Manitoulin — change is in the air.

[Anna N]

 Good morning.  The sun valiantly tries to break through but I think the clouds are winning this round. 

 

 Kerry has gone off to rounds in the  hospital and then will drive down to work in Wiki for the day. 

 

 

 Toasted BLT on white with Hellmann’s of course. (But I have re-added Miracle Whip  to the shopping list in the interest of family harmony.)

 

My ambitions are writ large this morning  but I don’t think I will share them until I have some reason to believe that they will actually happen.  The best laid plans and all that. 

 

First, though, I need a 2nd cup of coffee while I write out a couple of lists. Sometimes it seems that if it doesn’t appear on a list, it never happens. 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[MelissaH]

18 hours ago, Shelby said:

Bananas give me the worst heartburn.  I know.  I'm weird.

They do that to my husband as well. Between that and the fact that they make me puke, bananas are most definitely not food, at least in our house.

 

A lot of yogurts have the same result on my husband: wicked heartburn. He's OK with yogurts that don't have high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. When we did a bit more poking, we discovered that bananas are higher in fructose than many other fruits. We wondered if maybe the fructose is related to the heartburn?

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, MelissaH said:

They do that to my husband as well. Between that and the fact that they make me puke, bananas are most definitely not food, at least in our house.

 

A lot of yogurts have the same result on my husband: wicked heartburn. He's OK with yogurts that don't have high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. When we did a bit more poking, we discovered that bananas are higher in fructose than many other fruits. We wondered if maybe the fructose is related to the heartburn?

Wow.  I bet you're right.  

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 First, though, I need a 2nd cup of coffee while I write out a couple of lists. Sometimes it seems that if it doesn’t appear on a list, it never happens.

 

I live and die by lists. If I'm making a packing list for going away for the weekend I don't list "clothes", it's "t-shirts, shorts, socks, underwear" and such.

 

I word-process my grocery lists also:

 

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, Porthos said:

 

I live and die by lists. If I'm making a packing list for going away for the weekend I don't list "clothes", it's "t-shirts, shorts, socks, underwear" and such.

I certainly do this even noting the number of each item of clothing. Not quite so obsessed with grocery lists, usually. But it depends. Once in a while I catch a serious dose of “I really need to be more organized”  and then look out. 

[heidih]

Thanks for sharing your lists Anna. I do several a day; more to organize my thoughts than to remember stuff. More of a hand-writer here. i LOVE "xing" out completed items  And... nut job that I am I often do the important ones in a composition notebook so I can refer back. Yes - reading through the cross-outs!  We all have our "odd"!

[Anna N]

Production is proceeding at a snail’s pace as I suspected it would.  One has to learn to modify one’s expectations as one ages and becomes more decrepit

 

 Nevertheless things are proceeding.  The frozen cabbage is now on the counter supposedly defrosting.

 

According to my reading and research this should happen within about two hours. Not sure which time/temperature zone that might be in, but certainly not here. 

 

 The filling is made and has been tested and declared tasty (by me):  

 

 

 So tasty in fact that I was tempted to say forget the Japanese cabbage rolls and let’s just have pork burgers!   But I do enough squirreling so it’s time to stick with the program.

 

The seasonings include grated carrot, grated onion; minced, reconstituted shiitake mushrooms,  soy sauce, salt and black pepper (could not find the white pepper). 

 

 Of interest to me is that in the “land of rice” none of the various recipes I consulted called for its inclusion. It seems to be pretty standard in European versions of cabbage rolls.  

 

 A few Japanese versions did call for tomato in one form or another. This went from an actual tomato sauce down to a drizzle of tomato kerchup down the middle of each roll. More relied on some combination of dashi, chicken stock and/or shiitake soaking water. 

 

 Even Shizuo Tsuji (Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art)  has a recipe for cabbage rolls,  Japanese style, for those who doubt that the dish anything to do with the cuisine of Japan.   His version calls for ground chicken rather than ground pork  otherwise his is very similar to the recipe I chose to modify. 

 

 Edited to add:

 

Not sure if the recipe is in the book I cited. It is definitely in his other book, Practical Japanese Cooking, co-authored with Koichiro Hata. Just in case anyone is madly searching for it.

 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

 Chewy oatmeal cookies for rounds this morning and Fruit Crumble Bars from Smitten Kitchen 

[heidih]

Lest you doubt my oddness - some lists....

[rotuts]

WoW

 

Fz cabbage

 

new to me

 

does some of the moisture get Frozen Out ?

 

Id prefer that to ' salting '

 

as at some point in All Our Lives

 

NaCl might not be the best idea

 

cheers

[lindag]

12 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

 

 Chewy oatmeal cookies for rounds this morning and Fruit Crumble Bars from Smitten Kitchen 

Those look amazing

[heidih]

So Anna it sounds like the cabbage roll filling is a lot like a gyoza one with the cabbage element front & center on the outside. With that mindset perhaps a dipping sauce as traditional for the dumplings would be a nice drizzle?

[Anna N]

 

 Lunch was an amazing nectarine. The pit was scraped clean of all flesh while I was hanging over the kitchen sink.  

 

 

 List maker extraordinaire.  

 

 

[Anna N]

2 minutes ago, heidih said:

So Anna it sounds like the cabbage roll filling is a lot like a gyoza one with the cabbage element front & center on the outside. With that mindset perhaps a dipping sauce as traditional for the dumplings would be a nice drizzle?

Very similar to a gyoza filling. Definitely your idea of a drizzle is worth serious consideration. 

 

I do wish that copyright was not a consideration as I would love to post a photograph of the cabbage rolls served up in the book, Practical Japanese Cooking.  Traditional (western) serving of cabbage rolls does not lend itself it at all to being eaten with chopsticks! Tsuji shows it served beautifully sliced and accompanied by  julienned snow peas on a gorgeous piece of Japanese tableware. 

[Anna N]

22 minutes ago, rotuts said:

WoW

 

Fz cabbage

 

new to me

 

does some of the moisture get Frozen Out ?

 

Id prefer that to ' salting '

 

as at some point in All Our Lives

 

NaCl might not be the best idea

 

cheers

I don’t think the method is designed to do anything more than simply soften up the cabbage leaves to allow them to be rolled. Don’t know much about the science but I believe the freezing breaks down the cell walls and makes the leaves more malleable.

[rotuts]

here is my take on MiracleWhip

 

vs Hellmans or the W.Cost version :

 

its sweeter

 

thanks to Aldi

 

I have a Clone of MW :

 

Id suggest adding a bit of sugar to the RealDeal 

 

make sure it dissolves   

 

so there is not crunch

 

MW  Toot Sweet !

[FauxPas]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

 

 

 Chewy oatmeal cookies for rounds this morning and Fruit Crumble Bars from Smitten Kitchen 

 

 

Those Fruit  Crumble Bars are a staple for us. I make them with whatever berries I have on hand or left over from other projects, so it's often a mixture. My last batch was blueberry and raspberry. Maybe blackberry next time. They are good for gifting, aren't they? 

[Anna N]

So the cabbage rolls are made and are in the Instant Pot coming up to pressure.

 

 

 

I found it easier to make neat cabbage rolls with the frozen cabbage leaves but found it less easy to shave the central vein.  Cold hands and knives are not good companions!  

 

I would do it this way again, that is freezing the cabbage, but take it out of the freezer the day before so it has plenty of time to defrost.  Working with icy cold cabbage leaves does not rate highly with me.  

 

 I have only shown six of the rolls but it actually made probably twice as many. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

What are you doing with the rest of the cabbage? (Forgive me if you had already addressed this.)

[Kim Shook]

3 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

I live and die by lists. If I'm making a packing list for going away for the weekend I don't list "clothes", it's "t-shirts, shorts, socks, underwear" and such.

 

I word-process my grocery lists also:

 

I do this...when we have a working printer.   It's nice to just write everything down according to recipes I'm going to make and the list that lives on the fridge and then cut and paste to get it in the order of whatever stores I'm going to..

[lindag]

i write my grocery lists on a sticky pad which I take with me.  Try to organize it by department....I hate having got to the bottom of the list only to discover the green onions which  are at the entrance of the store and needing to backtrack.  (Let's just say I'm no spring chicken.)

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

What are you doing with the rest of the cabbage? (Forgive me if you had already addressed this.)

I debated for all of 3 Nano seconds and then chopped it up and put it on top of the  rolls. I happen to love cabbage and I will find a way to use it I am sure. I had hoped to make the cabbage do double duty. I intended to make cabbage rolls and gyoza.  Napa cabbage would be better but green cabbage works. But I had become quite bored with this one.  

[ElsieD]

I keep a steno pad beside where I sit.  As I think of thing we need, I write them down and take this with me when we shop.  I also jot down things I have to do.  Things get scratched off as they are purchased or tasks completed.  

[Porthos]

3 hours ago, heidih said:

More of a hand-writer here. i LOVE "xing" out completed items 

I carry a Sharpie and put a thick line through each item that I pick up.

 

3 hours ago, heidih said:

More of a hand-writer 

 

I can't read my own writing anymore.

[Anna N]

 

For quality assurance purposes only. You understand, I’m sure.