Fall is here. The time to pick the end of the season garden produce is upon us. You may be wondering what to do with all the cabbage and carrots you have.
There are two easy ways to take care of excess cabbage if you don’t have a root cellar. The first is to make sauerkraut. The second, the one you will learn about today, is to turn it into coleslaw.
As for the excess carrots, you will use some in coleslaw, but feel free to can or dehydrate the others for winter use, that is if you do not have a root cellar.
Homemade coleslaw tastes so much better to me than anything I can buy. Not only do I have the joy of growing my own vegetables to use in it, but I know they were organically grown. If your garden was a flop, ask a neighbor or you can even go to the store and buy a head of cabbage and a bag of carrots.
I prefer to use store bought dressing. I have a favorite brand, Marzetti. I have not found a homemade recipe that duplicates the creamy taste of this brand. Plus it makes it extra easy to make, one less step to complete.
To begin, gather your ingredients, a fresh head of cabbage, a bunch of carrots and your dressing. As you can see I used a bag of peeled baby carrots this time around. This was a one pound bag. I chose to use it all, but you can use however much you like.
The next step is to remove the outer leaves of the cabbage.
Cut the cabbage into quarters, making sure to remove the heart. This is best done by cutting at an angle. The heart is the hard piece of cabbage at the bottom near the spot where it was attached to the plant. The heart goes a little way up into the cabbage itself. This part is edible but many people simply do not enjoy eating it as it is hard.
The next step is to use a knife to cut the cabbage up into small pieces. If you take each quarter and slice it longways two to three times then cut the cabbage shortways across you will get small pieces. You can use a food processer but I like using a knife much better because the cabbage does not end up as small or bruised.
This is what your cabbage will look like when it is all cut up. Simply put it into a bowl. You may need two bowls, one for mixing and one for holding the extra cabbage.
The next step is to dice or shred the carrots. I use a food processor for this because I like small diced carrots.
This gives you an idea what the carrots look like when they come out of the food processor. I simply dump them on top of the cabbage and continue to dice more until I have diced up all of the carrots I wish to put into the coleslaw. Then I mix the cabbage and carrots up.
Once the cabbage and carrots are throughly mixed, I add the dressing. Simply pour it on top, then stir it in. For this recipe I used 1 head of cabbage, 1 poud of carrots and 1 jar of dressing.
Refrigerate until it is cold, then serve. Nothing could be easier! Your family will love the taste of homemade coleslaw!
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Vegetable Recipes by on Oct 27th, 2009. Comment. 
Everyone loves good fried chicken, but not everyone loves the grease. Normally I brown my chicken on both sides, then put it in a pan in the oven at 350 degrees F. If you use a broiler pan, the grease will drop below just like it does when you broil food. This time, however, I decided to go ahead and fry it in my cast iron skillet. The trick to reducing the greasiness of fried food is to turn it just once during the cooking time.
Before you begin, gather the following ingredients.
1 large bowl
wooden spoon
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dried mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon ginger
Put the 2 cups of flour in the bowl. I prefer organic, but whatever you like is fine.
Pour the 1/2 cup of cornmeal on top of the flour in the bowl. You will mix this up later on.
Add the salt and any other ground spices to the flour and oatmeal.
This is what mine looked like at this point. I left the whole spices such as herb leaves, garlic cloves and paprika peppers out. I will add these shortly once they are powdered.
Put any whole herbs or spices into a grinder and process until they are finely ground.
Add the fresh ground herbs and spices to the mixture and stir well. This is what the flour mixture should look like when everything is well mixed.
Add the oil of your choice to your skillet. I used a cast iron skillet. I add paste ginger to the oil instead of using powdered ginger. Remember that the 1 teapoon of ginger is enough for three chickens, so if you use the paste ginger or whole ginger, reduce the amount you use by 1/3.
The next step is to make sure the raw chicken is well coated on both sides with the flour mixture. I used a wooden spoon to scoop the flour out of the bowl, then used my hands to pat the flour into the chicken. When one side is well floured, turn it over and repeat. Do not let your spoon touch the chicken. I also wash my hands once I turn the chicken over. This way I can save the flour mixture and not worry about accidental contamination.
When both sides of the chicken are coated with the flour mixture, put it in the pan. Remember the oil in the pan is warm so it may want to sizzle. Use a utensil, such as tongs, to lay the chicken pieces in the pan.
Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat.
After cooking for 30 minutes over medium heat, use the tongs to turn the chicken over. This is what the side that has been face down should look like. Put the lid back on and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
We use a meat thermomter to check the internal temperature of any meat we cook just to be on the safe side. Chicken breast should register at 170 degrees F when it is done. Properly cooked food that reaches the correct temperture and is maintained at that temperature is an important step in preventing illness from improperly prepared meals. It is also important to maintain sanitary conditions in your kitchen or on any areas where food will be.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Meat Recipes by on Oct 27th, 2009. 4 Comments.
