Did you know that Chicago has the second largest Polish population in the world, next to Warsaw! This is a recipe that Grandma Thorkildsen used and now her children and grandchildren use to make a traditional, tasty, rustic polish meal. One of my favorites growing up. Grandma used to make it every Christmas. The hard part with this one is finding FRESH polish sausage.

32 oz. sauerkraut drained & rinse

1 T barley

1 stick butter*

1 large onion

1/2 c water

1 T pepper

2 links polish sausage - fresh** = 1 double link

Brown onion in butter & put all the rest in pot with onion & butter mix & cover for 1 hour on low heat.

My grandmother and aunt like to slice the sausage into 1-2 inch pieces before cooking. I've found that cooking the sausage whole will keep it more tender.

Good and rustic. I like to eat this with some good rye bread (Rosen's in Chicago). Leftovers are fantastic with mustard and rye bread.

*I don't use an entire stick of butter, maybe half.

**The difficult part of this recipe is finding real, FRESH sausage. This isn't the smoked polish sausage you get at most grocery stores. It looks like raw Italian sausage. I usually bring it back from a polish market in Chicago.