For the past couple of days I had a desire for cabbage. Specifically the kind of cabbage that you cook for so long you get the added bonus of pot liquor.
For those of you that might make assumptions on my sobriety, pot liquor is the liquid that the essence of what was in the pot with the cabbage such as onions, green peppers, potatoes, garlic, a touch of oil, water, salt and pepper.
If you do this right you get to dip bread into the pot liquor and savor everything again in a new form. If you toss in smoked pork neck bones that will elevate you to another level of consciousness.
Plus add a couple more pounds to the frame. Because you can't cook 1/8th of a pot of cabbage. You have to do the whole thing. Which means that I will wind up eating the whole pot.
I can live with it. But sometimes I would like to share a pot of cabbage with someone. Some of the people I know are fast food hit it and quit folks.
By the time I tell them I have it ready they are stuffed with sodium laced Double Downs. You can't take it to a barbecue cuz it isn't BBQ food. Cole Slaw, yes. Hot Cabbage, no.
Trust me, I'm not suffering. It is just that the cabbage is a metaphor for sitting around a table talking and laughing in real time.
I'm mourning missing out on thinking, non-hostile debates and kidding. Of memories uplifted for another look and the measurement of time that has gone by.
Sure this will happen. Cabbage has nothing to do with it. It just means that now folks are standing and talking at gourmet food trucks or finding a hidden gem of a non-chain restaurants.
Few of us cozy up anymore at a communal table and just talk. And eat. Then talk some more.
I'm going to need hot sauce to get me through this moment.
Love pot liquor and you can have it without meat even. We used to have hot-water cornbread, fried corncakes or cracklin bread.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of not having an empty table - my husband and I made it a point, when we got married almost 6 years ago, to eat dinner together every night. I've extended that to inviting individuals and couples over regularly for breakfast, lunch or dinner. So, people I've been on boards or committees with or have just known over a long period of time but never actually had a one-on-one w, I've invited for breakfast or lunch. Couples I tend to invite in the evening when hub is home. A lot of people have been surprised (one even suspicious about motives) but everyone has enjoyed. Very few have reciprocated but that wasn't my objective (and I don't trust everyone's cooking). I decided to do what I wanted to participate in. Not having my family around who always got together and always had room for one more person, I get lonely up here. Three are some gatherings that are more family oriented than others and very few friends in Boston who invite us to their family soirees so we're having to navigate all of this on our own. Share your pot liquor!
I think that is a grand idea about inviting folks you kinda, sorta know. And yes, one of my grandmothers did make the hot-water cornbread but I cannot lie; I like the bacon, butter infused cornbread better.
ReplyDeleteCracklin bread? Yes! I'm there even though I know I don't need the added fat. I haven't had it in years. Will not make it but should I happen along a slice in my journey I could see working it down my throat.
I guess it is the busyness of folks I'm sad about. We are so busy we are forgetting to live and being quiet or noisy.
We are becoming just links and not solids.
Can cabbage pot likker be canned?
DeleteNope, it is a perishable and ephemeral product of cooking. It is truly home cooking type food.
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