Yesterday, I wrote about the cabbage family. Here are some more ideas for great ways to add cabbage and some of the members of the family to your family’s meals.
Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage – take any stuffed cabbage recipe you can find and put in the following to make it sweet and sour: 1/2 cup of vinegar (we use cider vinegar – I’ll bet white balsamic would be a fantastic though “tres expensivo” addition) and a cup of dried fruit. The traditional one in my father’s family is raisins, but I think whatever dried fruit you could get cheaply would do the trick.
Tips on making Stuffed Cabbage: Take off the outer leaves. Core the cabbage and put it cored side up in a big pot or big metal or ceramic bowl (it just has to be deep enough that you can cover the cabbage with water). Boil up a big pot of water and then pour that over the cabbage. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and let sit until cool The cabbage leaves will come off the head easily. Also, you know, if you look at a cabbage leaf, that there is this big, rib in the middle(these are, after all, leaves). To help you make the little cabbage rolls, take a knife and cut out most of that rib. Don’t throw it away – put it into the sauce in the pot – it will add flavor and lots of good vitamins, but it makes rolling the little packages very difficult.
Hot Salad: This started out as an ‘early marrieds mistake” but it’s good. Take off outer leaves of cabbage. Cut about a quarter of the head and separate, rinse. Cut up cabbage as if you are going to make steamed cabbage (the pieces are about 2″x2″), slice up carrots thinly. Saute in a pan until the cabbage starts to wilt just a little bit with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add 1/4 c. of cider or other vinegar, toss and serve warm.
Soup: Any soup will be made more nutritious and more fiber-rich with the addition of shredded cabbage (you can use regular head cabbage, chinese cabbage, bok choy, chinese celery cabbage, etc.). Wash cabbage leaves and shred. Don’t shred it too thinly – 1/8″ is fine – because you will be cooking this in the soup. About 10 min. before serving, bring the soup to a boil again, throw in the shredded cabbage, turn soup down to simmer. Simmer for 5-7 min (you want the cabbage to be definitely wilty but still a little bit crunchy) and serve.
Stir Fry – Thinly shred and put into your stir fry right at the very end before you add the liquid ingredients to make the sauce.
Buono appetito!!
When things get tough..the tough make comfort food. That’s it in a nutshell. And if things get tough in the winter – it’s comfort food on steroids.
Ah, Christmas morning…filled with the sounds of ripping paper, “Dad, where’re the batteries?” and “I’m hungry…”
So, we’re back in the kitchen and we’re going to make dough that we’ll turn into: bread for toast and sandwiches, cinnamon buns, and a sort of finger roll that can be baked in a toaster oven for those folks who are not in the mood to fire up the stove or it’s August and you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. 
Probably the only people in the United States who have not noticed the change in prices of baked products are folks who “do Atkins.” Over the past year or so, grain/flour prices pretty much have gone through the roof, affecting everything from meat and eggs to pizza and that humble household commodity, bread. Perhaps now is a good time to learn how to make your own. 
So, you’ve gone to the grocery store with your $10 bill and you’ve bought some staples. You put them on the shelf and it looks good. You feel solid.
Well, we’re back in the kitchen with Aunt Toby (which works out pretty well, since we’re talking about food) and your first assignment (because I’m all about the assignments and all about doing it right now) is this:
