Braised Red Cabbage

I have obviously not mastered working full time in a job that keeps me busy, and a life that always has me doing something, AND blogging! I'm trying though, I think about it all the time and have not given up yet, and you shouldn't either! I have a few posts I will do over this weekend, to hopefully make up for an absentee summer. (Although I have only been averaging one post a month so it won't be hard to exceed!)
This first picture I have up is a sample from our CSA.



This stands for Community Supported Agriculture and this was our first year subscribing to it (but not our last). This is a program that lets people invest in a farms crop for the year, before the season starts and then each week you receive a mystery box of produce all during the season (usually running May through the fall). This was our first year doing it and we have loved it. I found the farm that we subscribe to through a website called Local Harvest. That is what I linked "CSA" to above. I wanted to link directly to the farms web site but it didn't seem to be working. It has been a great experience, and we have signed up for the fall season as well so we will have beautiful organic produce coming to us every week until December! It was my original intention to take a picture of every week's box and feature a recipe for each week to go with the picture... you can see how far I got with that! Every farm works their CSA differently, depending on what they grow/offer. The farm we went with, Groundworks Organics, is out of Eugene Oregon and they have been wonderful! During the week we would get an email of a list of proposed items, and then a newsletter on Saturdays when we picked up our box. I thought they did a great job of varying the produce, so we never felt like we were constantly eating the same thing! That reminds me of last summer when I pulled a rookie move of planting 5 zucchini plants (not knowing how easy or fast they grow) and towards the middle and end of the season we definitely had our fill! Never will I do that again, I quickly learned! With our CSA we have been able to experience a little of everything. So that brings me to our first recipe, for braised red cabbage. I had gotten a head of cabbage, and didn't have anything coming up (like a dinner party or get together) to use it on. I needed to find something I could make that would use up the whole head without us having to eat coleslaw for an entire week straight! I've always loved braised cabbage, and found a great recipe out of The Gourmet Cookbook. I have found many good recipes from there in fact (of course since they all come from the magazine!).



Braised Red Cabbage (from The Gourmet Cookbook pg 528)
serves 8-10 portions

1 medium size head of red cabbage quartered, cored and thinly sliced crossways
4 slices of bacon (medium dice)
1 TBS of butter
2 large onions sliced
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3 TBS of packed brown sugar
1 TBS of salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Rinse cabbage under cold water, then drain; do not dry. Cook bacon in 6-8 qt heavy pot over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp. Remove the bacon bits, and leave the fat in the pan, and add the butter. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until golden brown and then add the cabbage, and the rest of the ingredients. Cover and simmer, stir occasionally until cabbage is tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Sprinkle on bacon after done cooking.

*with only two of us in the house, we weren't able to finish all of it so I decided to see how it will hold up in the freezer. When I defrost it I'll let you know!