Well Traveled Bagels

(And a recipe, at the end)

On my way home this afternoon, I decided I had to stop at the grocery - I was all out of plain yogurt (a dietary staple of mine), and also, I wanted to make a roast beef sandwich to go with the leftover red cabbage I was planning for dinner, and my last bit of bread went moldy the day before.

I went to the little locally-owned grocery (Green Spray) because (a) it's near to me (b) I like being able to support a local business and (c) I feel happy after I walk out of there, instead of feeling stressed and angry at my fellow humans, like I often do after walking out of the Wal-Mart.

I think there are a few things that cause this. First of all, the store is small. It's about 1/3 the size of the wal-mart grocery section. This means you don't have as giant a selection (and they don't carry some brands I use regularly), but it also means you don't feel like you need to be on roller skates to get from one end of the store to the other. Also, the cashiers seem a lot less harried, and are friendlier. I don't know if it's a difference in management style or if the smaller store just sees fewer customers (and fewer problem-people) in a day. And finally, the place, while it's busy at times, is never a madhouse the way the wal-mart is sometimes. And people seem to behave better. I don't know if that's because it's a different clientele (a lot of the Green Spray shoppers seem to be older people).

Another reason I like it: because a lot of the clientele seems to be older people (empty-nesters or widows or widowers), it's a lot easier to find small packages of stuff as opposed to the MEGA FAMILY PACK with eighteen pork chops in it when all I really want is one.

So anyway, I went there.

And I wanted bread for my sandwich, but like many stores without an in-store bakery, they do tend to suffer from a poor bread selection. Most of it was what my old high school French teacher would damn as "pain Kleenex"

So I wound up deciding between bagels or English muffins, which I figured would have a bit more structure. I went with the bagels.

When I got home, I noticed something about the package:



"Authentic New York Style Bagels" but made by Rocky Mtn. Bagels.

So, where do Rocky Mtn. Bagels come from?

I would have guessed Colorado; a number of the brands this store carries are based in Colorado, Utah, or Idaho.

Nope:



Avon, Indiana!

I guess these kind of things amuse me inordinately much, but they've got essentially three regions of the U.S. represented there.

And I was looking for things that amuse me. I'm grading exams. Several of them...do you remember that scene from "A Christmas Story," where Ralphie is imagining his grade school teacher grading their themes? And she's dressed as a tragic heroine, and there's sad dramatic music playing, and she's gasping and moaning and holding the back of her hand up to her forehead over how terrible they are?

A couple of the tests were like that.

Sadly, I've not yet found one that I can feel justified in exclaiming over and giving an A + + + + + + + to. (Though there were a couple people who scored in the low 90 percents).

I will say the worst tests belonged to the folks who have the poorest record of attendance. Interesting how that works out. (and by 'interesting,' I mean, "totally expected by me")

I will say one of the most frustrating things I know as a teacher, is explaining something again that you know certain people don't understand well, looking out over the class, and realizing that several of those people are absent for your re-explanation.

****
And on to the recipe. This is a new-to-me way of fixing red cabbage. Well, the method is new, the flavor is similar to most braised red cabbage. It uses a slow cooker, and it's an excellent way (or so I think) to fix the vegetable - for one thing, you can put it in there and leave it for most of the day, and not have to worry about it burning. And secondly, the cabbage cooks down much better - a few times when I used the stovetop method in the past, the small pieces got cooked but the larger pieces (or those from closer to the core) were still hard, and that's not very appealing.

You can cut the cabbage (and apple, and onion) with a food processor, but I admit I still prefer the old method of a knife. I think it takes about the same amount of time for either, but the difference is, with the knife, you spend your time cutting, whereas with the food processor, you spend your time cleaning the food processor. I'd much rather spend my time cutting.

So, here it is. This is based on a recipe from "Healthy Crockery Cookery" by Mable Hoffman.

One head of red cabbage, core removed, and chopped fine (about 2 lbs)
One onion, finely chopped
One apple, cored and chopped.
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup whatever liquid you are using* (must contain acidity)

For later:
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

*About the liquid. The original recipe called for port. I don't keep such a thing on hand, and didn't want to go out and buy any. (Besides, I remember my mother once making a face about port, and saying it was disgustingly sweet for a wine). Perhaps port would have made the cabbage less sour. I wound up using a dry sherry I had on hand for cooking. I liked the result, but I will say it was VERY sour and VERY oniony, but I like things that are sour and oniony. If you don't like things as sour, use some other liquid than sherry, and if you don't like a strong onion flavor, you might try half an onion instead.

Incidentally, whatever liquid you use, it should have an acidic pH. Red cabbage contains an indicator chemical that changes color with acid and base. In acid, it's a pinkish purple. But in base - or at neutral pH, it's a pretty disgusting shade of greyish blue.

Next time I make this I might try cider. Either sweet cider, if that's still in the stores, or I'll make the somewhat scary foray into one of our local liquor stores and see if they have the slightly fermented cider (like people in Europe have) available.

Anyway - what you do is combine everything in a 3 1/2 quart or larger slow cooker (except for the vinegar and cornstarch) and cook it on low for 7 or 8 hours.

Then, at the end, you mix the cornstarch and vinegar, add them to the cabbage, stir it, turn it up to high, and let it cook for 15 or so more minutes, so the juice gets thickened.