I'm making this up: German sausage and apples

Everybody has a handful of dishes they can whip up without so much as sneaking a peak at a recipe. I have a few of those, (meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, clam spaghetti) but not many, and it is indeed rare that I'll create a palatable new recipe out of whole cloth. Tonight quite uncharacteristically, I got adventurous and without cracking a cookbook, cooked up some sausage with apples and sour cream, and ended with a recipe worth writing down for posterity and perhaps even frequent future use.

I started with German sausage I bought at Wichita's weekly farmers' market out west of town. (It is my summer Saturday morning ritual to head out at 7 a.m. , usually before Dave gets up, to drive more than a dozen miles to buy as many groceries as I can find. It is a delight to see the farm pickup beds piled with produce. Later in the summer, we will enjoy the best canteloupe in the country for a few fleeting weeks, and the most sugary Kansas sweet corn.)But I digress. This early in the season, I've picked up big, beautiful tomatoes, sweet onions, lettuce, jars of delectible peach jam and excellent steaks, roasts and sausage.

Thought we'd grill the sausage, but Dave was otherwise occupied this evening (and I don't mess with the grill once I've pulled my creatively orchestrated bag-o-meat-and-marinade out of the fridge and handed it to him) so here's what I came up for dinner:

German sausage in apples and sour cream

In a Dutch oven or deep frying pan, brown two pounds German sausage in two tablespoons olive oil. Add one chopped sweet onion. Add one diced, peeled Braeburn apple. Pour a bottle of cheap beer and 1/2 a 10.5-ounce can beef broth. Add a bay leaf. Let simmer at medium-high heat for 30-40 minutes, 'til liquid boils down and thickens. Add three tablespoons light sour cream and a dash of white vinegar. Whisk well. Serve over rice.