Announcing the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE!!!

Happy New Year, sweet friends!!! 

I hope you've made your resolutions (or not, if one of your goals is to defy things like that).

Here at the Tasty Cheapskate, I've got a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!! (obviously, since I put it in caps with exclamation points).

Over the last few years, I've had less and less time for this lovely little food blog as my writing career has taken me in some other different directions. (For a taste of that, have a look HERE and HERE.)

Because of that, I've made a decision: Throughout the rest of the year, I will be posting the very best, very cheapest, very tastiest recipes each week on Monday. I'll use this year cataloging what I think are the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE recipes. They'll be the things I make regularly, the things I think will save you some big bucks, and the things that just taste good. I'll be re-photographing ugly pictures as well as updating recipes with all the tweaks, simplifications, and perfectionisms that I've added to them. In addition to Monday recipes, I'll sometimes be posting on Thursday with special posts, articles, tips, book recommendations, and non-food recipes. I hope you enjoy those too.

Then when all the best recipes have been re-posted, The Tasty Cheapskate will offer a cookbook with all those recipes for your to keep and love and give to your friends. This will happen at the end of this year, or the end of next year, depending on how many "best of" recipes I find. And then The Tasty Cheapskate will close it's doors. Not completely, mind you. If I make a fantastic recipe, it will still get posted here. But I won't be promising any kind of regularity.

So, log on, folks (and tell all your friends). Because it's going to be a wonderful, beautiful, tasty, cheap, amazing year!!!

For now, let's get started. Today's recipe is traditional New Year's food called Polska Kielbasa. Why is it traditional? Or considered good luck? Well, a quick internet search revealed that... no one really has any idea at all. Most likely, when we're honest with ourselves, it's because cured, salted pork and pickled cabbage were available at one of the coldest points in the year (tradition). And people who had them felt fortunate (luck).

And you are lucky. Because this is one of the easiest recipes on the planet (seriously, it's right up there with "boiled water" in the difficulty department). It has two ingredients (one of them is even a vegetable). It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. And the kielbasa has a salty, sweetness to it when cooked that combines with the punchy sauerkraut to hit all the right flavor points for driving away winter blues. So you're welcome.

Polska Kielbasa
Serves 4 (if you've got crusty bread on the side; otherwise it serves 2-3)
Prep time: 1 minute
Cook time: 7-10 minutes
Cost: $2.50 (about $.67 per serving)
kielbasa: 2.00, sauerkraut: .50

1 package Polska Kielbasa sausage, cut into "coins"
1 15-oz can sauerkraut, mostly drained

Cut the kielbasa and cook on a skillet at just over medium heat until it starts to brown and get some color and caramelization.

Add the sauerkraut and cook until it's hot.

Serve. It's not the prettiest thing on earth, but that sweet, sour, savory thing is really rocking in this food.