Budget Cut Bowlful

Even though it's only Tuesday, this week has not been the happiest at my work place. Having learned Friday about the University System's 30% budget cuts, my colleagues and I spent a nail-biting weekend only to return to work Monday amidst much speculation as to who was staying and who was going.

Fortunately, my colleagues and I feel a little more secure than others. After all, every college student has to have credit for a
freshman composition sequence. So almost all incoming students come through our doors. Still, we've got close working relationships with faculty in other departments, and we don't want to see anybody go.

Even though I'm not worried about losing my job (yet), I do wonder how much (little?) I'll be paid to do it. So I've started saving immediately. One way to do so is to cook economic meals, and tonight's was a perfect example.

I first had this low country supper when I was about Lawson's age. My mother's Uncle Robert taught it to her. It's an adaptation of the famous low country boil, just minus the shrimp (Come to think of it, I should make a low country boil during the Remler menu experiment). In place of the shrimp, we use cabbage. All the vegetables take on the flavor of the sausage, so minimal seasonings are necessary.

Ingredients:
1 ear of corn per person
1 head of cabbage
1 potato per person
1 to 2 packages of Polska kielbasa (depending on how many you're feeding)

Directions:
Shuck the corn and wash off the silks. Wash the cabbage and cut it into chunks. Wash the potatoes and cut them in half. Cut the sausage into short segments. Put about 2 quarts of water into a large stew pot and heat it to boiling. Add the potatoes. A few minutes later, add the corn. About 5 minutes later add the cabbage. Then a few minutes later add the sausage. Boil until the potatoes are done. Drain the water. Serve in a big dish. I use a casserole dish, but a big salad bowl will do also.

The calorie conscious cook can opt for lite sausage or even turkey sausage. Carbophobes can leave out the potatoes, but I must say that the dish isn't the same without the corn.

Not only is this meal easy on the pocketbook, but it also makes plenty, so you can either feed a crowd or have a second meal the next night. What a way to save!