Easy-Easier-Easiest: Cabbage

Cabbage seems to be regarded any more as an old-fashioned vegetable, one whose popularity is passed and one that gets overlooked in favor of trendier produce items.  I think that's a shame.  Cabbage is a sturdy stand-by, a crop that plugs along when others fail and always easy to find at any grocery store or farmers' market.  Not to mention its value...you get a lot of bang for your penny with cabbage.  A medium-sized 3-ish pound head usually costs less than $2, even less in season (fall), and makes 10-12 servings. 

There are many types of cabbage.  I think they fall into 2 main types...hard and soft.  Hard cabbages are the traditional green, red/purple and brussel sprouts...densely leaved and heavy headed those.  Soft types are trendier...bok choy, napa cabbage, savoy cabbage...these types often feel light for their size and have thin crinkly leaves that cook quickly.  Soft cabbages are excellent in stirfrys or as a quick sauteed side for dinner.  Hard types require longer cooking in general. 

Even when a hard cabbage is meant to be used raw, as in cole slaw, I think it still benefits from a quick blanch in boiling water.  To prepare cole slaw, core a cabbage and slice it thinly.  Pour boiling water over all and drain after 1-2 minutes.  It softens the cabbage just a bit and seems to make it, in my experience, a little less digestively challenging.

A lot of the recipes I have for cabbage use it as a partner in a larger casserole dish, especially for making cabbage rolls.  That is certainly one option, though if you have a head of cabbage sitting in your first but don't want to invest the time in a recipe like Savoy Cabbage Rolls, Beef Cabbage Casserole, or BBQ Lasagne, I have a few other thoughts which follow.

My husband's grandfather was fond of cabbage, and the first recipe is how he typically prepared it.  A pinch of sugar in the cooking and vinegar at service are the secret ingredients.  The second recipe is my own version of his recipe.  The cabbage tastes, well, like butter.  The final recipe is a great way to incorporate cabbage into a meal on the grill.

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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Tomatoes

I am not a tomato fan.  Really.  But I adore the smell of a tomato plant and a fresh tomato tastes NOTHING like a grocery store tomato, so we grow them with abandon come summer.  I'll wind up canning quite a few just as is or in tomato soup or pickled (talk to me in October about pickled green cherry tomatoes).

Other ways to use an abundance of fresh tomatoes include: canning, green beans with tomatoes, grilled marinated okra, oven-baked zucchini, frittata, tomato sauce (enchilada and pizza), tomato soup, Bloody Mary mix or any place else you'd used canned tomatoes or prepared tomato juice (just blitz the tomatoes in a processor or blender, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer for juice).

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Chicken Francese for a crowd

I love chicken francese, but it's a fairly last-minute intensive dish to prepare...frying those cutlets can really eat up time, especially if you're cooking for a crowd. 

I tried a new twist for a "dinner party" (can you really call it a dinner party when you're eating off paper plates?) wherein I baked many chicken breasts that were seasoned with lemon pepper and served the lemon-caper sauce as a relish on the side.  Captures the same flavors with far less work.

If you prep this in advance and put your chicken in a baking dish in the fridge, plan for extra cooking time (I screw up so you don't have to).  The cold dish slows down the chicken's progression to an appropriate final temperature, and it took an extra 20-25 minutes of cooking to get my chicken up to temp.  Better yet, prep the chicken, store it in a ziptop bag and put it in the baking dish at the last minute. 

I don't have pictures because it was a dinner party and I had better things to do than take pictures of food LOL

Edited to note...this is evidently my 100th "freezer" recipe!  I guess I do more of this sort of thing than I realized!
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Greens au gratin

I had scads of end-of-season chard in my garden, and this is what I did with it.  It's similar to the holiday favorite broccoli-n-cheese casserole.  You can use any combination of greens you want, just be sure to cook them and drain them very well.  You'll need about 5 cups cooked for this recipe. 

Before cooking

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Baked Brie with crostini

This doesn't have to be party food, but it's best to make it for an occasion that won't leave too many leftovers.  After a day or two, the baked brie will start to dry out most unattractively.

If you make this in advance, be sure to wrap the puff pastry really well with plastic wrap.  I screw up so you don't have to.  Also, if you take it right from the fridge to bake, it will probably need 5-10 more minutes in the oven than if it's at room temp.

I happened to find a pre-sliced ciabatta loaf at my supermarket for the crostini...saves some time and the aggravation of trying to get thin, even slices by hand.

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Blue Ribbon, baby

I am too stinking excited about this.  I am now an official Hoosier...1) I entered jellies and pickles at the State Fair and 2) I won.  Probably 1st out of 3 entries or something like that, but I won!!  1st place in the low-sugar category for low-sugar corn cob jelly and Honorable Mention for Pickled Edamame (below).








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Ninja Zucchini

Today is National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day, so here are a couple of ideas of what to do with the bag of zucchs that may mysteriously find their way onto your doorstep.  First of all, shred it and freeze it in 2 cup portions.  I shredded (via food processor) 2 very large zucchini and got 9 cups of shreds out of it :-0 

Before

After

My fave is zucchini crust pizza.  I've seen many iterations of this theme, and they differ largely by ratio of zucch to cheese.  All agree that 4-5 cups of *stuff* + 2 eggs is right for a 12-14" crust, but the proportion of zucch to cheese is the issue.  3 cups zucch + 1 cup cheese is a very soft crust, 2+2 is less soft, and I'm hearing good things about 1 1/2 cups zucch to 2 cups cheese.  Bake at 450F for 10-20 minutes, then top with desired toppings and bake another 15-20 minutes at 375F.

I haven't actually tried this yet, but I want to make regular yeast pizza dough and mix a cup or two of shredded zucchs into that.  I'll post when I try it, if it works out.

The obvious use is zucchini bread, but try some zucchini cookies too!  Pin It