Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts

“You like cabbage. Brussels sprouts are just like cabbages, only smaller.”

I was slicing a large cabbage last night to make my family’s favorite St. Patrick’s Day side dish. I know I am more than a week early but I had time over the weekend to cook the corned beef and it was already on sale at the grocery store. So why wait! Maybe she’s right, I thought. My daughter returned from college with a love for this vegetable. She prepares them by roasting slices on a tray drizzled in oil and topped with salt in a hot oven. I do like them when she makes them.

Yet I never think to buy this vegetable. I’m more of a corn and green beans cook. Maybe it was my college experience. My own mom never served me brussels sprouts and I recall during my freshman year they being a regular choice at the dining hall. They were boiled and looked like little brains and many jokes were made about them. Those snide jokes stuck and for my whole life I never bought or cooked brussels sprouts.

As I sliced the cabbage last night, I started to see brussels spouts in a new light. I love coleslaw. I love this dish my mother-in-law taught me how to make that I’m preparing now – fried cabbage with egg noodles.* Maybe I’ll start to buy brussels spouts. “They’re just a small member of the cabbage family,” my daughter reminded me.

Now I wonder what I can tell my daughter to change HER present mindset about raw tomatoes and anything seafood?!

 

 

*Click HERE to see the recipe for Galusca, the cabbage/noodle dish in my March 16, 2014 SOL post!

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March 17 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I am wearing my shamrock socks and a green sweater. My husband is traveling so the corned beef and galushca (cabbage and noodle dish) that I made over the weekend is in the car, ready to share at work during lunchtime with my colleagues. Last year, I sliced the recipes of this meal  HERE. 

As I sit in Starbucks this morning, writing this slice, shamrocks are taped to the window and hang from the ceiling around the bar area. My daughter in Chicago mentioned seeing the dyed-green river on Saturday as the city celebrated this holiday over the weekend. Driving to Starbucks, I listened to Garrison Keillor on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac note the story of Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland. He stated that since 1762, New York City has celebrated with a parade down 5th Avenue and that today, the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world will be marching in New York, 150,000 in all.

It is St. Patrick’s Day. I no longer practice my Catholic upbringing much but I will dress for this day and I plan to grab a green beer after work. Why? Who doesn’t want to spend a day thinking about the Luck of the Irish smiling down on them, dreaming of the pot of gold beyond the rainbow.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

March 16 – St. Patrick Day Recipes

I married into an Irish/Hungarian/Polish family. I am grateful Bob Donnelly and Marilyn met, married and raised a big Catholic family, my husband being the youngest son of the five kids. While dating and then onced married, we would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with my husband’s family, the menu always the same: Corned Beef with Galusca. Finally I asked Marilyn how to make this meal and learned it is so simple. You just need time, something that our generation does not always spend when preparing meals. Here are the recipes:

Corned Beef
Boiled for 3 hours on the stovetop.  Then place in a baking dish and bake in the oven with a brown-sugar glaze added to the top for another hour. Once warmed, slice thinly.

Galusca  (a Hungarian cabbage and noodle dish):

6 cups or one head of cabbage           1 tsp salt
2 tbsp Crisco or margarine                8 oz package broad noodles

Grate or food process cabbage until fine. Put 2 tbsp crisco or margarine in frying pan. Melt. Add cabbage and salt. Fry slowly until browned (takes at least 15-30 minutes) Cover, stirring often.

Boil the noodles, following the directions on package. Drain. Add cabbage to noodles. Salt to taste. Serve warm.

My own girls LOVED this dish growing up. I will be making it today so I am ready to serve it tomorrow.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!