You know how it is... you buy a cabbage, take it home and keep it in your refrigerator. Then, you cut off a piece to use in soup or stir-fry. That's fine, but if you don't get back to use more pretty soon, the cut surface starts to oxidize and look icky. So, then you slice off a little slice and put it in the compost - an utter waste, really. Here is what I do: I take leaves off the outside of the head of cabbage and cut those up for whatever I am cooking, then put the cabbage head back in the refrigerator. This is much nicer.
Now, about the flexibility... Since we've moved into our trailer, and it is considerably smaller than our old house, I've noticed I have to be more pro-active about getting physical activity. I do walk in the woods, most days, and in the gardening season I work quite hard. I hang up laundry when it's warm enough outside, and I clean house, knead bread, etc... but recently I've started doing something else. For years, when I need to get into a bottom cupboard or shelf, I squat all the way down, and that has made my knees very happy. I started doing that 16 years ago when my knees started acting up. Now, when I need to lean over, or reach out or anything (hard to describe) I lean as far as possible and stretch my muscles. If you think about it as you go about your daily activities, you can work in quite a bit of stretching and your flexibility will improve. All those little things add up. I am happy with the results. Now it's easier for me to do things, and also easier to get up from the floor. Think about the things you do throughout the day. Make them just a little bit more difficult. You'll be amazed, after a while.
You know, I just got a book called "The Core" that talks about how the way we move and pick up things affect our flexibility. I got it for a $ 1.00 in amazon. Really get information for us trying to get the most of our bodies as we aged.
ReplyDeleteSaludos1
How interesting! I could not find it on Amazon. Can you help me?
DeleteMmmm, that is delicious looking red cabbage. That is a very good hint. I have done that sometimes, but I often use half a cabbage or more at a time for the recipe. I do that if I am just adding red cabbage shreds to a green salad. We use a lot of cabbage over the cold months. We grow a lot of both red and green and store it in the root cellar.
ReplyDeleteAthanasia, just how do you store it?
DeleteWe moved from our old house to a ranch next door so we had to build one in the basement. We got the plans from Mother Earth magazine and my husband did it with help from a couple other men. Our old house had a real root cellar. My daughter lives there now.
DeleteUnlike the old fashioned cellar we need to watch the temperature and humidity on ours with gauges.
We don't heat our basement as it is not used for anything but storage.
Between Eliana and me, we had 100+ heads of cabbage at the end of the harvest. We make cole slaw a lot, plus cabbage buns and stuffed cabbage rolls and in soup and salads. I'll restock when goes on sale for St Patrick's day
That is wonderful that you could do that in your new basement! 100+ heads of cabbage is a lot of cabbage! I do make sauerkraut out of mine that lives in the fridge until the next harvest. I would love to have some of your recipes, if possible. If you were to put your email in a comment, I wouldn't not publish it, but then I could write to you. If you want to. If not, that's fine and don't worry. I love your comments. :)
DeleteA lot of my recipes are not actual recipes. Just the way I leaned to cook. But I can send you one of my cabbage roll recipes that is very different from the usual and well liked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I make cole slaw I just put together whatever I feel like, sometimes creamy, sometimes sweet and sour, I vary the seasonings and the additions every time.
Cabbage buns are just a filling of ground beef, chopped cabbage, seasonings like salt and pepper, little worchestershire sauce, onion, all fried together. Drain, then take bread dough balls (after first rising) , roll flat and round and stick a lump of the filling on the dough. Bring it up and pinch it together, place pinched side down on sided cookie sheet (jelly roll pan). Let rise 30 min or so, then bake 350 F oven till golden brown. Some people call these bierocks (around here) and some call them runzas (PA, NE etc). They are German/Russian Mennonite in heritage. You can google those two and find oodles of recipes, I am sure, if you want something more specific. We are German Swiss Mennonite so we've just picked up this recipe over the years. Two of my uncles married Ukrainian Mennonite women so they have taught us borscht also.
Thank you! The Cabbage buns sound SO good. :)
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