Sauerkraut, Rubens & Rachels

**I found this in my draft folder - I wrote it right after the New Year and never posted it!

This is a 'non-recipe' for the best sauerkraut I've ever had (on New Years Day in Pittsburgh).

It was so good I had to recreate it immediately.

When I asked my friend how she made it, it was 'a little of this & some of that'... which is pretty much how I cook, so that was enough for me!

I made a walloping 4 pounds.  It's that good.

I used:

2 - 2 pound bags of barrel cured sauerkraut

1 envelope of Liptons Onion Soup Mix (I never cook with stuff like this!)

10-12 oz (ish) of naturally unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup (ish) of brown sugar

lots of freshly ground black pepper and some salt

Toss it all together, cover with aluminum foil and into the oven it went for 4 hours at 300 and another 2 hours at 275/250 (ish)... and I might have let it cook even longer, 

but we were starving!

Normally, I would cook it with a roast or something, but we had our eye on Rubens and Rachels.

A Rachel (sandwich) is the cousin of the Ruben, substituting turkey for corned beef.

To assemble the Rachel, butter 2 slices of marbled rye and place one piece butter side down in a skillet over medium/low heat.  On top of the bread in the pan, add a dollop of Russian dressing, a pile of sauerkraut, a few slices of turkey or corned beef, a slice of swiss cheese  and top with the remaining slice of bread with a smidgen more Russian dressing.

Periodically pressing down with a spatula, cook the sandwich until golden brown on both sides.