If I Could Put Time

in a bottle... Ah Jim Croce. I couldn't find a high quality video to embed of his "Time in a Bottle" song - an instant favorite of mine back in the day... You go find a version to listen to if you are a fan like I am and I'll get back to....wait... what was I doing before I spent umpty-nine minutes searching for that video...oh yes! The Bottle Tree!My daughter, who has a nasty habit of being smarter than her Momma, when I was describing to her how I'd repurposed a mostly chopped down hackberry tree into a folk art Bottle Tree in the back of our property (our yard really but "property" sounds much grander, agreed?) gently asked me "But won't the tree limbs just grow and leaf back out?" to which I sagely replied "er....we'll see!".

Well Miss Smartyplants was right and the hackberry tree is demonstrating the persistence of life that has it posing such a threat in the landscape to begin with.Trying to get rid of hackberry trees conveys one of many lessons that landscaping attempts to teach.

Houston, we have a problem.

Like, the plants you do not want may thrive while the ones you covet will either wither or produce fruit that will end up feeding the bugs who have constant access.

Cue Doris Day.

Or, when an onion sprouts and you plant it a flower will come (that smells like...an onion!).Or, because a plant is called "obedient" does not mean it will do what you say (I told these guys specifically not to crowd out the winecup!).Anyway...my point, and I did have one, is that gardeners make plans while God laughs. As do cooks.

I planted two heads of cabbage months ago as part of a "winter" garden. We are in a severe drought and live in an area with high water rates so secondary to that are trying not to supplementally water much.  It has not been until very recently that the heads of cabbage have come to resemble anything that might be reasonably harvested and eaten.  My cabbage heads are not so much Winter as they are late Spring arrivals.  But arrive they have.

When I decided, due to repetitive cravings for Orangette's Cabbage with Hot Sauce, to get one of those heads indoors today I knew I could not only put that craving to rest over the weekend, but if my timing was right, I could put it into a post as part of a Grow Your Own entry for April.  I took my camera out to the garden with me to get a shot of the cabbage "in situ" for the GYO post, and that is when I noticed the hackberry tree had begun to reassert itself as a leafy tree into the bottles I'd so (caff!) artfully placed upon limb ends.

Once I start looking closely at my garden a lot of things happen. My sense of time dissolves, I stop to take a 429th close up shot of poppies whose colors reduce me to silent wonder.  I simply lose track of who I am, where I am, and why I came out of doors in the first place.

Which is precisely what a garden is good for, aside from producing the occasional late head of cabbage.   

I'll try to get back with a post that is actually about Cabbage with Hot Sauce. It is a savory side providing one more lively excuse to have eggs for dinner. 

As the economy circles the drain while the White Coats signal eggs are not only "not bad!" for us but rather really quite the perfect food the Egg Council maintained all along, eggs for dinner make quite a bit of sense. 

Unlike this meandering post.My time, bottled or not, has gotten away from me for today. I will leave you with this for now:

"The time has come,' the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --

Of cabbages -- and kings --

And why the sea is boiling hot --

And whether pigs have wings.'

Cooking A Head

I tell you true folks, lately not a lot of blogworthy cooking has been going on around these parts. I mean, we are eating, sure, we do that every day no matter what. A missed meal is a rarity in this household. But food to write about? Seems like we are eating pretty ordinary fare. For instance...

I had a head of organic cabbage on hand, originally thought I would use it as part of Wonton Soup. That didn't pan out so I eventually went two other directions with it. First up?

We are trying to whittle down our caloric intake somewhat, and one way I seem to be able to do that is to revert to cooking more along the lines of our old style routine fare, albeit now made with organic, local, responsible produce and proteins.Dishes like the tomato-cabbage-beef combination that follows have re-entered our current line up. While delicious, and nutritious, it seemed a bit simple for blogification purposes. I don't even have a photo of it - tomatoes, onions, cabbage and cooked ground beef just are not all that photogenic. However, since I brought it up, here's the recipe just for fun. This is a thrifty enough dish I hope you will use all organic ingredients for the best taste, texture and healthiest results.

Tomato Cabbage Beef Dish
1 pound ground beef
1 onion rough chopped
1/2 head green cabbage, cored and 1/4 inch sliced
2 28 ounce cans fire roasted tomatoes with juice
salt, pepper to taste

In a large deep skillet with a lid, brown your beef, adding the onions about halfway through. Add sliced cabbage, and once the cabbage begins to soften, add both cans of tomatoes. Stir well, season to taste with salt and pepper, cover, and heat through over medium low heat until cabbage reaches the desired doneness, about 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning as neccesssary. Serves 4-6

Offer hearty bread or good crackers and you have a lovely meal. This dish represents delicious, hearty, healthy, fresh tasting, warm-you-up-in-the-winter-time, no big deal cooking. It is inexpensive to boot.   I am sure it could be done in a slow cooker, but it takes so little time I have never found the need.  It reheats well, so would certainly function as a comforting take to work lunch.

Fast forward several days and I still have half a cabbage left over. What to do with that? Throwing it out was certainly not acceptable. Then I read Orangette's post on "Mondays" and knew I had to try the cabbage with hot sauce dish she described. I figured to offer it alongside fried eggs as she wrote about on her blog post.  You can get her recipe and see for yourself,  here.

I didn't have sambal oelek on hand - only the chili with garlic version, but I figured to give the dish a whirl anyway. A little garlic here and there couldn't make that much difference, I decided.

.....Lunch Break.....

I prepared the cabbage according to the recipe (with the hot sauce substitution as already noted). I used 1/2 teaspoon of heat and the Hub declared that perfect. I threw in a couple glugs of soy sauce and then did add a sprinkle of kosher salt. I served the cabbage alongside fried eggs and potatoes cut hash style.The cabbage was a bit salty, a bit sweet, a little meaty tasting due to the soy (at least that is how I experience soy) and the texture a delightful combination of al dente softness with a few caramelized crisp edges.

The entire lunch pulled together in under 20 minutes as I had the potatoes already left over from supper a couple of nights ago. I only had to dice, reheat and adjust the seasoning on the potatoes. I hope this won't sound gushy, but I am really excited about how well we liked cabbage prepared this way.I am also happy happy we have one serving left over (the cabbage cooked down considerably). I might have had a bit under a half cabbage and it was not a particularly large specimen to begin with, but I would not hesitate to try and double this with a whole head of cabbage, even if it meant cooking it in two batches. I am fairly sure we will be wanting this often enough that I will develop an eye for how much cabbage goes with how much hot sauce and how much soy, etc. Since it is mostly seasoning to taste, how can you go wrong?

We enjoyed our delectable luncheon outside, dining al fresco for the first time so far this year. It is 76 degrees out here today and by the time the rest of the country is chatting amiably away outdoors on sidewalks and patios at lunch time we here in Central Texas will likely already have been forced inside by the heat. Mild winters here are the trade off for withering heat in July and August. Seasoned residents here know to take full advantage whenever possible of the gift of such a lovely day.Accordingly, now we are off to get some yard work done to burn off a few of the calories consumed. [See more photos of our gardens here] We have dormant plants to move around, buckets of supplemental water to haul from the rain barrels, and blooms to be enjoyed. Typical payoffs on a sunny warm winter afternoon of having a garden to putter around in.

I hope you have something pleasant to do outside this afternoon and if for any reason you can't get out then I hope it is just this lovely on your next day off, whenever and wherever that finds you. Happy Sunday!