Grow Alabama

We picked up our first batch of veggies and farm fresh eggs from Grow Alabama today! In our box we received:

• Sweet potatoes from Alabama
• Cabbage from Alabama
• Broccoli from North Carolina
• Carrots from Georgia
• Kale from Alabama
• Oranges from Florida
• One dozen eggs

If nothing else this will challenge me to actually cook meals and not just throw hot dogs or nuggets on the kids' plates.

We were out getting hair cuts yesterday and stopped on the way home to pick up our veggies. We got down for a nap around 3pm, which is later than I prefer. I woke up about 4:30, came down stairs and turned on the PS3. I was looking forward to a few rounds of Modern Warfare 2. But that stinking box of veggies kept staring at me just daring me to cook. Not to be double dogged dared like that and walk away I took the vegetable least likely to turn into something good, in my opinion and headed to the Internet. I had already found a recipe for the kale so I grabbed the cabbage. I found cabbage rolls.

I then did what I do best.... I combined several recipes, changed some ingredients around and got to cooking! To my, and the CFO's, amazement it turned out GREAT!! It is sweet. Here is the final recipe result:

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
one bag of boil in bag brown rice
Sauce:
1 can tomato soup, condensed
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
3 tablespoons sugar (in the raw)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

Drop cabbage leaves into boiling salted water; cover and cook for 3 minutes. Drain well. For filling, combine ground beef and rice. Mix well. Place a portion into the center of each cabbage leaf. Roll leaf around filling. Place in a baking dish. For sauce, combine tomato sauce, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and 1/2 cup of water and pour over cabbage rolls. Bake covered in a preheated 350° oven 40 to 45 minutes.

I want to try thickening the sauce next time as one recipe called for with corn starch. I even put all the calories, fat and fiber on a spreadsheet to calculate them per serving.

The beautiful and the good are identical but the fleeting impressions created by the work of a cook or a musician disperse even as they are being experienced. Raphael's painting The Transfiguration is immortal, but Carême's 'Ragout de truffes à la parisienne' lasts while it is being eaten, just as roses that last as long as their fragrance can be enjoyed.
Lucien Tendret (1825-1896)

When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.
Laiko Bahrs

Al