Week 3 = Some Risks Are Worth It

If Rob hadn't come up with the Italian sausage wontons, I would never have tried this bizarre combo. And since I used pierogi last year, I really wanted to try something different for Pittsburgh this year.

Cabbage rolls do have an unfortunate resemblance to brains.

My first plan was to make an eastern Carolina bbq sauce to go on the cabbage rolls stuffed with pulled pork, mainly because I thought Charlotte was on the eastern side of the state. And I thought a vinegar based sauce would make sense. But when I figured out where Charlotte actually was and saw how many halupky recipes had tomatoes in them, I ended up with a Lexington/Piedmont sauce.

Okay - I definitely still have problems with planning because I never checked if I had enough cider vinegar. I didn't, but I substituted a combination of distilled white and balsamic and no one died.

Success!

The cabbage  roll recipe is this one from All Recipes. It's pretty easy, much less futzy than the wontons. Really, anything that sits in slow cooker all day works for me. I did substitute ground pork for ground beef. Like I said, I wanted pulled pork, but I wasn't sure how to make the pulled pork, stuff the boiled cabbage, and then cook it all together. Maybe I could have just wrapped them and left it at that, but since I had never made halupky before, I choose to stay close to the recipe.

The end result...

One more thing. Thank God, I decided to add the mashed potatoes. That sauce was hot!

Next week is New Orleans at Dallas. Let's see if I can avoid barbeque this time around.

Later,

VA