Cabbage with Onions

Delicious Cabbage with Onions

A question on the Avoiding Corn Forum got me thinking about one of my favorite "tried and true" recipes that got me through the early days of my allergy. Some people live in small towns with no access to organic produce or specialty staples (as I did in the beginning). In a situation like that it helps to have something that is pretty much always safe. I have found that cabbage and onions tend to be safe no matter what brand I have tried. With that in mind, I thought I would post one of my favorite veggie dishes. I call it simply:

Cabbage with Onions

Ingredients:
1 cabbage
1 or 2 onions
extra virgin olive oil and/or safe butter
sea salt and other spices of your choice

Layer veggies and seasonings in the pot

Rough chop the cabbage and onions. Layer them into a large, heavy-bottom pot with a tight fitting lid. Add seasonings for each layer. For a large head of cabbage and 2 onions, I put two palmfuls of sea salt and probably 2 or 3 tbsp. olive oil plus 1/2 stick of butter sliced over top. Don't worry if it fills the pot to the top because it will cook down quite a bit. I use my 6-quart Lodge Enamel Cast Iron Dutch Oven (if you don't have one, I highly recommend it).

Cover tightly and start cooking on medium low (3 on electric stove). Set a timer for 30 minutes, remove lid, stir, replace lid, set for 30 minutes more, remove lid, stir, if the cabbage is translucent at this point leave off lid, set for 30 minutes more to cook out liquid. You can turn up the heat at this point and stand over it stirring frequently to get a nice caramelization on some of the cabbage, but it isn't necessary. Serve with a dollop of Daisy full fat sour cream and a piece of quick bread if you like.

After one hour of slow cooking

You will be amazed how sweet and delicious this dish tastes after slow cooking for 1.5 hours. You can add any seasonings that you desire. In the past I have added one or more of the following: sliced new potatoes, caraway seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, zucchini, etc. Tonight I added diced jicama and coriander because I had a jicama and it just seemed right. Jicama reminds me of apples and pears and there is some precedence for pairing apples and cabbage in traditional recipes.

Since this is a slow cooking dish, you could probably get better than average results using a slow cooker. I don't have one (believe it or not) so I haven't tried it. This heats up beautifully so you can make a huge pot of it and eat it over the next few days. It has been a real lifesaver for us and we still eat it quite often even when we have a big variety of safe, fresh produce available.

<3

GMO corn is everyone's problem!

I am painfully aware of the prevalence of GMO corn in the food system of America. This awareness is a necessary by-product of learning to live with a corn allergy. When I speak to people (even friends and family) of the problems that are caused by our dependence on GMO corn, I am met with an attitude of "That's something we don't have to worry about, luckily we aren't allergic like you are." I wish I could make people understand why it is a problem for our whole country right now and is on its way to becoming a problem for the whole world. I found this neat video that helps to explain why genetically modified foods are so bad. Enjoy:





I think all corn allergy sufferers should be active in the fight against genetically modified crops. Tell everyone you know to watch this ten minute video. There are feature length films and books out now that help to illuminate the problems we face because of our dependence on GMO corn. Here are links to my favorites:




If  you would like to know more but don't want to purchase any of these books or movies, you can rent most of them from your local library.  Also, doing a search on YouTube or Google will produce thousands of videos and articles. If you need help explaining the danger of GMOs to others, there is an excellent printable brochure by Jeffrey M. Smith on his website. He is the author of, "The Seeds of Deception" and a famous activist for safer food. He also has a blog on The Huffington Post site.

No matter how you choose to spread the word, the important thing is that you help in some way. Even if you just mention the dangers of GMO corn to a young mother picking out yogurt for her baby at the grocery store, it helps. The continued ignorance of the American public on this issue is the only thing that biotech giants have in their favor.

<3

Making Your Own Quick Bread Mix

I wanted to revisit my adventures in quick bread because I've streamlined the process even more.  Now I freeze bags of bread mix and pull them out when I need bread or biscuits. If we want bread, I add water to the mix and if we want biscuits, I add milk (or a mixture of sour cream and water).

Awesome Quick Bread


Dry ingredients:

4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. my baking powder mix (half baking soda and half arrowroot powder - I leave out the cream of tartar)
1 to 2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 to 1 stick butter or up to 8 tbsp. your preferred fat

Dump all the above ingredients into the food processor and pulse until there are no large pieces of butter visible. Pour this into a gallon baggie and freeze. I make several of these while I have the food processor out. I really enjoy getting 6 loaves of bread mix ready to freeze and only having to wash the processor once. When I get ready for bread, I put my oval corningware dish into the 400F oven with 2 to 4 tbsp. butter in it to melt. I put the bread mix into a bowl and add about 1 to 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar and a palmful of organic sugar (vinegar to help it rise and sugar to counteract the flavor of the vinegar) and enough filtered water to make a good dough (I have never measured the water successfully, but it takes in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 cups). You can add minced fresh garlic, onions, shredded cheese, diced peppers, sundried tomatoes, herbs, spices, etc. to your dough or you can just plop it into the pan once the butter is melted and sprinkle shredded cheese across the top. Use a pastry brush to bring up some of the melted butter from the sides to the top (or melt additional butter and brush it onto the top) and bake. It takes about 35 - 45 minutes to bake in my deep oval corningware dish (test it with a knife inserted in the middle) and about 20 - 25 minutes in my baking sheet (flatbread). This also makes a really good pizza crust. Once it is cooled, we slice it and make open face sandwiches or cheese toast from it or just eat a piece of it with dinner. I don't think we could go back to store bread if we had to at this point. We don't have this bread every meal, but I do make it about twice a week.
 

This is a very flexible recipe so feel free to make it your own. I have added raisins (Newman's Own) and cinnamon to the dough with milk for the liquid to make scones. After mixing well, I poured the batter into my buttered 9 x 13 pan, brushed it with butter, then scored the top to mark biscuit size portions. After it baked, I cut on the score lines and we enjoyed square scones with honey butter. It would work quite well to roll out the dough and cut with a biscuit cutter, but I would only take the time to do that on special occasions. I can think up quite a few possible modifications including: add more liquid and some blueberries for muffins, add browned country sausage and shredded cheese for all-in-one breakfast biscuits (use milk for the liquid), add bananas or zucchini and spices and bake in a loaf pan for banana bread. Once you get a feel for how much liquid you need for each variation and figure out how well your baking powder rises, you can modify it to suit your needs with very little trouble. There really is very little difference between biscuits, cake, scones, muffins, and bread. Learn what these differences are and you will be well on your way to mastering them all.