Unstuffed Cabbage

I am dogged out tired. This has been one draining day and I'm ready to put all four legged creatures to bed. Today was like having a house full of toddlers. It started out good enough then went down, down, down hill fast. Pumpkin (10 yr old sheltie) got sick three times. Scruffy (dorkie morkie puppy) is all of the sudden scared of the backyard. It's no fun trying to potty train a puppy that is scared, of what I have no clue. Mocha (4 yr old diva yorkie) is fed up with Scruffy and now snaps at him. In the midst of all that fun I had to carpet clean our front room for unmentionable reasons. While I was filling up the steam cleaner for what felt like the umpteenth time I notice the kitchen ceiling had a wet spot. Called Christopher to warn him I was running away from home. So it's no surprise that I screwed up dinner. For some reason I thought I was to uncover the dish after the first hour. Don't do that. Three hours later I figured out it should have stayed covered. Thirty minutes after that I remembered that it was only to be in the oven three more hours not four. It still was yummy but oy someone send me to my room!

Recipe from Gooseberry Patch Homestyle Family Favorites
Ingredients
1-1/2 lbs ground beef
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbsp long-cooking rice, uncooked
2 tsp onion, minced
2 eggs
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tsp dried onion
1 head cabbage, chopped and divided
Directions
Mix beef, salt, pepper, rice, minced onion and eggs together; form into 12 (one inch) balls and set aside. In another bowl, combine tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, vinegar an dried onion; set aside. Place half the cabbage in a lightly greased 13"x9" baking pan; top with half the tomato mixture. Top with meatballs; pour remaining tomato mixture over top. Sprinkle with remaining cabbage. Cover and bake at 325 ⁰F for one hour. Reduce heat to 250 ⁰F; bake 3 more hours. Serves 6 to 8.