Guess what I learned today?! That it's really hard to make uncooked sausages look appealing in a photo. Trust me, by the time they're browned and sizzling on the plate, they'll be a lot more appetizing. But I wanted to get this post up now, today, in honor of Meaty Monday and I'm not cooking them until tonight. Feel free to visit those other blogs if you want to run with the pack and cook something meatless. Over here, true rebels are sharpening our knives. Actually, there's not really much work involved, since these lamb and beef sausages are from Dickson's. They're seasoned with cumin and Turkish chiles; sort of a riff on a Merguez sausage. If you've got access to sausages made from humanely raised beef, pork or lamb, Meaty Monday can mean dinner on the table in 15 minutes! We'll be having ours with homemade sauerkraut and a delicious new mustard I learned about in Saveur's Chef'e Edition, on newsstands now. (Don't know Saveur? Among my favorite food magazines...)

If your sausages are at all fatty, and most good sausages are—excepting weisswurst—then lactofermented sauerkraut (the kind you make at home that doesn't involve any cooking at all) will help you digest them. The more I read about this stuff, the more I think we should all be eating small amounts of it on a regular basis. G told me that kimchi eaters get less cancer. Cabbage in general is very healing. Get you some now.

The mustard is a crunchy, grainy, sinus-clearing concoction called Kozlick's Triple Crunch. It was #56 in Saveur's 100, the favorite of Jonathan Gushue, an Ontario-based chef who apparently can't live without this blend of white, brown and black mustard seeds pickled in a little vinegar and honey. Naturally, I had to order some immediately all the way from Canada, and also their fig-&-balsamic mustard which does nice things to a piece of cheese. Happy (Meaty) Monday!