Stoned Me Just Like Cabbage Roll

We got a beautiful giant head of cabbage at the farmer's market two Sundays ago and it's been sitting patiently in the fridge ever since. Since it had exhibited such model behavior I decided I would grant its wish.



I boiled some cabbage leaves and made a mixture out of olive oil, garlic, onion, beef, rice, quinoa, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. When the mixture had cooled slightly I folded in an egg and rolled the boiled leaves up with the mixture. I topped them with a generous amount of sauce I made out of olive oil, garlic, crushed tomato, cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper then baked them in the oven for about 45 minutes.



There isn't much that goes with tomato in the beer world. Since this was a sweet and sour sauce I decided to pair it with a sour beer, this Flemish Sour Ale from Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Ertvelde, Belgium. This is not as sour as some sour beers but it's still shocking to me to have a beer that is sour. While tasty, my brain has a hard time dealing with the fact that there is nothing wrong with the drink.



For dessert I went for something simple and served up some delicious ripe persimmon wedges with toasted pistachios. This is probably what some European king had for a dessert one time after an explorer came back to his court to lavish him with tales of his journey to the east.

I kinda wish I lived in the days where a child got an orange for Christmas. Think about it: a single orange! You know how sometimes you buy some oranges at the grocery store and they're dry, mealy, and disappointing? It makes me wonder if that happened with Christmas oranges too.

That must have been the saddest thing that could happen to a child at Christmas. Even sadder than the year my cousin Jeff broke my model General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.

It still hurts to think about it.