Grandma’s Stuffed Cabbage/Russian Style

There are a few things I will always remember about the holidays.  One is the way my mom went out of her way to celebrate two Christmas’s a year.  My grandparents were immigrants to this country of Russian ancestry.  They brought many customs with them.  At Christmas they would put straw under and on the eating table to remember Jesus’ lowly birth.  They had other specific ways to celebrate involving food. Since they lived in Pennsylvania and we didn’t get to be with them at Christmas, we celebrated regular Christmas on December 25th and Russian Christmas on January 7th.    

 On Russian Christmas Eve, Mom would set up and decorate a small tabletop tree.  We would have a special meal prepared with seven dishes, all of Russian background.  My favorite was the stuffed cabbage.

When my mom was a child, her mother, Lena, would rise early, cooking for a houseful of children. She would go to the slaughterhouse for fresh ground beef.  As Grandma mixed the ground beef and rice, Grandpa would sneak bites of the raw beef, certainly not recommended today. Grandma harvested cabbage from her garden across the road from the house.

Russia is actually the largest consumer of cabbage worldwide. Cabbage is used in many ways, ranging from eating raw and simple steaming to pickling, stewing, sauteing or braising. Pickling is one of the most popular ways of preserving cabbage, creating dishes such as sauerkraut.

 Cabbage is used extensively in Polish and Russian cuisine. It is one of the main food crops, and sauerkraut is a frequent dish, as well as being used to stuff other dishes such as golabki (stuffed cabbage) and pierogi (filled pasta). Other eastern European countries, such as Hungary and Romania, also have traditional dishes that feature cabbage as a main ingredient. In the United States, cabbage is used primarily for the production of coleslaw, followed by fresh market use and sauerkraut production. 

Holidays and food just go together, and make memories for a lifetime. Do you have a special dish passed on from grandparents or other relatives?

 My granddaughters, Ava and Sadie last Christmas

 

Stuffed Cabbage

2 ½ pounds lean ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 pound bacon, cut small

1 pound cooked rice

Salt, pepper, Nature Seasoning, to taste

 

Sauce

1 can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons vinegar

 

Wash rice, cook ten minutes. Drain excess water, set aside. Fry bacon and  onion til golden brown. Drain excess oil.

Put rice in large mixing bowl. Mix in ground beef, bacon and onions and mix well; add seasonings. Set aside.

Cut cabbage, core out about two inches deep and place head of cabbage in boiling water to steam until leaves can be removed easily. Repeat until you remove all cabbage leaves that are big enough to roll. Line the bottom of a large pot with leaves you don’t use.

Scoop filling and place in leave, tucking in ends and rolling. Pack stuffed cabbage in pot, then fill with hot water until barely covered. Place a plate on top, weighted down to keep stuffed cabbage from floating. Cook on medium low for forty-five minutes, then pour sauce into pot and cook fifteen minutes more. Good served with hot sauce or ketchup.

 

Today’s writing prompt: Jakob lifted the forkful of ground beef, rice and cabbage toward his mouth when his cat, Ralphsky, lunged…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_christmas#Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage

http://everydayrussian.com/?p=313

 

Mamaw Avon’s Pink Stuff

photo by Anna

Southerners love their “get-togethers,” especially if the holidays and food are involved. My husband Danny’s family is no exception. Though his mother, Mamaw Avon, now lives in her heavenly residence, her bright smile and recipes live on. Thanksgiving meant turkey, Christmas meant ham, and for both holidays, she made cherry fluff, or as we called it, pink stuff.

On Thanksgiving Day, we’d wake early to the smell of the turkey which had baked all night. “Dressing,” which is a southern-type of cornbread stuffing, was tasted and re-tasted to get the spices just right. Vegetables were cooked and the house filled quickly with family and friends bearing casseroles and cake plates brimming with delectable dishes. The pink stuff was mixed together and chilled before the start of our late afternoon celebration.

The large crowd would be quieted before we’d give thanks to God for His abundant goodness, then to the feasting. Most of us ate our pink stuff with the meal, but a few would save a bowlful for desert later. The left-overs brought us all together for several days thereafter and the fun would begin all over again.

Do your holidays have enjoyable food traditions or memories?

 

Pink Stuff

1 can cherry pie filling

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained

12 oz. Cool Whip

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup miniature marshmallows

½ cup pecans, finely chopped

 

Mix all ingredients in large bowl; mix well. Pour in decorative bowl and refrigerate for one hour.

 

Today’s writing prompt: Sandra emptied the pecans she’d chopped into the faded hand-painted bowl as a tear slipped down her cheek. Her mother’s bowl…

Mom’s Twice Published Recipe-Chinese Pepper Steak

 An oft requested recipe in our family is Mom’s pepper steak. When we lived in Missouri, our neighbor invited us to eat one evening and served pepper steak. Mom copied the recipe and we’ve enjoyed it since then.

Years later, she sent the recipe to Southern Living magazine and they published it. I passed it on to a local magazine who also printed it in the recipe section of their magazine. 

What is the steak in pepper steak? Round steak. A round steak is a steak from the round primal cut of beef. Specifically, a round steak is the eye of round, bottom round, and top round still connected, with or without the "round" bone (femur), and may include the knuckle (sirloin tip), depending on how the round is separated from the loin.

 This is a lean cut and it is moderately tough. Lack of fat and marbling makes round dry out when cooked with dry-heat cooking methods like roasting or grilling. Round steak is commonly prepared with slow moist-heat methods including braising, to tenderize the meat and maintain moisture. The cut is often sliced thin, then dried or smoked at low temperature to make jerky.

Mom’s recipe calls for the steak to be cut in thin, short strips to keep it from becoming dry and tough.  I believe I’ll run to the market afterwhile and gather up the ingredients to make my family pepper steak and rice.

 

Chinese Pepper Steak

Yield: 4 servings

1 (1 ½ pound) round steak, cut into thin strips

2 tablespoons oil

Salt to taste

1 green pepper, cut into strips

1 onion, diced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon cooking sherry

¼ or less teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons water

1 tomato, diced

Hot cooked rice

 

Quickly brown meat in hot oil; add salt, green pepper, onion, soy sauce, cooking sherry, garlic powder, and ginger. Cover and cook over low heat for ten minutes.

Combine cornstarch and water; stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add this to meat mixture; cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.

Add tomato; cover and simmer about ten minutes. Additional water may be added, if needed. Serve over rice.  Below is a different take on pepper steak...

 

Today’s writing prompt:  Ted unwrapped the brown paper parcel in front of him, wondering what his mother had purchased at the meat market. Round steak. Great. And with Linda…

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_steak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_steak

 

 

Common Household Items - Beyond the Kitchen

1970’s - 1980’s 

There are other items in our households outside the kitchen that should be included in our inventory of common items. As I move into the 1970’s - 1980’s era, I’m in more familiar territory, because now I’m looking at my personal history. But I’d like to move beyond the harvest gold and avocado appliances of the era and take a glance at some of the other rooms in our houses. 

Some of our readers are intimately acquainted with the unique fashions of the eighties (oh, the big hair). One thing we needed most to achieve the big hair―hot curlers and curling irons. 

Okay, some of you probably still use both of those items. I have gotten away from using the curlers, but I still own a set. Wonder where I put those? And remember the “bubble-head” portable hairdryers of the sixties? These were thankfully replaced by handheld hairdryers and brushes. Yes, I’m certain some of you still use those old hairdryers. If you have any humorous or comical pictures of these, please feel free to send them to us on our facebook page @ http://writingpromptsthoughtsideas.blogspot.com/ 

As health-consciousness erupted on the American public, we added juicers and blenders to our kitchen roster of appliances. And who can forget the lovely workout clothes of the eighties? Spandex, lycra, warm-up suits, leg warmers and sweatbands on your wrists and head. Classic.

Confession: I kept several pairs of legwarmers, hoping they’d come back. I’m prepared, folks. 

Another common household item that made major improvements during this era was the television set. The cranky old buttons and dials disappeared, replaced by the remote control. No more jumping up to change the channel or raise/lower the volume. 

VCR’s burst on the scene, changing our lives and making it possible for us to watch movies in the comfort of our own home. Transistor radios, cassette tape recorders, Sony Walkmans and boomboxes added theme music to our lives. We could literally listen to our favorite music wherever we were (even in the shower) and much to the chagrin of some of our parents and neighbors.

Atari and Nintendo - two common names from the late eighties as the television game devices crept in and took over our children’s minds. I’ll never forget the Christmas Day my sons and their dad (who bought the game for them, of course) spent the entire day playing Mario Brothers. I still cringe when I hear that theme music. 

While this is not an extensive list of items, I hope I’ve spurred your memories and maybe even tickled your funny bones. Now I challenge you to choose one of our weekly prompts to write a short, short story (under 500 wds please) and enter our monthly contest. You can win a $10 Amazon gift card if your entry is our chosen winner. Not only that, but we’ll post your picture and a short bio with your winning entry as our blogpost on the final Tuesday of October. Happy Writing!

Today’s Prompt: Lindsey tugged her hot-pink legwarmers over burgundy tights, tucked a walkman in her belt and . . . 

Common Household Items - Mom's Kitchen

1960's - 1970's

In my mid-sixties world the Beatles headlined. A spoonful of sugar helped the medicine go down. A man walked on the moon. Technology changed so fast, it was difficult to keep up. Mom saved green stamps, so we had many cool kitchen gadgets. Toasters, toaster ovens, electric can openers, mixers, blenders, etc. For those of you who aren’t familiar with green stamps, or quality stamps, you received them at certain grocery stores. The more you spent, the more stamps you received. We loved to go shopping at the stamp store. They had such amazing stuff. 

After spending a week or two at Grandma’s, home seemed especially Jetsonic. We flipped a switch on the wall to turn on the lights. No hauling in water, it was readily available from faucets in the kitchen and bathroom. We had two bathrooms in the house. Taking a bath was almost luxurious. And there was an abundance of outlets in which to plug all those appliances. Mom’s favorite small appliance was her shiny, stainless steel percolator. How well I remember the sound of the percolator and the smell of fresh coffee wafting through the house. 

Mom preferred an electric stove. She was fond of baking, so the house was often filled with the wonderful aromas of fresh baked bread, cookies, cakes or pies. She had paraphernalia for her baking. Nesting bowls, a sifter, measuring cups and spoons, rolling pin and cookie cutters. When she tied on her apron (she never cooked without an apron) and pulled out her Betty Crocker cookbook, we’d hang around waiting for bowls and spoons to lick. 

The portable mixer whirred, the can opener buzzed and popped. All of these new appliances made noise, but we didn’t care as long as the Beatles or Elvis sang in the background. While my brothers lay on the floor in front of the black and white console TV watching The Three Stooges, I helped Mom in the kitchen. She used self-rising flour, so we didn’t have to add soda, baking powder and salt. We kept our flour, sugar and cornmeal in avocado green canisters on the countertop. 

The only home-canned foods in our kitchen came from Grandma’s. Mom worked full time, so had no time to care for a garden or put up food from one. She gleaned fresh produce from the grocery store and filled her pantry with tin cans and cardboard boxes. She used vegetable shortening rather than lard and margarine instead of butter. Eggs and milk came in cartons. It was quicker and easier to do laundry with our automatic washer and dryer. The broom took a back seat to the vacuum cleaner and the dust mop sat in the closet unused, since we had cushiony carpet instead of wood floors. 

Today we cringe at the thought of aqua blue appliances and bright white daisies dancing on yellow wallpaper, but at the time, it seemed shiny and modern. We spent a lot of time in Mom’s kitchen, sat down to meals as a family more than once a week and ate home cooked meals ninety-nine percent of the time. Sweet memories. 

Note: Instead of adding to the list of household items this week, I’ve tried to incorporate all of them in my post. 

This week’s prompt: Susie had just plugged in the percolator when the doorbell rang. Perfect timing. She opened the front door expecting to see her neighbor . . .