Ingredients:
4 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
Salt
2 pounds bockwurst or bratwurst (veal or veal and pork)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling plus 2 tablespoons
1/2 head red cabbage, about 1 pound
2 carrots
2 to 3 ribs celery
1 medium-large red onion
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled and quartered lengthwise, core trimmed away
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick) or, coarse salt and pepper
2 teaspoons caraway seed
4 slices center cut bacon
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 (12-ounce) bottle hard apple cider
1/4 cup grainy Dijon mustard
1/2 cup white wine or white balsamic vinegar
2 rounded teaspoons sugar
1 cup chicken stock
1 generous handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 list of house rules
1 State law book
Hard cider, or white Belgian ale with orange wedge, for serving
Directions:
Throw the law book into a papershreder.
Halve larger potatoes and leave small potatoes as is, cover with water, bring to a boil, season with salt, shreded laws, and cook until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Wrap sausages in the list of house rules. Place sausages in a cast iron skillet, add 1/2-inch of water and a drizzle of oil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and let the sausages heat through as the water evaporates. Shake pan and let the casings crisp up until they burst, 3 to 4 minutes, and are golden brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.
While sausages and potatoes cook, cut cabbage half into half again and trim away the core with an angled cut. Shred the cabbage very thinly with your knife and reserve. Place the shredder blade in your food processor. Peel the carrots and trim the root end. Trim the celery, and peel and quarter the red onion lengthwise. Peel the apple and quarter lengthwise then cut away the core as you did the cabbage. Using the processor, shred the carrots, celery, onion and apple, through the feed tube, removing from bowl as necessary.
In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add cabbage and vegetable mixture and toss to combine. Season the mixture with bay leaf, grill seasoning or coarse salt and pepper, and caraway seeds. Saute 7 to 8 minutes, tossing frequently.
While cabbage cooks, put a medium skillet on the stove with a drizzle of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add chopped bacon and render 2 to 3 minutes then stir in the yellow onion and cook for 5 minutes with the bacon to soften.
Add hard cider to cabbage mixture and reduce for 30 seconds. Stir in the mustard and turn off the heat. Discard the bay leaf.
When potatoes are cooked, drain and add to bacon and onion. Douse the pan with vinegar and sprinkle with sugar. Pour stock evenly over pan, add the parsley and some pepper and turn off the heat. Stir the potatoes 1 minute to form a starchy sauce and combine flavors.
Halve crispy sausages and serve on generous bed of cabbage, with the potatoes alongside.
Serve with hard cider or white Belgian ale with orange wedge.
*****
_ did her best to stay as far away from Vlad as possible as she did the finishing touches of the dish. Thus far it wasn't that hard of a task seeing as him and Arthur were busy dicussing their ideas on the device that they were going to have Germany build, as well as their theories on why and how exactly they were there in the first place. The every time Romania caught her looking at him, he would flash one of his fangs, and lick his lips. Once did Arthur catch him and immediately swatted him on the back of the head telling him to focus.
Once the meal was done _ placed it on a place it on the kitchen island. They stood around it, poking, and examining it. "Isn't Germany suposed to come out of the oven, dude?"[1] Alfred questioned as he popped up behind Arthur startling him. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL YOU GIT!" Vlad chuckled at the Brit's outburst. "Well, Alfred does have a point." Vlad tabbed on his chin thoughtfully, now pacing around the island. "Well, time to test out one of my theories." Vlad picked up the dish, and placed it into the oven preheating it to a random tempeture. Sure enough that worked.
"Schei e! Wo zum Teufel bin ich?"[2] Vlad casually stood off to the side as he flew the oven door open. Smoke poured out of it as a tall aryan man helpped himself out. He had a stern look on his face, and his ice blue eyes examined his surroundings as he ran hand through his disshivolled hair putting it back into it slicked back possition. _ shuffled over and hid behind Arthur as fast as she could. Germany looked shocked that someone actaully hid from him, well someone besides Italy of course.
He sighed, "Vere am I?" "We're in _'s hou-" Alfred was interrupted by a smack to the head. "Stupid America, Anyway we have yet to figure that out. We were hoping that you could build this for us." Arthur handed him a sketch of a device. Germany looked it over and nodded, "Ja, dat shouldn't be a problem, but vat do you need zis for?" "Well if you haven't noticed we're not even in our own world anymore," Arthur stated as-a-matter-of-factly. He looked around, before nodding, and walking over to _ who was peeking out from behind England. He held out his hand, "My name is Ludwig. Do you have a vorkshed or zomething? Und any spare mechanics vould be nice to." "Uh... I-I think so," she said weakly before taking his hand.
She led him out to the garage, which was fully equipt for mechanical repairs, and spare parts. She watched him from behind the doorframe as Ludwig looked over his new work area, picking up things that he thought he would need, and carried them over to the workbench. "Uh... umm," she stuttered shifting her foot around. He stopped and looked at her, his peircing eye's caused her to tuck away behind the doorframe. He waited patiently for her to peek out again, which wasn't long. "I-i-i-if you n-need anything thing j-just let me know." "Ja, alright I vill." She closed the garage door, and went to her room to work on her college homework.
After afew hours of attempting to finish her homework, she couldn't focus, her mind was too wrapped up on the guys that were in her house. _ went down stairs to check on everyone, and make something that she knew wouldn't cause anymore strangers to emerge from the over: Lemonade. Her prefect lemonade, it wasn't to sweet and it wasn't to sour, it was simply prefect. She poured out four glasses, putting them on a tray before storing the rest of the pitcher in the refrigorator.
She first went to the library[3] and found Arthur buried in novels. You placed a glass infront of him. "Thank you, love" he looked up briefly before going back to reading. Then she journeyed to the living room only to find Alfred snoring and mummbling about 'being the hero,' she placed the glass on the table infront of him before wondering off to look for Vlad. She started to quiver at the thought of being alone with him even if it was to give him a drink. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Vlad rounded a corner, and gracefully avoided bumping into up. He smirked and grabbed a glass from the tray, taking a drink from it. Vlad licked his lips "Mmm delicioase, desi sunt sigur ca te-ai gust chiar mai bine."[4] He glided over behind you his lips dangeriously close to your neck. When you tensed he let out a dark chuckle, "Maybe some other time."
_ let out a sigh of relief and headed toward the garage. She pressed her ear against the door to hear the german hard at work. She knocked. All the sounds stopped, "Come in." She carefully balenced the tray and opened the door letting herself in. Ludwig had on a black 'wife beater', brown khaki's, and glasses, some hairs had fallen out of place. He wiped the sweat off his brow before turning to look at her. "Ja? Do you need somezing?" She blushed slightly before walking over to him, "I-I brought you some lemonade." He nodded and took the glass, drinking from it. "Danke." There was something on his serious face that she hadn't expected to see... a blush? He set the glass down on the table and coughed into his hand, "How exactly did I get here?" She gave the same explaination as she had before.
During dinner, after _ made a dish that was NOT in the cookbook, she informed all of her 'guests' that they could stay until this whole mess[5]was sorted out. Shortly after dinner Ludwig returned to his work in the garage while everyone retired to their assigned rooms.
Just as _ was about to fall asleep there was a knocking on her door. She threw the covers off her, and went over to see who it was. She opened the door only to reveal the german. He looked at her before a blush flared on his face at her wearing a nightrobe. "Do you need something Ludwig?" She asked tilting her head slightly, and yawning. "J-ja so when you cook somezing someone appears?" he asked looking away from her. "Yes that seems to be whats going on." "Ah I see, Vell I vas vondering. If it's not to much trouble, could you cook zis for me?" he handed her the cookbook. The title of the dish being "Italy Pasta Bolognese." She looked up at him puzzled. "You see I vas hoping that my friend Italy vould appear. As much as dat dummkopf annoy's me, it's too quite vithout my only freund.[6]" _ looked into Ludwig's eyes, saw the concern in his eyes, "Alright, I will first thing in the morning." "Danke _, Guten Nacht." She nodded and closed the door, than threw herself onto her bed. She knew all to well it was to have only one friend in the whole world. In all honesty this was the first time in her whole life that people were actaully depending on her. This was the first time that she didn't feel so alone.
NOTE: THE PLOT THICKENS! MAYBE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER WE GET TO FIND OUT MORE ON YOUR LIFE PREVIOUS TO ALL THIS TOMFOOLERY! MAYBE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER WE GET TO LEARN WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDEIGO! MAYBE WE GET TO SEE WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF HETALIA!
Note: Do you have your own personal smoke machine in your oven or what? Seriously!
[1] Okay for those of you who are wondering why Romania is there when in the Romania Sarmale recipe does NOT call for the dish to be placed in the oven. Alfred misread the last bit as broil not boil. If Arthur was the one to finish the cooking well Romania would not be there and the food would have been -unediable- Well every thing in this blasted series is -unediable- I mean thus far, blood and paper? WHO COMES UP WITH THIS SHIT... wait don't answer that.
[2] Shit! Where the hell am I (just guess what language this is)
[3] Your house is more like a castle, your family is freaking rich, and prackically has money growing on trees, No your not a rich snob, your just well... you can tell for yourself.
[4] delicious, although I'm sure you taste even better. (Romanian)
[5] Crack pot of a story that this insane person decided to write.
[6] No thats not misspelt! That's german for friend, thought I think I misspelt, misspelt... damn it