Popalak AKA Potato Pizza

I don't know where the name Popalak came from except that I know it from my mother in law. This is what my husband's family calls it. This post is dedicated to her with great amounts of love.
My MIL was able to feed a very large family for very little money with her creative recipes. Sometimes I have learned that what she calls something isn't what other people think that thing is.
For Popalak, I don't even see it being something that other people think is even a thing : )
I tried to Google it.
It's really good, pretty easy to make, inexpensive for a large family.
It also probably has almost zero nutritional value. When we make this, it's because it's a comfort food on a cold winter day. Not for healthy eating reasons.

Here's what you need:

1 pizza crust in a tube (like a crescent roll container, only it's pizza crust)
5 lbs potatoes. You can use which ever type you like best.
10 slices of American cheese.
Onion salt 
Pepper
20 oz shredded mozzarella cheese.
Paprika
Baking spray

Baking spray, aluminum foil or a cover for your pan, and a 13x9 glass pan. 

Cut your potatoes in half and then quarter them again. Plop them into a pan of water (make sure the water covers them)  and get them boiling on the stove. Your going to boil them until they are just tender when stuck with a fork.

In the mean time, spray the bottom of your 13x9 baking pan and lay the pizza crust over the bottom only of the pan.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Lay your slices of American cheese over the pizza crust. Now you wait until your potatoes are ready.

Again, you want to boil them just until a fork can easily be stuck in them, but don't go too far or they'll be mushy.
Drain your potatoes, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking and drain all water.
Use your shredder and grate the potatoes over the pizza crust and cheese in the pan. You will be making an even layer here, Maybe an inch tall.

Most of the parts of this recipe can be adjusted for your taste. Less potato, more potato. Less cheese, different cheese. Add diced onions, what ever you want. 
Season with onion salt and pepper.
Once you have your potato layer, you will add your mozzeralla cheese layer.
Add paprika, cover with aluminum foil and bake for about a half hour.
You will know it's done when the pizza crust is a beautiful golden brown on the bottom.

While the oven is already hot, why not make a Cherry Dump Cake for dessert?



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My Husband's Favorite Homemade Cranberry Sauce

You need:

2 lbs cranberries

3 cups cranberry juice

3/4 cups orange juice

12 oz maple syrup ( not pancake syrup)

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (one cup until you taste the syrup and decide for yourself)

Rinse your berries. Remove any little sticks and bad berries. 

I also get the water bath canner ready now. Get the water hot. Make sure you have rack on the bottom of your water bath pan. I am using a smaller pot this time and I don't have a rack that fits so I am using canning lids. 

Have 5 sanitized pint jars ready.

Put all of the ingredients in a large pot. Ours is a less sweet recipe. You can take a quick taste of your liquid now and add the additional half cup of sugar now if you would like.

Put it on high heat and bring to a rapid rolling boil stirring constantly.

The berries will start popping while they split open. It needs to be a true rapid and rolling boil to start releasing the pectin from the berries. 

Turn the Heat down to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes. I use this time to skim some of the foam out. I am not that worried about the foam. If you are a perfectionist... There are a few ideas to get rid of almost all the foam here. 

To us is not important.

After the 10 minutes you start filling your point jars. This batch will fill 4 pints jars with just enough left over for a tasting. 

Put the point jars in your water bath. Make sure the water covers the jar, pot your plus on and raise the heat so the water boils.

 Time for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn the heat off. Remove your jars and wait for those beautiful pings. 

Sauerkraut Stew

This is our variation of this meal. It takes awhile to make and it is a great Saturday meal for this reason.
Ingredients are:
2 medium onions
7 small red potatoes
2 small cans of sliced mushrooms
2 large cans of sauerkraut
1 lb or so of polish sausage
2 sticks of butter
1 apple
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper
3/4 cup brown sugar

Large skillet and a crock pot

Drain the mushrooms but not into your sink. Drain the water into your crock pot.
Slice the onions and add them to your skillet with the drained mushrooms and half a stick of butter. Fry over medium heat until caramelized. 
While they caramelize, drain the sauerkraut so that the water goes into your crockpot. 

When the mushrooms and onions are done, put them in your crockpot and set it on high.
Then put a stick of butter into your skillet and start frying the sauerkraut to caramelized same as the onions.
While this is going, chop or large slice your potatoes and apple and get them into the crockpot to start softening and boiling in the sauerkraut and mushroom water. Add the brown sugar and mustard to the crockpot mixture and let it cook away. The sauerkraut takes quite awhile to caramelize. Add more butter to this if needed.

Once the sauerkraut is done, remove the potatoes from the crockpot mixture, add the sauerkraut to the crockpot. Now its time to fry the potatoes and sausage.

Put the potatoes in your skillet with half stick of butter and the sausage. You can slice the sausage or chunk it. Your preference.

When the potatoes and sausage are fried to your liking it goes into the crockpot with pepper and salt to taste and let it cook on high for 4 hours. Then you are ready to eat!

My family loves this with rye bread and pickled beets.