Dinner For Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne

This afternoon, about, oh, say 6 o'clock, Mr. Hawthorne expressed his desire to have cabbage and sausage for dinner. Being the dutiful little wifey mouse that I am, I immediately dispatched Youngest Hawthorne to the convenience store, conveniently located 1/2 mile away, to buy a head of cabbage. I thawed out 2 Italian sausages and a hamburger patty.
Now, I'm thinking stuffed cabbage rolls.
I found out later, after I'm an hour into the project, when he comes in the kitchen, and says, "Oh, you're making cabbage rolls! That's one of my favorites." Seemed like what he was expecting is a fifteen minute procedure where I just saute the cabbage along with some slices of sausage and onions, add some caraway seeds, and ba-da-boom, DONE.
But NOOOOOOOO.
I'm doing the whole she-bang.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.
Let's start at the beginning.

Here, I'm starting my tomato sauce.

I sauteed my onions and garlic, added some dried herbs - oregano and thyme and a sprinkling of fennel seeds- and added a can of tomato sauce.

Next, I added in a can of diced tomatoes.














I went to the garden and picked fresh parsley, sage, thyme, and oregano.












Chopped up the herbs and added
to the tomato sauce.











Stir the herby goodness into the tomato sauce.

Next, I added 1 tablespoon of sugar.

And 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

I remembered Mr. Hawthorne had vacuum packed some peppers from my garden last fall, so I went downstairs to the freezer to find a pack.

Chopped the peppers and added them to the mix.

Ahh, the tomato sauce is flavorful and lovely.

I found two Italian sausages
and a hamburger patty.

Chopped them up and sauteed them.

Here's my stove top at approximately 7:30 PM.
tomato sauce on the left, my head of cabbage in the middle, boiling in water for 15 minutes, and my sausage and hamburger cooking on the right.

In the back right, is my chicken stock merrily cooking away for HOURS.

The tomato sauce was a tad sweet, so I added some red wine.

Then I added a bit of Balsamic vinegar.

Here's my browned sausage and hamburger.

I added some white rice to the burger/sausage mix.
Golly! Good thing I had some EXTRA RICE on hand. Idiot.

Add in a beaten egg.


Now, in most stuffed cabbage recipes, I think they put in RAW pork and hamburger mixture in the cabbage leaves. I'm trying to cut corners and make time, so I cooked my meat first and drained out the grease.
























Find a nice cabbage leaf, cut the v-notch out where the heavy rib is, and stuff in the burger/sausage/rice mixture.













Roll up, and place in a baking dish with the sauce spooned onto the bottom.

Isn't this pretty?

Top with the tomato sauce.

Then I topped that with a mixture of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Here's the side view.

I baked in a 350-degree preheated oven for about 30 minutes, then turned it on broil
to brown the cheese.

Here's a lovely cabbage roll.

Close up.

Let's slice it and look at the yummy goodness inside.

I took a few bites and it was delicious.
It was all done at 9PM.
I went in to Mr. Hawthorne's room to tell him his custom ordered dinner was ready and served.

"Oh, I'm watching a movie now.
I'll be in there in a little bit."




At some point during the night, during the approximately THREE HOURS it took me to whip up this little dish on Mr. H's WHIM, I remember going INto his room, saying something very bitchy, like "You KNOW, it must be NICE to just SAY whatEVER you WANT for FREAKIN' DINNER, then all of a sudden your PERSONAL CHEF actually MAKES it while you just LIE there WATCHING TV. It must be nice to be you, although very confusing most of the time."


Oh crap.
Then he finally comes in.
When the cabbage rolls are cold.
He says, " You know, I wouldn't have put the cheese on it."

Hey, ASSHOLE, you wouldn't have done ANYFREAKINGTHING.
And you DIDN'T.
I did it ALL.
GAHHHHH!!!!!!



God, I need a wife.

Or maybe, a life.