Day 1: Naptime Cooking Class

Recipe #1: Cream-braised Green Cabbage from A Homemade Life

My CSA box this week happened to be all about cabbage. One of the recipes that jumped off the page and whacked my taste buds upside the head was Molly's cream braised cabbage recipe. And can I tell you, it was my kind of recipe and the finished product was out of this world.

As this is not a cooking blog, I am not going to write out the recipe. Instead, each Monday is going to be another naptime cooking class, where I try something new and pay attention to what I learn about cooking, eating and so on and so forth.

So lessons from my encounter with the green cabbage:

1. Less than 5 ingredients is perfect for me. Ingredients like cream, butter, lemon and salt and pepper are simple, pure and give me confidence when working with them.

2. My eagerness and impatience make me prone to mistakes. I was too fast and too eager and forgot to brown the second side before adding the cream.

3. My impatience makes me prone to mistakes. I know, I said that already but this just became really apparent.

4. It's not fun making something so divinely heavenly without someone to share it with. My dear husband ate his wedge in support, not in joy. I'll have to dry this one out on another crowd.

5. It's the mess of cooking that gets me anxious. So clean as I go is necessary but I don't have the timing thing down yet.

6. All in all, success!




Recipe #2: Red Cabbage from The Joy of Cooking

So lessons from my encounter with the red cabbage:

1. I took on too much. Two new recipes was not such a good idea because I ran out of steam and enthusiasm.

2. How on earth you do finely shred cabbage?

3. Fennel seeds and apples make a difference. Without it, kind of blah.

4. Its hard for me to take a compliment if I don't like the outcome - husband and brother's girlfriend both loved it!

5. Do this dishes before you go to bed. I broke my rule and cleaning up cabbage mess the next morning was terribly unpleasant.

6. It wasn't my Oma's Rotkraut, but it was a start.


Stay tuned for next week...