Robin's Cabbage Rolls

The first time I ever had cabbage rolls, I was in high school. I had spent the night with my friend Michelle Burr Newton, and her mother had made them. I fell in love with them immediately. I'm not for sure if this is how she cooked them, but I like a little crunch in my bite, so I've added a little this and little that to it.

Boy, did Michelle and I have some good times. Star City has a fire tower on the out skirt of town, we loved to go up there and climb it. One time, one of us lost our flip flop, and had to climb all the way down without a shoe. Nothing like growing up in a small town, you can always find something to do. Sounds terrible, but we even played hide-n-seek in the grave yard. We mostly hung out at "the stable" or "the pizza place" and played pool or the pinball machine. But, when we were old enough to drive, we just rode around, singing, talking, and laughing.

Cabbage Rolls
1 pound ground Italian sausage
1/2 chopped onion
1 box wild rice, cooked as directed on box
1 celery stick
1 cup carrots
1 small jar sliced water chestnuts, drained
8 cabbage leaves
14.5 ounce stewed tomatoes
1 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Boil cabbage leaves until soft; then drain off water, and let cool. Cook rice and set to the side.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In food processor, add carrots; then onion, and celery, chop very fine.

In mixing bowl, mix sausage, vegetables, rice, water chestnuts, salt and pepper.

Put 3/4 cup of mixture in cabbage. When you place your mixture in the cabbage, fold each side in, then roll.
Repeat until all our rolled. Place in 9x13 casserole dish.

Pour stewed tomatoes on top, and then pour the beef broth in. Bake for one hour.

This is Southern Comfort Style for sure.

Be Sweet and Stay Sweet!