I want to welcome all the new people who are now following this blog because of my friends Joan at Chocolate, Chocolate and More and Retro Wifey! There is also someone who shared my Aunt Irene’s Lemon Meringue Pie on FaceBook Sunday but I cannot figure out who it is – if you know please tell me. I also want to thanks Joan, Retro Wifey, and the person I do not know for sending all you wonderful people my way. I am so lucky to have such a great group of family here at Kelli’s Kitchen – so supportive and encouraging. It sort of reminds me that Girl Scout song…..”Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold!”
During the summer I spent a fair amount of time at my grandparent’s home where they kept a garden larger than many people’s entire yard. They also had blackberry bushes, grape vines and trees bearing apples, cherries and plums. Mom told me once that before my swing set stood in its place back there a barn held dairy cows and a coop for chickens. It used to be the country but by the time I was enjoying my time there, it was a residential neighborhood where all the ladies shared quilting, crocheting, recipes and the bounty of their gardens with each other. I can still see it now, long straight rows – first strawberries, radishes, lettuce and at the far end onions. When the radishes and lettuce were done corn was planted to be harvested on Independence Day. After the first two rows were cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, yellow and zucchini squash, Crowder peas, okra, watermelon, cantaloupe, and finally pumpkins – but they only grew pumpkins some years. Jim-Pa would till the ground up and plant the seeds then Nana would weed every single day and once a week or so she would use the push plow to aerate the ground in between each row. Nana used that push plow until she was 88-years-old and she only quit because she slipped and fell dislocating her shoulder so the doctor told her to refrain one year. She did not use it anymore. I have it – it is cast iron, heavy as can be. She told me their horse use to pull it years ago. I spent many a summer day on the ladder picking cherries and apples or fighting off chiggers to pick those big beautiful blackberries to eat with homemade vanilla ice cream while we sat on the front porch with the neighbor ladies watching the fire flies dance around Nana’s rose bushes and honeysuckle vines at dusk.
Have you ever tasted a cabbage just after you cut it from the little bush plant where it grew? It tastes very different than the ones you buy in the produce section of the grocery store and maybe even at the farmer’s market. Nana could cut a head of cabbage and pull an onion, bring them in and make the best lunch I ever tasted. I want to share the recipe with you now.
Bacon and Cabbage
You will need:
7 Slices of bacon
½ a head of a medium sized cabbage, sliced thinly like this:
1 medium onion, red is best but white or yellow will do. Chop this up like you did the cabbage.
2 cloves of garlic, chopped pretty small but don’t worry about how finely.
A dash of paprika.
Salt and pepper to taste.
A sprinkling of crushed red pepper if you like some heat.
Cut up the slices of bacon into little pieces. I use kitchen shears.
Put in a pan on medium heat and cook until mostly done.
Add in the onion and garlic to the bacon and sauté until the onion is soft.
Next add the cabbage, salt and pepper as well as the paprika and red pepper if you wish.
Put the lid on and allow cooking under low heat for about 10 minutes.
Serve!
I’m partying here this week: http://www.thecountrycook.net/2014/03/weekend-potluck-109.html
Ooooh …..this looks good and you know what?? I bet it would be much mo-bettah with brussels sprouts shaved thin. Yes, I have to try that. 🙂
That sounds great! Mmmmm……….good!
I did it! It was VERY good ….just exactly as you posted but I sliced up a bunch of brussels sprouts instead of cabbage. The sweetiepie loved it (and so did I but that’s a given with brussels sprouts!). Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I’m so happy! It sounds delicious – I can taste it now – going to have to try it this weekend!
Newly picked really does taste so much different! And that goes especially for Brussels sprouts and cabbage. They can get bitter when they are old. My grandmother used to make similar dish with pork chops or country ribs and smoked bacon chunks but she would cook the cabbage long and low until it practically disintegrated. In fact, I’ve signed up to make that very dish for Sunday Supper this week so I’ll be cooking cabbage today! I change it up by not adding in all the cabbage at once so that there are still some bits that are crunchy when it’s cooked.
Your cabbage and bacon looks like a bowl of wonderful to me, Kelli, and, as always, I love when you reminisce about your Nana.
I enjoyed that dish so doggon much! Just enough spice in it to make it lovely. Nana and Jim-Pa liked theirs a little firm so 10 minutes was it! 🙂 I look forward to seeing your cabbage recipe – I do enjoy that vegetable, but MPE says it will be another 10 years before I can cook any again! 🙂
There’s not much better than making new friends…unless it’s sharing a bowl of cabbage and bacon with those new friends! 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your recipe, it sounds really good! =)
pinned!
Thank you Melissa!!
Totally want to pin this it sounds awesome 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you CCU! You could make it vegetarian without the bacon!
I might even be able to get my husband to eat cabbage if I put bacon in it! What a great idea 🙂
The cabbage dish looks wonderful. Your grandma’s garden reminds me of the one we had before my husband passed away 10 years ago. A normal meal for us during gardening season was a piece of meat and 6 to 7 vegetables/fruits from our garden. I always loved the fresh cabbage.
Lillian
Yes! Did you also have just a plate of sliced tomatoes and maybe onions and cukes too? We always did – all summer long, as did my husband’s family.
I really need to give this a try. The only cooked cabbage I’ve ever eaten is in my mother’s stuffed cabbage recipe. I usually just love it raw but this looks great and, of course, bacon never hurt anything. 🙂
Bacon makes everything better!
This looks amazing! My friend made something similar a few weeks ago, and I’ve been swearing I’m going to make it… and never got around to looking up a recipe. Now I don’t have to! Thanks 😉
Wow! We love fried cabbage and onion but I am definitely going to try this with bacon! Mouth watering! Thanks so much for sharing at Weekend Potluck!!
Thank you! It is so doggone good – just lip-smackin’ finger-lickin’ good!
I make this but we call it Frizzled Cabbage! Love it & easy to change up depending on what is in the crisper drawer. Last night I added fresh mushrooms, some red peppers & a few sliced up sausage links. It is equally good just as you posted tho. I am a cabbage fan!
I have to say your post about your grandparents home & spending time there took me back. I live in Montana & have all my life so our growing season is considerably shorter than yours, no watermelon for us! But just the same I remember my mom’s garden. Corn on the cob never tasted so good as when we would have it late when dad & the crew finally finished harvest for the day & we could eat a late, late dinner. I feel sad for this generation as I think they are growing up missing the simple everyday pleasures I remember. Technology has replaced the simpler life I fear.
Your post made me smile, thanks for that & bringing back some very fond memories.
Kathy, first – thanks so much for dropping by and please do come again. I love your recipe, it sounds delicious! I must try it with my family because we are big pepper and sausage eaters. With the exception of the cabbage my husband would love it too. I feel sad for this generation too sometimes because working on a farm or tasting fresh harvested vegetables is something I wouldn’t take for all the riches in China!
Kelli,
Yum! Bacon and cabbage! I’m starting to wonder if my BFF had this at her wedding reception 25 years ago! Her family was Polish background, and I do remember having something with the cabbage that was absolutely delicious!
Hi Barb – maybe they did! I would eat it at any wedding, wouldn’t you? Try it, I’m sure you will like it. Thank you so much for dropping by and please come again. I am going over to check out your blog too!
Love cooked cabbage! Add cooked egg noodles, sprinkle a little feta cheese when you serve it and BAM! It’s totally awsome
What a great idea! You KNOW I’m going to do that very next time because I have egg noodles in the pantry right now. Thanks for coming by and please come again!
Hi Kelli,
This recipe should delish! How do you use the garlic – whole, or chopped, sliced? Just wanted to be sure. Thanks so much!
Gosh Cindy – I thought I said in the recipe. Don’t you hate it when you think something but didn’t actually put it down? 🙂 I do! Just chop up the garlic and throw it in the pan. I did a pretty small chop but not a mince because I don’t have the patience to do a mince. 🙂 Thanks for dropping by and please come back often!
Hi Kelli, Just found your site. This cabbage and bacon looks and sounds so good. I am making it tonight.
I’m always up for a new way to prepare vegetables and I thin hubby will like this too.
Thanks for sharing. Keep cooking!
Oh, thank you so much for dropping by! I am sure that if he like cabbage and bacon (with some onions thrown in) He is going to love this! 🙂 Please come again!
Hi Kelli, I tried your Fried cabbage and bacon and it was fantastic! So simple, that gets my attention. Hubby and I really enjoyed it and I will be making again. I know my son will also enjoy when he comes home from school. Thanks for sharing.
Oh yay! I’m so glad you liked it. In fact, just reading your comment made me hungry for it so I will probably be picking up a head of cabbage tonight myself! 🙂 thank you for letting me know that you and your husband liked it. It does my little heart good!
My mother made this when I was young. Thank you for reminding me of it so I can make it as soon as the turkey is gone . Jim
I’m very glad you found it! Let me know how it turns out – Kelli
I love cabbage hot or cold. My parents were from southwest Virginia. I remember my Mother cooking salt pork in small chunks, frying them for a short while in a skillet until golden and the meat has rendered some oil then add medium chopped cabbage. Cook slowly and stir often until the cabbage has wilted and softened. Add salt and pepper to taste. It would be served with red Tabasco sauce. This brings back my childhood meals.
Well Barbara it sounds delicious!! Thanks for telling us all about it! Kelli
I would absolutely love this cabbage dish – everything I like is in it. Your grandparents’ garden sounds so much like the one my husband I had (including the berries and fruit trees) before he became ill with Alzheimer’s and then passed away. Unfortunately, we didn’t have all of the friendly neighbors exchanging recipes and patterns, but you can’t have everything!