the soft pretzel recipe makes 12 fairly large, buttery, delicious, warm, salty, chewy pretzels. Are you drooling? I am! After our snacking, we had a bunch of leftover pretzels that I didn't want to waste. I was thinking, why don't I just make some sort of sandwich with these! I had planned on making stuffed squash for dinner tonight, but failed to get my shopping done yesterday. I had the ground beef thawed already, so I ventured to the fridge for inspiration.

Remember the other night I made that Oktoberfest stew (which was so delish BTW)? Well  I had a half head of cabbage leftover. We generally only eat cabbage in March so I don't cook with it often, but I didn't want to waste it. So I grabbed that and an onion, some grainy mustard, some garlic and some apple cider vinegar. The result was a phenomenal, loose meat sandwich with a distinctively German theme! I threw some thinly sliced potatoes into my fry daddy for some homemade potato chips to serve on the side and voila! (or the German equivalent) Dinner was served!

One other thing I wanted to tell you all before I give you the recipe: I am sorry that I don't have awesome, step by step photos of all my posts. I wish I did, but in all honesty I don't have very good lighting in my house for photos. I love the look of a brightly lit, well focused, food shot. But I often wonder if these people only cook at 2 o'clock in the afternoon! Its never that bright in my kitchen at dinner time! And even when it is, my photos still come out sub-par and I'd rather you used your imagination to see my food in your mind than look at a crappy pic. But I digress so, without further ado I give you:

Oktoberfest Loosemeat Pretzel Sandwichs

1lb ground beef
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1/2 head of cabbage, halved again and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1tsp ground mustard
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup German beer (I only had Blue Moon on hand, but it was great)
2tbsp Apple cider vinegar
Stone Ground Mustard

Brown beef in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through. Drain off fat. Toss in onions and cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until just translucent. Mix in the ground mustard, salt and pepper. Add the cabbage and mix well, stirring until cabbage starts to soften. Add the beer and cover to allow the cabbage to steam for about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cover the pan again. Stir occasionally. Keep cooking until your cabbage is nice and soft and reduced in size. You'll know its done cooking when its translucent and there no longer seems to be more cabbage than beef. Just before serving, stir in the vinegar.

Slice the pretzel rolls in half and put a spiral of stone ground mustard on both halves. Spoon your desired amount of meat onto the bottom of the roll and squish the top on. Serve and enjoy! Its a messy sandwich, similar to a sloppy joe but without all the sauce. You may need a fork! We each had one sandwich and have enough leftover for lunch tomorrow! YAY!

Here is a link to the recipe I used for my pretzels.
http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2012/04/auntie-annes-pretzels-copycat-recipe.html

Okay, so this pic turned out pretty good. But its just the pretzel.

Rather than making them very long and thin, like mall pretzels; I made tight, thick knots so that they would be more "roll like". Feel free to comment if you have any questions. If you try my recipe, I'd love to hear what you thought! If you chose to blog about it, please link back to me!
Ein Prosit!