Polish Platter 2013

 After an incredibly easy-going New Year's, as well as a very disappointing dinner on the last day of 2012, my sister and I decided to make our favorite foods for the new year together. We chose a Polish Platter 2013, consisting of potato and cheese pierogis with caramelized onions and cabbage rolls. 

Someone visiting us last christmas made us these amazing cabbage rolls, and since then I have been wanting to remake them. Luckily, my sister took it upon herself to get this train rolling and we made the  best New Year's meal I've yet to have. 

On top of cabbage rolls we had handmade pierogis, which are delicious and time consuming. We made far more than we could eat (three bags in the freezer today) so it took about an hour to assemble these suckers. Totally worth the effort if you have an hour in the kitchen to kill, and much better if you have a partner to do it with. 

We smothered them with caramelized onions and all fell asleep by about 9pm. Helloooooo 2013. you might not be a rager, but we're already getting shit done. 

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

1 head of cabbage
1 lb of pork
1 lb of beef
1 1/2 cups of rice
2 cans tomato soup (cambells works great!)
1 tbs of tomato paste
1 pack of bacon
splash of worcestershire sauce (around 1 tsp)
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1 can of water

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut the core out of the cabbage, then boil for 10 minutes. Cool the cabbage and peel leaves off. Cut the stems out from the middle of the leaves and stack the leaves to dry in towels.

In a bowl, mix cooked rice, pork and beef with salt and pepper and minced garlic. Add worcestershire. Take the cabbage leaves and roll this mix like a burrito in the leaf. Place them in a casserole dish in rows.

In a bowl, put trimmed, sliced bacon, tomato soup, tomato paste and water. season with s and p. Cover the rolls with the sauce and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Cook for one hour, then remove foil and cook for another 10-15 minutes.