I love cabbage

Just ask my children, for their whole childhoods I made various cabbage dishes that I put down on that table and only I ate, for days. Cabbages are pretty big.

In the summer that looks like cole slaw.

The trouble is of course that cole slaws can be pretty tricky. You know those ones that seem all core, are dry and make you feel like a cow - chewing away trying to break it down. 

And then there's the mayonnaise school and the vinegar school and that stuff you buy at the grocery store when you are desperate not to cook and you get it with a roast chicken in a little plastic case with the lid that doesn't snap open except suddenly all over the counter.

You know that supermarket cole slaw, the watery kind that has that fake green dye in it to disguise the fact its made up all of shredded core. The stuff that makes you wonder why you bought it when you know better, but is at least better than that macaroni salad, also in a plastic tub, which is made up of only mushy macaroni and seems to have a lot of pepper - does that really count as a salad?

It is amazing what you eat when you are tired after work.

Well last night I made the best cole slaw ever. My mom gives us magazine subscriptions sometimes for Christmas and so in addition to Dogs in Canada my husband receives Bon Appetit.

The new issue came yesterday with an interesting new recipe from a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina called Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q which I am reproducing here, copied from the magazine website 

What makes this an interesting recipe is that it is a 2 stager and stage 1 breaks the cabbage down a bit, sort of wilts it so it isn't quite so tough, and it combines the vinegar and mayo flavours.

And of course it is super easy. Everything I cook is, because after all every minute spent in the kitchen is a minute not spent in the sewing room.

We had this for dinner last night and one of the same kids who has turned up his nose at at least twenty years of my cabbage creations ate nearly the whole cabbage's worth.

That's an endorsement.

Jim 'N Nick's Coleslaw

Ingredients

• 1 2-pound head of green cabbage, ( I used red, savoy would also be nice I think) quartered, cored, cut crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices (about 14 cups) I hope you have a food processor with a shredding disc
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup grated peeled carrots see food processor above - you want to cook not work
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 
  

Preparation

• Place cabbage in large bowl. Add vinegar and sugar; toss to coat. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Toss cabbage mixture well; cover and let stand 30 minutes longer. Drain cabbage. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. I did this part at lunch and went back to work. Cover and chill.
  
  
• Transfer drained cabbage to another large bowl. Add carrots, green onions, and mayonnaise; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Don't over do the mayo.