A Happy Perspective on Food

Just finished a fascinating book mostly about food and our relationship to it.  Frank Bruni, who was the restaurant critic for the New York Times from 2004-2009, spent most of his life battling his weight. He grew up in an Italian-American family that put great emphasis on having mounds of food available at any and all times. If there wasn’t enough food on the table to make it sag, then there wasn’t enough. As Bruni moved into young adulthood he tried amphetamines, forced vomiting, and other extremely unhealthy measures to control his weight. After college he became a journalist, and at one point he was following George W. Bush on his campaign trail.  He calculated that there were eight meals served daily to the press corps in an effort to keep them (literally) fat and happy so that they’d report positively on the candidate.

Read more

“God made the food . . .

. . . and he wanted people to take it and thank him for it” (I Timothy 4:3b Worldwide English trans.).

My husband is fond of quoting Martin Luther’s description of humankind as a drunkard on a horse:  he goes down the road for awhile and then falls off and rolls into the ditch on the right.  Then he staggers back up on the horse and stays on for awhile until he falls off again and this time rolls into the ditch on the left.  He spends very little time in the saddle actually going down the middle of the road.

Read more

An Easy Refreshing Slaw

I first came up with this recipe for the Cherry Creek Chorale picnic that we had at our house back in August, before I started this blog.   I wanted something crisp and refreshing and thought of this combination.  Napa cabbage tends to come in huge heads, so two of them were enough for an expected number of 50.  People don’t tend to eat a lot of salad at a buffet, I’ve found.  I ended up getting someone to help me dice the apples and walnuts at the last minute, so I didn’t have to worry about the apples turning brown.

Napa Cabbage-Apple-Walnut Slaw

Don't use regular cabbage for this recipe--it's too bitter. Napa cabbage is much milder and sweeter, but it still has the cabbage characteristic of not wilting in dressing. Napa cabbage tends to come in huge heads, so two of them were enough for an expected number of 50. People don't tend to eat a lot of salad at a buffet, I've found. I pre-shredded the cabbage the night before and stored it in plastic bags in the fridge. I think I ended up wasting too much of it, as I usually don't include much of the ribs, but sliced thinly they're fine. I usually just use the leaves, but next time I'm going to be more frugal. Sometimes when you slice into the cabbage it's all brown in the middle, and there are often brown spots here and there, so you will have to do at least some discarding. Granny Smith apples work well, diced into 1/4" pieces, as many as you like, and some chopped walnuts. The dressing couldn't be easier, with just four ingredients: I like to try to match the vinegar in the dressing to the salad, so for this one I used cider vinegar. If I'm making the dressing for, say, a strawberry-spinach salad, I like to use raspberry vinegar if I have it on hand. Otherwise red wine vinegar at least makes the dressing pink.

Course Salad
Cuisine American
Servings 12
Author Debi Simons

Ingredients

Slaw:

  • 1 medium head Napa cabbage Much sweeter and milder than regular cabbage.
  • 2-3 Granny Smith apples diced
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Dressing:

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vinegar Cider vinegar is nice here since it matches the apples.

Instructions

  1. Slice cabbage thinly, using the ribs as long as they don't have brown spots. Wash and spin dry in a salad spinner. Toss with apples and walnuts, then with dressing. Amount of dressing needed will depend very much on the size of the cabbage head. You can also vary proportions of cabbage to apples to walnuts to your taste.