Of cabbages and kings

Thank goodness, I could finally access my masterful photos from my phone and illustrate my market adventure. Cabbages, pictured above, are so under-appreciated!

Tonight I made Asian Chicken Salad from Rachael Ray. I get the Rachael Ray magazine because I got a deal on it. Listen to me, talking like Donald Trump. I negotiated like Trump and got a good deal on Rachael Ray and Eating Well and Better Homes and Gardens.

I am starting to like Rachael Ray even though one day at the gym I got into a conversation with the girl on the next elliptical machine about how we worried that Rachael Ray was putting on pounds. Perhaps she has lost some since then, who knows. Perhaps you have to take her recipes with a grain of salt. That was what we were discussing.

Meanwhile I do like the magazine. I love the puns in the headlines for one thing. I have inherited Leonard Pennario's love for puns and word cleverness. There is a story announcing that from now on, in many cases, they will be calling for just plain olive oil instead of Extra Virgin. The headline: "Oil Change."

And for a special page on beets: "Beet this!"

Things like this make you smile, you know? Anyway back to my cabbage. Here is my friend Jennifer at the Clinton-Bailey Market selling cabbage and other greenery.

I bought a giant Savoy cabbage from Jennifer and it is just so pretty I do not know how I will ever do it justice.

Jeoffry does not care what I do with the Savoy cabbage.

Oh, to sleep so sweetly.

With no tough decisions to make!

A bag of bargains

Son of a sea cook, I fell behind posting! We just had Talk Like a Pirate Day, hence the expression.

The cat was the problem. I could not get to the computer where I usually checked in because it is in a room where the cat is not allowed. There is too much trouble for the cat to get into including scratching my Pennario records and eating my tapes.

Ergo, no Weblog. We remedy that today with a trip to the Clinton-Bailey Market.

I went with my friend Jacquetta. As I told her myself, she kind of cramped my style but that is a good thing. Un-cramped, I buy way too much stuff. As it was, I did manage to fill the larder to overflowing. I bought ...

$5 worth of tomatoes, actually a generous basket.

$3 for beets with greens attached. That is a treat I love.

$3 for cauliflower.

$2 for a big Savoy cabbage.

$2 for a green cabbage. I am always eating cabbage for I am a kraut.

$2.50 worth of apples. Meaning, I split a half bushel ($5) with Jacquetta. They are an apple I do not know if I have mentioned yet. They are Honeycrisp!

And they are delicious. I picked one out of the sack and then Jacquetta did and we were munching these Honeycrisps for the next hour or something. One apple is a meal!

I packed a lot of this haul into a red Savers bag and brought it home and as soon as I unpacked, the cat crawled in. He is our bargain cat and so he crawled into the bargain bag! That is our orange Tom at the top of the post. I caught him yawning.

The cat then lay down in the depths of the Savers bag and let it close over his head. And he went to sleep. And I worked on my book. Peace!

And catch-up time.

Finally.

Confessions of a Kraut

Now that I am slicing and dicing with my newly sharpened knives I have a new favorite food.

Chinese cabbage!

Also called Napa cabbage. That is it, pictured magnificently above. Tonight after going to the gym and buying square Christmas records at Goodwill, what I did was, I chopped up a pan full and put it in a 400 degree oven coated lightly with a little canola oil and kosher salt. It cooked up amazingly.

This came from the Clinton-Bailey Market on Saturday, as if you had to ask.

What didn't I buy at the market!

Holy cannoli, I bought three cabbages. There is the Napa cabbage and this huge Savoy cabbage ...

... and a red cabbage.

 

Not for nothing do they call me a Kraut! 

I also bought a huge bunch of red peppers and three green peppers and two gallons of cider and some miniature watermelon and I forget what else. We ate one of these Personal Watermelon tonight. And a half bushel of apples. And two cauliflowers. I am hopeless at the market. Hopeless.

Then I went home and worked on the book on Leonard Pennario and left my purchases sitting in plastic bags in the kitchen. Only later did I go downstairs and look at it.

This Napa cabbage, I am not kidding! I am going to work my way through these Napa cabbage recipes.

Cabbage is delicious and you can do a million things with it. As one chef pointed out, you do not even have to wash it, just cut it up and you are set. Not only that but as I am eating it I have lost two pounds.

It is the miracle food!