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Mess 'n Cabbage

Pulled pork.
Sloppy Joes.
Leftover brisket.
Cold fried chicken.
Fried eggs.
Refried beans.
Sausages.

Seeing a trend here?  PROTEIN.

Goes well with...? Cabbage.

Cabbage, I think, is one of the most underestimated vegetables on Planet Earth.  I know I certainly forget about it a lot of the time.  Cabbage is most often the underdog...in fact, Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" could have really been about cabbage, and not Barbara Hershey.  Cabbage is relegated to supporting roles in coleslaw and sauerkraut and huge pots of weight-loss soup.

And that's too bad, because the potential for Broadway star is there.

Whenever I come into possession of a nice head of cabbage, I think, Ooh! I'm going to do cabbage rolls! And then when the time comes to do said cabbage rolls, I've lost the ambition.  Or, I've lost the cabbage.  Anyway.

Recently, we happened to have some leftover sloppy joe and bean mix in our house.  I was not that excited about the prospect of slopping the stuff onto hamburger buns, because cripes, everyone does that.

Then, I saw the head of cabbage in the fridge.  And I had ideas.

After coring, slicing it thin, sauteing it with some garlic, seasoning, and olive oil in my Big Iron, it transformed some ho-hum ground beefy beans into a bowl of awesomeness.  The cabbage was softened, but still had some nice crunch.  The blah brownness of the meat/beans was livened up by the lighter colors.  And, the cruciferous family member lends much more nutrition to the dish than bread.

The kids enjoyed, the husband enjoyed, I enjoyed, and Barbara Hershey probably would have too...had she been, you know, eating dinner with us that night.

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