Cabbage Soup

My friends, I have been holding out on you.  I admit this.  I have discovered a fantastic use for cabbage.  I did not know this, but cabbage is apparently really good for you (see this blog, under "In Praise of Cabbage").  Before locating this soup recipe, my only way to prepare cabbage has been to stir-fry it in fat or oil until it collapses and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.  I like cabbage that way, but Justin was getting tired of it and requesting new ways of eating it or no longer buying it.  Fair enough.  Cabbage was 6lbs for $1 a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't resist the price.  I snagged one and then schemed.  I located this recipe.  Love. It.  I'm a creamy soup person and I especially love soups that are pureed or partially pureed that don't require heavy cream to make them creamy and delicious.  This soup is great - creamy yet made up of only vegetables and spices.  I doubled some of the spices and added bay leaves (LOVE bay leaves), pureed 2/3 instead of the whole thing, and cooked it for longer than the original recipe.  I've included all of my changes below.

Cabbage Soup

• 4 large carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 medium head green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1/4 tsp thyme [I did 1/2 tsp]
• 1/4 tsp basil [I did 1/2 tsp]
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• [I added 2 bay leaves]
• ground black pepper to taste

[I used the slicing mechanism on my food processor for all of the vegetables, since all of them call for "thinly sliced"]

Combine vegetables and spices and sauté in oil until cabbage collapses.  Add chicken stock, bring to a boil and simmer until vegetables are tender and puree-able, 20-30 minutes.  Puree about 2/3 of the soup using a blender or food processor [I found out the hard way, do NOT use a hand blender, it won't puree anything and will just make the soup look like it's straight out of the garbage disposal]. Serve.

Not a recipe, just SALT

So, every time we make something by hand that normal people buy in cans, like canned tomatoes, or dry beans, I feel so unhealthy adding what seems like loads of salt to it to make it taste just the way I like. I like flavour—beautiful, intense, wonderful flavour, and salt is method numero uno for getting it in my world. Sometimes I even throw a bit of fleur de sel on fruit if I'm feeling sassy. Call me Grandpa Workman, but I am unashamed.

Tonight, we had meal that Liz brought home from a group "freezer meal-athon." Everyone walked away with 8 different meals. Yippee. Tonight's treat was, for lack of better explanation, a tortilla torte. It was like flat burritos all stacked up on each other, layered-cake style.. Whole wheat tortillas, ground turkey, canned tomatoes, refried beans, cheese. Nothing weird, just good solid, burrito stuff. We served it in wedged slices with sour cream. It was just fine, and I'd recommend it for a fun meal that looks like a cake but tastes like a burrito. You could even frost it with the sour cream if you wanted. I digress . . .

Six hours later, however, I am still trying to get more water into my system because I'm so dried out and thirsty from the salt in those canned goods. We use only our own canned tomatoes and we cook all our beans from dry, then flavour them ourselves, so it's been a good spell since we've used canned beans or veggies for almost anything. I haven't felt this salted up for a long, long time.

I think I'll not worry about adding salt to my food from now on. I'm not trying to make it last forever on a shelf, I'm just trying to coax a little extra deliciousness out of its hiding place.

Yeah, it's a weird post for a recipe blog. Whatever. Go boil some beans (and add a quartered onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a couple of  tablespoons of salt. You'll thank me later.)

Waffle Brownies

Prepare yourselves.  This is amazing.  If you like the crunchy edges of brownies, this is for you.

First, prepare our Hutchings recipe for brownie batter (this is a half batch).

Then pour the brownie batter into your greased waffle iron (ours takes exactly 1/2 cup to fill it up).

Remove the waffle brownie when it's done, as indicated by your waffle iron, and admire (no really, if you let it sit for a bit it'll get crunchier than when you first pull it out).

Then top with your favorite ice cream (ours is German Chocolate Crunch from the BYU Creamery).

Warnings

• Adding chocolate chips to the batter will cause it to fall apart the moment you try and remove it from the waffle iron.
• These delicious treats give you the illusion that you should eat the entire waffle-sized brownie.  Break them up and eat piece by piece and stop before you're sick.  We each ate one waffle brownie and were sick to our stomachs.