Kielbasa Kidney Bean Stew

1/2 an onion, diced
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 or 4 cups of cubed potatoes (I used baby redskins, quartered)
1 kielbasa
2 15-oz cans kidney beans
2 8-oz cans tomato sauce
1 6-oz can tomato paste

Cook the kielbasa (whole) in a skillet, set aside to cool & cut into 1/4" rounds.
In your stock pot over medium/high heat, sautee the onions & garlic in butter and olive oil, with salt & pepper to taste. Add the potatoes, stirring occasionally until everything is nice and browned. Toss in 1/4 cup of water (or wine) to deglaze all the nice brown stuff from the bottom of the pan. Add the beans & stir hard enough to break some of them, this gives the stew better texture. Stir in the cut kielbasa, sautee some more. Add the tomato sauces and a few cups of water til it looks like soup, then let simmer until it thickens up a bit.

Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream, sourdough on the side is recommended!

Plum & Strawberry Cobbler Cake

Yeah....It's been stupidly long since I updated. Life happens. Well, I made a hybrid of two of my favorite recipes from last summer, and here we go. It's great with coffee or tea. The cake is very dense, the cobbler is buttery and the plums are tart and light. I think it's a pretty nice balance.

Plum & Strawberry Cobbler Cake

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup unsalted butter @ room temperature

1 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 400º.

Line the bottom of a springform pan with parchment paper and grease thoroughly with butter.

Whisk dry ingredients , set aside. Cream sugar & butter, Beat in the eggs one at a time, then half of flour, then the milk and vanilla, then the remaining flour. Pour into buttered pan. Set aside.

For the Fruit layer:

6-8 plums , sliced

¾ cup chopped strawberries

½ cup blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

1 ½ tbsp cornstarch

¾ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and spices. Add the cut fruit and stir well. Pour onto the cake batter. Set aside.

For the Cobbler layer:

¾ cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

¾ tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp salt

¾ tsp cinnamon

6 tbsp butter, sliced and frozen

2 tbsp cold milk

½ tsp vanilla

In the bowl from the fruit, still all fruity, whisk the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until the size of peas, then barely stir in the milk & vanilla. Drop in crumbles on the fruit layer.

Place in the center of the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes or until golden brown and doesn’t wiggle when moved.

Let cool completely before removing from springform pan. Keep refrigerated.