I used to one of them, those signed up on the blogroll over here. Or at least I used to try to one of them — that core of early-on bloggers who know how to mix up a batch of blogs that always mean more than what they first seem. They’re still mixing, but I’m not in it any more, not even on the fringes.
It’s all moving on without me. They’re all moving on without me. My grandson, my friends. Heh. I move away and now four of my five women friends from where I used to live are in relationships with really cool guys.
I’m stuck in time. Stuck in space. Marking time. Marking time with days filled with chores that get me no where but where I was the day before.
today she wants her keys. the keys with the little flashlight. you know that she hasn’t had that key ring for years, and she doesn’t need keys where she is now. she’s totally distraught over keys that wouldn’t open any doors in her life now anyway. where is her home she wants to know. where are her keys. you give her a key ring with a key, but she knows it’s not what she’s looking for. she is looking for a life that has moved on and left her behind. each day, she falls a little more behind. each day you try to help her hold onto that day. each of your days is given over to her, as everything else moves on without you.
One of the good things about having a public blog that gets picked up by Google is that all kinds of interesting people find me. So, even though my very first batch of blogger friends are moving on without me, there are other bloggers who are traveling closer to my circle.
One of these is Dalene, who also lives out in the middle of the woods, somewhere. Except for her being a cancer survivor and me, luckily, never having to have dealt with that horrible disease, we have a lot in common, including looking for natural remedies for various conditions. She maintains a separate weblog, Rutabaga Stew, where she shares the information she’s discovered.
She has a great recipe for Sweet Potato Pie, which I’m just going to have to try, since I love sweet potatoes and pecans.
She also has some interesting information about the health benefits of cabbage and saurkraut.
As an individual of full-blooded Polish heritage, I come from a family that ate lots of cabbage and saurkraut. Not too long ago, I improvised a really good recipe for cabbage/saurkraut soup that’s easy to throw together. And the longer you cook it, the better it tastes. It tastes even better than that when you reheat it the next day. It also freezes well, so I make a giant pot of it.
So, Darlene, here’s my recipe that needs a large stock pot to hold all of the ingredients:
1 pound of saurkraut (from a can or bag)
1 bag of cole slaw (the kind you find in the packaged salad section that’s just shredded cabbages and carrots)
a pound can of low-salt tomatoes (I use diced)
a couple of cloves of smashed garlic
— empty the saurkraut into a colander and let the juice drain out
— put the saurkraut and shedded cabbage from the bag in the biggest pot you have
— add the tomatoes
— add two cans of low salt chicken broth or vegetable broth (each will give a different under-flavor; I prefer the chicken, but if you’re a vegetarian you’ll have to go with the other)
— pour in enough water to reach a half- inch above the the top of what’s already in the pot
Bring to a boil and let simmer for as long as you can, but at least two hours. Stir occasionally. During the first hour, chop up three onions and saute in oil or butter or margarine or any combination thereof. (If you like onions, you can even use more.) When the onions are transluscent, add the onions to the soup and continue to cook. You can add water if it looks like the soup is getting too thick.
options: You can peel and cut up potatoes and throw them in with the soup at the outset OR you can mash potatoes (with or without sour cream) and add these to the soup during the last few minutes. You can also provide sour cream to add to each bowl just before you serve.
Another option is to add some pork and cook it along with the soup. Or cook some kielbasa separately, cut it up in bite sized pieces and add it to the soup during the last half-hour of cooking.
Great with Russian Horseradish Bread, which you make like garlic bread, only you use slices of rye bread that you spread with a little butter or margarine and then with white horseradish (from a jar) and then warm in the oven just as you would garlic bread.
Make lots and freeze.
So, Dalene, there’s my favorite saurkraut recipe.