Great Balls of Sauerkraut!

The holiday season always brings a lot of talk of food.  Most families have special dishes they make for the holidays, and here in Northeastern Ohio that means, amongst other things, sauerkraut balls.  As a matter of fact, the city I live in, Akron, Ohio, is widely considered the sauerkraut ball capital of the world. Credit the many German immigrants who settled in the area, but instead of being a New Year's treat, but a specialty of the house in many NE Ohio bars and restaurants  all year round.


As a kid I didn't know this. I only knew that every year on Christmas Eve we had sauerkraut balls.  Years later when I asked my mom why we did this she said that my dad's mom, who was Hungarian, always served sauerkraut on Christmas Eve, along with fish, pierogies, and poppy seed rolls.  But her grandchildren didn't much like the taste of kraut back then (I love it now, especially with kielbasi), so my mom bought the sauerkraut balls.  Sauerkraut balls on Christmas Eve became a family tradition, one I shared with my husband when he came into the family and we started spending Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine.

All this time we were still buying sauerkraut balls from the store.  Then my husband decided to try a recipe he had acquired along with a new food processor.  It was a revelation. The premade ones are fine, but when you start from scratch and assemble your own ingredients, its a revelation.  With a certain hesitancy, he brought them to my family one Christmas Eve.  People who are used to a certain recipe don't always like a new one.  My family was delighted, however, and he has become the official maker of sauerkraut balls to my relatives.  About 6 years ago he made them for a niece's graduation party and they were a huge hit with his family as well. 

One of the nice things about sauerkraut balls is they can be made ahead and frozen, and then simply baked or briefly popped back into the fryer again.  They are time consuming but easy to make too.
There are numerous variations, but what we make requires a pound of sausage, a block of cream cheese, a bag of sauerkraut, bread crumbs and an egg. Drain the sauerkraut, pressing the excess moisture out. Cook the sausage, then mix it, the sauerkraut and the cream cheese together, and let sit in the fridge overnight.  Next day, form into small balls, dip in the egg and drop in the bread crumbs, then deep fry till golden brown.   Serve right away, or freeze them till you need them.

And New Year's Eve and Day are  great days  to serve them as pork and sauerkraut are traditional fare in many parts of the country.  One reason I have heard to have pork on New Year's is because it was the richest dish most people could afford, so you were eating well on New Year's hoping it mirrored how you would eat the rest of the year. 

And however you choose to celebrate have a great New Year!!!

Theme Thursday I Here Highly Resolve

So its time for the New Years' resolution again. I will make the same one I make every year, to try to be a little more organized and a lot less cluttered. The resolution has been a major work in progress for several years. As a sentimental Cancer born in the year of the Rat no less I do tend to colllect things. And I am makibng progress, though not enough to give up the resolution yet.

Actually the last two years I have had two resolutions, for at the prompting of an old friend I have been trying to resume the writing that has been so derailed by life the last 20 years or so. This year I started my blog and have been posting fairly faithfully. So while continuing to write I think I can go back to concentrating on the clutter dragon.

I have a room that is basically the household place of holding. Kind of a junk drawer, but with walls and a door. Anything no one wants or knows where to put goes there. The problem is:I need a work space, to write and scrapbook and do geneology and shut the door at time to chaos. When the kids were younger I did this in the living room or wherever else the kids were. But they frankly dont need the supercvision any more at, least not on that level. I need to make my own space.

Last year major progress was made. I cleaned a whole closet of clothes from my college days that I will never be small enough for again, and post baby clothes that I don't intend to ever be large enough for again. I set aside for Goodwill a number of books that are duplicates or will never be needed again. I even threw out a few falling apart books that I had other copies of. Getting rid of books gets me where I live. But I recognize the neccessity.

So the resolution for this year is to build on my success so far. There are clothes thsat fit, but will never wear. There are paperbacks Ialso own in hardback. I need to get more bookshelves up, clear out the rest of the boxes that moved with us 11 years ago from the last house, set up a scrapbooking and photo center. I hope to report progress soon.

And maybe I can make a new resolution next year.

This post is part of Theme Thursday, a group of writers blogging on the same topic. For more info please click on the button below.