Sausage and Cabbage Stew

I have to give credit to my friend Nicole Rice for this dish. I went over to her house the other day to pick up my latest buy from the meat buy club. (She works with a local rancher to get us grassfed beef, pasture chickens, eggs and more!)  Anyway, she was in her kitchen, like usual, and she was chopping cabbage and sausage and throwing it in a crockpot. She said she normally does the recipe in the oven, but she was trying it for the first time in a crockpot. I decided to go with the oven today, since I wanted to cook it faster than how the crockpot would do it. This also reminds me of a dish my mom made growing up. She'd do sausage and sauerkraut on the stove top. Mom's dish was more caramelized, this was more of a stew. I'm not sure what seasonings Nicole uses, I just took her method and ran with it. I loved this dish because it took less than 10 minutes to throw together. You do need to plan in advance since it needs to bake for at least an hour though.
-Amanda

Sausage and Cabbage Stew

1/2 head of cabbage
4-6 links of sausage or bratwurst
2 carrots
1 stick of butter
2-3 cups of homemade chicken stock
sprinkle of fennel
salt and pepper

Chop cabbage very fine and add to a oven proof casserole dish. (I used the stoneware baker from Pampered Chef.) Grate the carrots and add to the cabbage. Cut sausage into rounds and then brown it in a hot skillet. (You can skip the browning stage if you are in a hurry.) Add it to the cabbage. Cut the stick of butter up and place it around the casserole dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and fennel. Add the chicken stock and cover. Bake for about 45 minutes covered at 375, and then 15 more uncovered. Enjoy!