Easter in Las Vegas

Easter is this Sunday, April 20, 2025

Easter had always been "my" holiday. In my family, we were each allocated a holiday for which we were responsible for buying all of the food and preparing the meal. My Mother had Thanksgiving, mainly because she was the only one who knew how to cook a big turkey. My brother had Christmas. Easter was mine. My meal was the same every year; baked ham, kielbasa, sweet potatoes, green beens and cauliflower with cheese sauce. A wide selection of exotic mustards. And hard boiled eggs. My mother colored the eggs; she was the only one with time for such things. I got the Kielbasa at the Forest Pork Store in Huntington Station; perhaps the most amazing meat store I've ever encountered.

The kielbasa from this place was amazing; the best I've ever had. The place was packed for a week before easter.

I'd mastered the meal; it was perfect every year. Of course ham is pretty easy to make, particularly when it's spiral cut at the store.

My parents have long passed and my brother and nephews have gone live in TX and DC and we don't get together for Easter anymore. I'm not making a ham for myself (I usually smoke smoe ribs), but this year I decided I wanted some keilbasa. Easter is the only time I'd think of eating it, and I have a recipe with green cabbage, onions and a mustard vinaigrette that is fantastic.

I didn't decide to do this until the day before, and I didn't have time to drive to a store only to find they had nothing left. I figured I'd pick up a boar's head kielbasa, which isn't bad. But nobody near me carries it. Hillshire is a no go; if you think that's kielbasa then you've never really had kielbasa. The only thing I could find hearby was Kroger's Simple Truth brand, which is carried by Smith's (owned by Kroger's). I don't usually like Kroger's meats; their sausagas have a lot of bad ingredients, but at this point I had no other choice. For $4.07 I'd take a chance.

When I got it home and opened it I was saddened by the skinny rope; I can imagine how a woman feels when a man drops his pants to expose a tiny penis. I read the ingredients more carefully; no garlic. how could this be kielbasa? I cut off a piece and threw it into my air fryer to give it a taste. It was really bad. Super salty. Not really much of a smokey taste.

Was I going to have to throw this out? I decided the throw it in thw smoker to see if it would improve the flavor. 2 hours in the smoker with some other fresh sausage I had in my freezer. If you have a smoker and you've never smoked a Johnsonville italian sausage, give it a try. It changed the flavor quite a bit.

The skinny rope is the kielbase. Somking it did make it a lot better. I would be able to eat this. It mellowed out the sale and added a nice smoke to the flavor. Noticed that I removed the casing from the other sausages; the casings do ge very tough in the smoker; it's better without the casing.

In conclusion, I won't ever be buying this product again. It's just not what I like about a really good kielbasa.