Oktoberfeast

My favorite fall meal must be sauerbraten, with sweet and sour purple cabbage and mashed potatoes. It takes a little planning, but is easy and fun to cook. Luckily, it is made in a big batch, so there are leftovers for a few days and they get even more flavorful.

This was dinner, Jeff's plate.

The beef is marinated for 3 days, before you finally simmer it in the marinade for about 3 hours. The marinade becomes the gravy, which I sieve at the end of the cooking time so it's velvety smooth.

I think the cabbage recipe was one my mother clipped from a newspaper when I was in my teens or so. I've always loved it! In addition to the obvious cabbage, it contains bacon, onion, Granny Smith apples and various spices, etc.

The mashed potatoes are just your basic sort (I use Yukon Gold potatoes), but they become special with lots of gravy over them!

I think the German branches of our family trees would approve ;)