Bald Eagle Relish on a Brat

Mondays are chore days. We have to do laundry, empty the trash, refill the water bottles with filtered water, grocery shop, visit some doctor or another, wash the cars, and pick the kid up from school. We usually treat him to a Costco dog--not super healthy, but super cheap! We can feed our family of three for under five bucks! It's our guilty pleasure.

After a morning of running errands and purchasing bulk pantry staples at my favorite health-nut grocery store, New Frontiers, and after I finished folding laundry, my husband went upstairs to take a nap, and I, the woman who had been cooking and refilling my pantry in the kitchen all afternoon, decided to sit down and watch TV and browse the internet. Guy Fieri's show was on, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives". I had some roasted garlic potato soup in the slow-cooker, and I was thinking of adding some grilled cheese sandwiches as an accompaniment to that for a complete dinner.

Then, in Guy's episode of "Burgers, Tacos and Dogs," I watched this guy originally from Jersey, Joe Fabrocini, making a "Bald Eagle Sauce" for one of his hot dogs at his diner in Reseda, CA. Cabbage, sweet relish, cider vinegar, Dusseldorf mustard...all stuff I just happened to have on hand! I mean, he used some kind of special mustard, but I had some German Lowensenf spicy mustard that I figured would do the trick. Actially, when I read the label on my mustard, it was made by Dusseldorf Lowensenf GmbH, so maybe it was the same stuff after all!

I needed to use up the head of cabbage hanging out in the frig, so I immediately hopped up and began pulling items out to make this relish sauce. So much for taking it easy. Then I backed up the TV feed and rewatched that part of the episode, writing down the ingredients. I checked the Food Network site for a recipe, but they only posted a different sweet and spicy onion relish from the Fab Hot Dogs diner menu. So I winged it!

I know its kind of redundant since we had our Costco dogs earlier in the day, but tonight we are having beer brats with the Bald Eagle Sauce. The ingredients are: sweet relish, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, garlic, oregano, chili powder, diced onion, celery seed, cider vinegar and spicy yellow mustard. I have no idea of the amounts other than what I saw Joe Fabrocini dump into the bowl, and I am pretty sure I used twice as much cabbage and not as much chili powder as he did, but it turned out tasty. You can watch it and figure out the amounts for yourself, I guess. I wrote down my best guess for you.
I am trying out the "Just A Pinch" website for posting recipes with a printable feature for you. Let me know how you like it!
http://www.justapinch.com/print/main-course/main-course-sandwiches/beer-brat-relish.html

Here is the Food Network page:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/700/burgers-tacos-and-dogs.html

This is a restaurant review from the PlateFull website:
http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Review/6701-7416/fab-hot-dogs