Cabbage with Apples
Cabbage with Apples
I think cabbage is underrated. It is such a versatile vegetable. Cabbage is good in both hot and cold dishes, it isn’t expensive, and cabbage is good for you. Big heads of cabbage are at all the local farm stands this time of year.
So are apples.
I was looking for a side dish for a chicken dinner the other night and I decided to start with cabbage. Since I had a pretty good sized head of green cabbage, and just a small piece of red cabbage, I mixed the two together. I added cider vinegar, sugar and seasonings. Then I added apples to round out the dish. It had a sweet and sour flavor that went well with the meal. In many ways, cabbage, with its earthy “greenness”, pairs perfectly with sweet/tart apples.
I would also serve this as a side dish with duck, beef, pork or even a lamb roast. It would go well with any of them. You could use any color cabbage for this dish- or combine colors, as I did. Perfect for a Fall dinner.
Cabbage with Apples
2-3 T. oil
2-3 onions, sliced thin
8 c. chopped cabbage, any color
1 c. stock- chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. celery seeds
3 apples, peeled , cored and diced
salt and hot pepper sauce to taste
Heat oil in skillet and cook onion until tender and a little wilted. Add cabbage, stock, vinegar, sugar and celery seeds and cook until cabbage is tender. Most of the liquid will evaporate. Add the apples and cook until apples are just heated through. Season with salt and hot sauce and serve. Serves 5-6.
Mom’s Macaroni Salad
Mom’s Macaroni Salad
I’ve been in a nostalgic mood this week. First, I posted my Mother’s breaded chicken recipe. Now, her macaroni salad. For summer cookouts, we always had this salad. Long enough ago that it was called macaroni, not pasta. I loved it then, and I love it now.
I won’t say I don’t make other pasta salads. I do. I make all sorts of combinations, but this is the salad that brings me home.
Mom used mostly mayo, with a little salad dressing like Spin Blend. She felt it gave the salad just a little more zing. I use straight mayo, but that part of the recipe is flexible.
She added quite a few hard cooked eggs and I think they add a richness to the dish. My dad would cut up the celery and green onions for her. Mom liked the veggies cut into a fairly small dice in this dish, and Dad had great knife skills. I love the image of them cooking together.
So here it is- a family recipe wrapped up nicely with some memories, too.
Mom’s Macaroni Salad
1 lb. uncooked pasta, shells are preferred
Salt and pepper
Mayonnaise, about 1 cup
Salad dressing, like Miracle Whip, about ½ cup or more mayo
3-4 ribs celery, sliced thin
4-5 green onions, trimmed and sliced thin
8-12 hard-cooked eggs, cooled and peeled
Cook pasta according to package directions, but do not overcook. Rinse with cold water and drain well. Place drained pasta in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add dressings and vegetables and stir until well mixed. You may want to add more dressing to suit your taste. Chop eggs and stir into salad. Adjust seasonings if needed and chill before serving. Serves 8-10.
A Trio of Potato Salads
Just in Thyme Potato Salad
If you are looking for a side dish for the 4th, why not bring a potato salad? Everybody loves potato salad. I love potato salad.
Actually, I love potatoes pretty much any way they are prepared. With so many cookouts and picnics, you can never have enough potato salad recipes, right? I am sharing three of my favorite potato salad recipes. The first one is really simple, enhanced with fresh thyme leaves. Thyme really pairs well with the potatoes. The second one uses some of my fresh basil in a pesto sauce that is tossed with the potatoes. Who says pesto is just for pasta? The third salad is the way I remember my Mom making potato salad. She never wrote down her recipe, but I think I got it right.
Just in Thyme Potato Salad
With my herb garden growing like crazy right now I thought this was the perfect dish to make. This salad can be served warm or cold and goes well with so many dishes. I find when I have leftovers, I’ll even brown it in a skillet and serve it like hash browns with eggs for breakfast.
2 lbs. boiling potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces*
½ c. olive oil
¼ c. red wine vinegar
1 T. fresh lemon juice
2 t. fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook potatoes until tender. Drain and toss with the rest of the ingredients and serve right away or chill to serve later. Serves 6-8.
* You can really use any potato you like. I often bake the potatoes whole and then peel and cut up. Cook them any way you prefer.
Pesto Potato Salad
This salad always makes me think of a warm summer day. I think it’s because of the basil. During the summer, my driveway is lined with pots of basil. I cook with it almost every day. Pesto can be used in a lot of different dishes beyond pasta. Here I’ve paired it up with potatoes. The combination works great together. I always freeze extra basil so I can enjoy it year round.
2 lbs. Boiling potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 c. basil leaves
3 T. pine nuts
3 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste
Cook potatoes until tender. Cool. In blender combine remaining ingredients, except 1 tablespoon of the pine nuts. Pour blended mixture over potatoes and sprinkle with the reserved nuts. Chill. Serves 6-8.
Mom’s Mustard Potato Salad
When I was a kid I did not like the taste of mustard- except in this recipe. It adds such a wonderful flavor.
4 lbs. potatoes- I used Klondike Rose and I did not peel them
4 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
1 sweet pepper, seeded and chopped, optional
1 c. mayo- maybe a little less
1/4 c. prepared mustard- I like a grainy brown mustard
salt and pepper to taste
dash of hot sauce
Bake whole potatoes until tender and allow to cool. Cube potatoes into large bowl and combine with remaining ingredients. Chill until ready to serve. Serves 8.
Pesto Potato Salad
Mustard Potato Salad
Garlic Scapes Recipes
Garlic Scapes Potato Salad
If you have never had garlic scapes, you don’t know what you are missing. Garlic scapes are the green shoots removed from hard-neck varieties of garlic. By removing the shoots, the bulbs will get bigger. So farmers remove them. They curl as they grow, and are good served raw, or barely cooked. They are showing up at farm markets around here right now.
When cooked, the flavor mellows a lot. I love to steam garlic scapes for about 5 minutes, then just eat like fresh green beans, with butter and salt. I steamed a bunch of scapes the other day- then chopped them up and added to potato salad. So tasty!!
They have a rich, garlic flavor that is all the sweeter because of the short time they are around. Enjoy them when you can- they will be gone soon.
I sometimes use scapes in place of basil, in my pesto recipe, or combine them with parsley in a garlic scape-parsley pesto. You can also combine the garlic scapes with cottage cheese in the blender- add a little lemon juice and hot sauce for a tasty dip. Here are some more recipes for cooking with garlic scapes.
Garlic Scapes Potato Salad
4-5 garlic scapes
2 lbs. red skinned potatoes*
½ cup minced sweet pepper
½ c. olive oil
½ c. apple cider vinegar
2 T. sugar
2 T. chopped parsley
2 t. fresh dill weed
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Steam the scapes for 5 minutes. Cool a little, and cut into ¾ -inch slices. You should end up with about 1½ of sliced scapes when done. Place in a medium bowl. Cook potatoes until tender. I baked mine in a microwave until tender and then cut into cubes. Baking them is also a nice way to cook the potatoes. You can also opt to cut into cubes first and boil the potatoes. Whatever method to cook the potatoes is fine with me. Take the potatoes, while still warm, and place in the bowl with the scapes. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour over warm potato mix, tossing to coat evenly. Adjust seasonings. Chill and serve. Serves 6-8.
* You can really use any potato you like.
Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce
1 c. chopped scapes – you can also use half scapes, half parsley
1/4 c. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
1/2 c. pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pecans or walnuts
1 c. fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Combine all ingredients, except the cheese, in a blender and mix until smooth. Stir in the cheese and toss over hot, cooked pasta or use as a sauce on meat and poultry. Sauce will keep a few days in the fridge and makes about 1 1/2 cups, enough for 1 lb. of cooked pasta.
Lebanese Garlic Sauce
1/2 c. chopped garlic scapes
1 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups olive oil
In the container of a blender, combine the garlic scapes, lemon juice and salt. Blend at medium speed until smooth. Continue blending while pouring olive oil into the blender in a thin stream. The mixture should become thick and white almost like mayo. Store refrigerated in a glass container. Nice on hot pasta, cooked rice or grains or brushed on meats while cooking. It also is a great salad dressing.
Garlic Scapes with Broccoli
1 c. chopped garlic scapes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets, steamed 5 minutes, cooled
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Place garlic scapes in a food processor with the salt and blend into a paste. Add olive oil, vinegar, and mustard. Pulse until smooth. Place garlic scapes mixture in a bowl and add the broccoli. Stir to coat. Chill for 3 hours to marinate, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving. Tastes even better the next day!!!
Garlic Scapes
