Sausage, Potatoes and Cabbage

Summer break started for the kids this week — a sluggish Monday, a loud Tuesday, a normal Wednesday onward. Amber has a summer job back at the pool snack bar, her third summer there, a place she will leave for college in August with some quiet sentiment that she will not discuss. Tyler is at the Freightliner dealership as a paid part-timer now, not just fetching tools. Justin is lifting weights and doing football conditioning and is less home than not-home, the boy on a mission. Josie is 11, between sixth and seventh, and bored by about ten minutes in.

Drove a Denver run Tuesday through Thursday. Three days. Hotel in Cheyenne Tuesday, hotel in Lincoln Wednesday. I wrote in the hotel rooms — not for a book, not yet, just for myself. Notes. Observations. Sentences I want to remember later. I have started doing this. Sarah said, "The second book comes from the notebook, Brenda. Start the notebook." I started the notebook.

A strange thing happened Thursday. I was at a truck stop outside Sterling, Colorado, eating a plate of meatloaf at the counter, and a woman on the stool next to me turned and said, "Are you Brenda Novak?" I said, "Yes." She said, "I have your book in my truck." She did. She showed me. She asked me to sign it. Her name was Carla Rinaldi, from Buffalo, New York, driving a nationwide route hauling auto parts. We talked for an hour. We ate meatloaf and talked. She said she had been on the road for 23 years. She said she had never read a book written by someone who understood what she does. She said she cried in the parking lot when she finished. I said, "I cried in a kitchen for ten months while I wrote it." She laughed. She cried. We exchanged numbers. I have a friend in Buffalo now. My book has made me friends I did not know I could have.

Minneapolis in eight days. I am not nervous. I am mildly nervous. I am very nervous. All three simultaneously. Sarah says this is the correct amount.

Friday night I cooked a huge batch of spaghetti with meat sauce. Enough for ten. The kids ate five. I froze the rest in portions for when I am gone next week. Dave can microwave. The kids can microwave. The house can be fed. This is what a mother-writer-trucker does before a trip: she fills the freezer. There is a chapter in the cookbook on this. Mother-trucker freezer logistics. It is not called that. It is called "Feeding the House When You Are Not There." Same thing, better title.

The spaghetti I made Friday fed the kids and filled the freezer, and it did its job — but honestly, this Sausage, Potatoes and Cabbage is the one I keep coming back to before a long trip, because it holds up in the freezer even better and reheats without losing anything. It’s the kind of meal that sat in the back of my mind all week while I was driving, knowing the house would be fine as long as there was something real waiting in the containers. Carla Rinaldi and I talked for an hour over plates of meatloaf, and I thought: this is what the road and the kitchen have in common — good, honest food that just does what it’s supposed to do.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb smoked kielbasa or andouille sausage, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 1/2 lbs baby red potatoes, halved
1/2 head green cabbage (about 6 cups), roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Brown the sausage. Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage rounds in a single layer and cook 3—4 minutes per side until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving drippings in the pan.
Soften the onion and garlic. Reduce heat to medium. Add sliced onion to the pan and cook 4—5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to turn golden. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Add potatoes and broth. Stir in the halved potatoes, smoked paprika, caraway seeds if using, and black pepper. Pour in the chicken broth and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 12—15 minutes until potatoes are just fork-tender.
Add the cabbage. Uncover and add the chopped cabbage in large handfuls, stirring to incorporate as it wilts. Return the browned sausage to the pan. Stir everything together.
Finish cooking. Cover and cook an additional 8—10 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until cabbage is tender and potatoes are fully cooked through. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Serve or freeze. Serve warm, garnished with fresh parsley. To freeze: cool completely, portion into airtight containers, and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave 3—4 minutes, stirring once.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sausage, Potatoes and Cabbage — What I Leave in the Freezer Before I Leave