Coleslaw (Or, as some write it, "Cole Slaw")

"Skinny" the above combination 

of goodness and get this:

This is now my favorite Coleslaw recipe.

I found this recipe for Coleslaw, and it is now a favorite of ours.  

Backing up a bit, a lot of Wisconsinites consider Friday to be "Fish Fry Day/Night" (it's sort of like our own special weekly HOLIDAY)!  Yes, for many, it is THAT special!  And,... one of the main "options" (sides) often  offered with the fish fry meal is Coleslaw.  I can eat almost any Cole Slaw, but that isn't true for my husband.  He doesn't like Coleslaw to have a strong "BITE" to it.

This recipe is different.  It is "mellow", yet flavorful.  Some say this is the recipe most similar to the Coleslaw that was or is (?) served at Chick-fil-A®---  I do not know about that because I do not live close to one of their restaurants.  For all I know, this could be a recipe from some cook who knew how to put just the right ingredients together (that wouldn't be me!). 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Bags (10 oz. each) of finely shredded cabbage and chopped to about 1/4" pieces.  (Instead of buying the bags, I used one small head of cabbage, removed and discarded the core, and "grated" chunks of cabbage in my food processor.  Doing it this way, I ended up with an extra 4 oz., but that didn't matter.)
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped carrots (I first grated these, too, with my food processor and then, using the swirly blade in the food processor, I made the grated pieces a little bit smaller.)
• 4 teaspoons red apple cider vinegar (plain white vinegar will work, too)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mayonnaise  (I used the Hellmann's® brand.)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Whisk vinegar, sugar, mustard and salt together until sugar is dissolved. 
2. Add mayonnaise and whisk to mix. 
3. Add cabbage and carrots. Mix to combine.
4. Chill until serving time. 
5. Refrigerate any left-over slaw.

CEDRIC's Casserole (cabbage, onions, ground beef, soup)

I . LIKE . RECIPES . WITH . CABBAGE!

Thank  YOU, Cedric!

"Cedric Adams, popular master of ceremonies and columnist, gave us this recipe-- a favorite in his home." 

The above quote comes from Page 276 in the really old Betty Crocker cookbook that I gave to my mother way back in 1961. Here is a picture of the book...

For more information on Cedric Adams:   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Adams 

..........................................................

CEDRIC's  CASSEROLE 

(I already doubled this recipe 
to make 10-12 servings)

INGREDIENTS:

2 med. onions
3 tbsp. butter (Original recipe would have you use 6!)
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt (I used coarse Celtic salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 med. head cabbage, divided
2 of 10 and 1/2 oz. cans condensed tomato soup.

DIRECTIONS:

Sauté 2 medium onions, chopped in 3 tablespoons butter.

Add the following to the sauteed onions, heating through but not browning (and set aside) . . .
     1 lb. lean ground beef
     1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt 
     1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Spread the following in a 4-6 quart baking dish, sprayed with non-stick.  (I used a 5-quart enameled cast iron dutch oven, with cover) . . .

     1/2 of medium-sized head of shredded cabbage--first remove core and discard other tough/hard pieces.  (Our chickens think it's their "Christmas morning" when they get those trimmings!)

Cover with ...
     The meat/onion mixture.  

Top with . . .
     Other half-head of cabbage, shredded

Pour evenly over the top of all . . .
     2 of 10 and 1/2 oz. cans condensed tomato soup.

Bake covered.

Temperature:  350-degrees.
Time:  Bake "about" 1 hour and 20 minutes (or until the cabbage is tender enough to suit you).
Serves:  10-12. 

Since I made this right after the morning school 

bus left today, THIS was MY breakfast!  

I may also have this for dinner (that's what I call 

my noon meal).  I know the others here 

will like it for tonight's supper.

Below:  I LOVED this with a piece 

of toasted Anadama bread that I made 

yesterday (it is posted under "bread").  

But!, since I just posted the bread 

recipe yesterday, you should be able 

to find it right below this posting.

Cabbage Soup

What!?  Onions, apples, potatoes, garlic and cabbage together in one soup?  Oh,........yeah!

Granddaughter Megan is quite the little bread baker-- just yesterday, she brought us the 'braided bread' in the photo.   M-m-m-m-m-m-m.......

You are so right if you think I'm on a 'cabbage kick'!  You know how they say 'two heads are better than one'?   Well,....mine, plus a cabbage-- this works for me, and the end result is...

TA-A-A-A-STY!!

I like this cabbage soup!  PJ told me I should include a story about this recipe-- a few years back, Grandson Ben was watching as I peeled and sliced the apples and asked what I was making.  When I told him it was 'Cabbage Soup', he quickly added in a sweet but matter of fact way, "You don't have to make any of that for me."  It was funny how the 'apple' had gotten his attention, and how quickly the 'cabbage' word erased it!

As with almost all recipes, a little tweaking doesn't hurt-- but, here is the recipe for how I make it:

With the exception of the ground beef and the Italian seasoning, the following recipe is already doubled because we like it as a re-run (left-over).  You could easily use the same amount of lean ground beef and halve the rest of the ingredients for a smaller batch.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound lean hamburger, browned, drained well.
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I used light tasting Olive Oil)
• 2 cups very thinly sliced onions
• 4 apples-- peeled, cored, and finely diced.
• 6 cups shredded cabbage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (or powder, to equal that)
• 2 large raw potatoes, shredded
• 6 cups vegetable broth (I used a large 46-oz. can of V-8 juice, but you could use your own homemade recipe of tomato 'cocktail'.)
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (rub together between fingers, to release more flavor)
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 cup half-and-half or cream 
• salt and pepper to taste

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

DIRECTIONS:

• Brown hamburger, drain.  Set aside.
• In a large heavy pot, cook onion and apple in oil over medium-high heat until just lightly browned. 

• Stir in cabbage and garlic, then reduce heat.  Stir in browned hamburger,  grated potato, broth (or juice), Italian seasoning,  sugar, salt and pepper; cover and simmer 30 minutes* (see my * note below). 
• Once everything is added, it looks like this.... now, it's ready to 'do its thing'.

Stir in cream.  Heat through and serve. (Adding the cream gives its V-8 soup base a lighter color at the end.)

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*Like I often do with other recipes like this, rather than watch it on top of the stove, I prefer to put my covered enameled cast iron Dutch oven of soup into the oven at 300-degrees for a '...see ya in an hour' kind of ease.  Slow-cooking crock pots work for this, also, and will give you an even longer time to be 'away' while 'the goodness is happening'!

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I found this recipe quite a few years ago in a magazine and saw that a similar one was on allrecipes.com.  One submitter wrote:  "I love cabbage and always try to come up with new ideas for cooking with it; it's a very economical staple in the fall and winter months, thus this recipe.  Add any vegetables or meats that you like--this is a recipe of great versatility! ...Enjoy!" 

The 'readers comments' section wasn't so favorable for this recipe.  It seemed there were a lot of complainers/whiners who left comments-- the recipe wasn't this,... it wasn't that,... nobody liked it, etc.  

Well,............I (we) DO like this recipe and I would give it 5 stars-- maybe it is the 'added hamburger' that contributes to our liking it so well. (?)    I can also see adding a very lean version of sausage (Kielbasa type?) to this recipe in place of the hamburger.  I, too,  think this is a recipe you can work up to suit yourself and your family.

Cabbage Patch Stew

This might look like chili, but I think it's the cabbage that adds so much!

While some cooks make this on top the stove, I prefer the slow-oven method because it gives me a couple of hours before the meal to have fun doing something else. This would also be a good crock pot (slow cooker) recipe.

Honestly, I could eat this for three meals a day until it's gone... yep, that's me!!!!

If you do a recipe search for Cabbage Patch Stew, you might bring up more recipes than you'll ever be able to look through!  I don't think the ingredients have to be exact in any way-- mine sometimes vary.  This time, I made it like this:

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound lean ground beef (could use turkey, or venison if you like that)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 and 1/2 cups chopped cabbage (coarsely chopped)

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 16-oz. petite diced tomatoes (can use stewed tomatoes)

1 15-oz can kidney beans, UNdrained (When doubling recipe like I did today, I use one can of light red, and another of dark red to make it 'purty'-- could add black beans, too!)

1 and 1/2 cup water

1 to 1and 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 to 2 teaspoon chili powder (For my hubby's sake, I used just one, then added more to mine later.)

Bisquick 'droppings' for at the end, very optional. (Check recipe option at the bottom of this posting.)

DIRECTIONS:

• Cook and stir ground meat in Dutch oven until browned.  Drain. 
• Put olive oil in bottom of Dutch oven.  To the drained meat, add onions, cabbage and celery.    
• Cook together over medium heat for maybe five minutes, stirring, until vegetables are just a bit tender. 
• Stir in tomatoes, kidney beans (with liquid), water, salt, pepper and chili powder. 

• This is where I do things 'more differenter' than most other recipes describe.  Instead of making this on top of the stove start-to-finish and putting drops of 'dumpling dough' on the hot liquid just before serving,  I covered the Dutch oven, put it into a 300-degree oven and let it go for two hours.   When it came out of the oven, it looked like this:

• At this point, if you wish, you can add 'droplets' of biscuit dough and put into a 350-375 oven for maybe ten minutes, or so, until the 'biscuit droplets' show a tinge of brown...

EN-JOY!

 

  

* If you don't use brand-name Bisquick, you can make you own 'biscuit droplets' or dumplings by GENTLY mixing together this combination:

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/3 tsp. salt

1 and 1/2  tbsp. shortening

Little less than 1/2 cup milk

Combine first three ingredients, cut in the shortening; add the milk and gently stir only until incorporated.