basic coleslaw

• 1 bag shredded coleslaw mix
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or more if you're not already sweet enough)
• poppy seeds (optional)

Combine the mayonnaise, lime juice, vinegar and sugar together. Pour over the cabbage mix and add poppy seeds. Toss to coat. Let mixture sit at least one hour prior to serving. When made, the mix should look a little on the dry side as it will moisten as it sits.

The dish: I'm not even that old, comfortably in the second half of Gen X, and I went to public schools, and yet I still took Latin. Six years of it. Being a dead language and all, it has limited usefulness when trying to order a drink on a different continent, but it's great for finding word derivatives. Take for example coleslaw; I can tell you that the Latin word for cabbage is colis. I think the term slaw was invented by lazy southerners who never received the memo about annunciation, but I'm certain where the first half of the word came from (I can also tell you where plumbers got their name from, but that's a different story). Latin actually turned out to be one of my favorite classes in high school, thanks to the fact that there was a small group of us taking it and we all got along pretty well and Mrs. N (anonymous to protect the innocent, et cetera- damn, more Latin!) kept class amazingly relevant and fun. So go ahead and carpe diem and try e pluibus unum the recipes from this blog. Ilia acta est on your dinner plans for tonight, just make sure to ubi sub ubi.

unstuffed cabbage

• 1 head of cabbage, chopped
• 2 yellow onions, chopped fine
• 8 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 1 orange pepper, chopped
• fresh parsley, chopped fine
• fresh oregano, chopped fine
• red pepper flakes
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes
• 1lb ground turkey
• cooked brown rice (take out or instant works fine)

In a swirl of olive oil, saute the garlic and onions over a medium flame for about 5 minutes, or until just browned, then add to crock pot. In same skillet, brown turkey over a medium flame until done. Add all ingredients except rice to your crock pot (remember, we just don't give a damn about generecizing trademarks), cover and cook on low for 6+ hours. Serve over rice.

The dish: Stuffed cabbage is one of those dishes that I'll order out because it's both delicious and a pain in the ass to prepare. Cabbage leaves are more delicate than you'd think and getting the whole mix cooked evenly without burning parts of it is a true art. I'm not sure how I came up with the idea of doing it like this, but you get about 95% of the flavor with about 10% of the work of the original. That and like every other slow cooker recipe you can prepare it in the morning, or even the night before if you're using a crock pot that was made after leg warmers went out of fashion. You can add cheese if you wish, but I think it works well without it. As always, feel free to subsitute dried herbs for fresh ones.

roasted cabbage with bacon

• 1 head of cabbage, cut into bite size pieces
• 4 strips of high quality bacon, finely diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (sorry Mike and wizzz, when I pasted in from word it showed as "4000"). Place chopped bacon in bottom of large casserole dish, I like either ceramic or cast iron, cook in oven for 5-10 minutes. Add cabbage and toss with the bacon, spreading around all that bacon goodness, return to oven and cook for about 30 minutes or until cabbage appears well cooked. Season with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

The dish: Everything really is better with bacon, and cabbage is certainly no exception to the rule. Roasting the cabbage gives it almost a sweet flavor without turning into the normal soggy mess that most people think it's supposed to be. If the bacon is a little lean and things look a little dry you can always add a little olive oil, but this batch didn't need it. Don't wait for next March, cabbage is cheap and great for you and this is a variation that even people who don't like cabbage seem to enjoy.