How to Make Cabbage Rolls - for Cathrine

I promised my friend Cathrine that I would have her over to help me make cabbage rolls but then I forgot and started so I had Charlotte take photos of all the steps. This is only my second time making them but they are surprisingly simple to make and DELICIOUS!

Here's my recipe (I hobbled it together from 3 or 4 that I found in various cookbooks).

So, here are some photos of the process. Just the interesting parts. I think.

Saute the onions and garlic in butter,

combine with the raw hamburger and cooked rice, paprika, salt and pepper.

Then the "tricky" part which is actually dead easy. Peeling the cabbage. Gut part of the core out of the cabbage. You want to cut through the leaves near the core. Put a big knife in the core to lift the cabbage. Put it in a large pot of boiling water so it's covered. 

After a minute or so, the outer leaf should lift off - use tongs to remove it to a tea towel. Then do the next leaf. Keep removing leaves until the cabbage disappears... 

You may have to pause and bring the water back to a boil, and to cut more of the core away. 

Now you're ready to make the rolls.

Trimming the vein so it will roll more easily. (Just turn your head a little...)

About 1/4 cup seems to make the most rolls and not too wimpy in size.

Layer in the pot with extra leaves, onion slices and canned tomatoes. Bake. Eat. Yum. (I took half out after our first meal and froze them in a casserole dish for another later meal.)

I'll try to remember to take a photo when we actually eat these. They're cooking right now and smell lovely. Don't be scared. They're easy. Good luck. 

Dust Collection, Part II

This is Charlotte's plasticine model of Scout dressed as the ham in the Christmas pageant in "To Kill A Mockingbird". She made it in Grade 2 to represent her favourite book. It has become an integral part of this particular part of my collection. Difficult to dust plasticine so I think it will remain the anchor of the whole damn collection for a few years to come. (P.S. How do you like the new picture at the top of the page. Char made it for me. Thanks!)

Spring is coming...

A branch of my forsythia, rescued from the inhospitable weather in my backyard. (Too bad I missed the thermometer to the left of the picture - it read -12C when I took this at 8 in the morning...)

Hoarse Horse?

One of us can barely talk, but all-in-all it was a successful weekend 'away'. The horses got some treats and so did we. Cider anyone?

cookbooks...

Librarygirl asked how many cookbooks we have so I counted - 27. This number is reduced a bit because for a while we had some books for professional cooks that were very heavy and had recipes for 20 loaves of bread etc. They had some lovely photos but we finally got rid of them. I think. Of course they could be in the attic...

Of the 27 that remain, I refer to about 4 seen in this photo.  From top left, Bon Appetit, Martha Storey's 500 Treasured Country Recipes, the old Joy of Cooking and a small vegan zine from Montreal called Ripe. I don't think it's published anymore - maybe she has a blog now? I should check.
**I did check - it's by Jae Steele and she now has two books and a blog, Domestic Affair - I shoulda knowed that!**

I refer to this one most (actually #28) which is a notebook from chinatown filled with recipes handwritten and cut out of magazines, some tried and some just copied for future reference. There are also pages with magazine pictures pasted over yucky recipes that I've given up on. I started this when I lived in Vancouver in 1988.

These are the rest of the books. There are some very beautiful ones, a couple of church lady style fundraising ones, one I bought when I started university (Cooking 101) and some found at thrift shops and bought purely for the covers.

This is the one that my aunt and uncle gave me for my birthday in 1973. It may be my favourite, although I don't think I've ever made anything from it -- I just look at the pictures, which are lurid and oddly compelling. The recipes have ingredients like "1 box brownie mix" and "1 4-ounce package of potato chips" and instructions such as "Ask Mother to help you heat shortening in skillet." There is a photo of s'mores that is burned on my retina. I've tried for 37 years to roast marshmallows like that with varying degrees of success.



Here are a couple of other treats from the 70s. Mmmmm.

Dust Collectors

I thought I would do a very brief post with photos of my second biggest collection--dust. I've been working on some aspects of this since we moved here almost eight years ago. It's quite possible that part of this collection came with us from our wee home in the big smoke. This cannot be confirmed definitively. To the right is a photo of my best example from this collection. It is artistically arranged atop our wedding junk shadow box and a 10 year (!) anniversary card (closeup above). Also in the picture is our wedding party invitation and another anniversary card. Enjoy! (Or gloat if you like!)

Official Diagnosis: Winkleitis

Ok, so I walked past a whole box 

of Kathy Winkles at the St. V. de P. the other day, knowing that my cupboards look like this:

But I thought about it all night. I've never seen the pattern San Tropez.

I don't have the pattern. I rationalized that I could buy the box and only keep a few, re-donate the rest. 

So this morning, I borrowed $5 from my daughter (how pathetic is that!) and rushed over - they were still there. Phew. So now I have a whole box of dinner plates, side plates, bowls, cups, saucers and a cream and sugar. Eek. 

And my sweet husband didn't even blink.