Has anyone ever tried the combination of pasta with cabbage? (8th Aug,2010)
This morning, waking up with dread, having read the previous day’s poll on leering Big Ears chances of getting in government, we spent the day with coffees while dressed in morning coats, refusing to get dressed. It’s all so grim. We contemplated a good walk but decided on a trip to Bowral and have lunch. It’s not always one had turned seventy the day before and not having had the kids congratulating at the crack of dawn.
I treated myself on this birthday by buying a new pair of reading glasses yesterday. You know those instant ones you buy at the chemist for $5.99? They turned out to be worse than the ones I had been wearing. The old ones had the lenses fogged up by scratches from coins and key rings. My key-ring now has an added gadget, a remote for the garage door behind which we have stored the majority of stuff for when we finally move next door to Bowral. Anyway, yesterday’s glasses were minus– 2, today’s are -3. A lot better.
The lunch was at Berkelouw’s bookshop café. A rare opportunity to peruse books and eat, cleverly combining a couple of needs. Milo was tied up outside with people queuing for their turn in patting him. The lunch was lasagne, lovely, but not as nice as Helvi’s. The trick with good lasagne is to keep it moist, not let it dry. Yet, at the same time a crust on the outside is a must. Lasagne is never easy.
At the same time, we all know that the humble potato and milk will keep us in good health indefinitely. This, according to an item on last week’s TV about the dangers of mono-agriculture and the growing of a single crop excluding variety. The potato was brought back from South America by Columbus. The western world has never looked back since. Apparently there are hundreds of different varieties of spuds. The Irish made the fatal mistake of growing just a single variety and when a bug or virus discovered the Irish grown potato it caused the wilting of the plant and subsequent starvation of thousands of Irish during the ‘potato famine’. Tough agricultural lesson!
I would add ‘cabbage’ to the list of a life sustaining food. The Chinese have prospered not just from being the most industrious and hardworking nation, but also for their fondness of cabbage. We have recently re-discovered the cabbage and add it in a shredded form to almost everything we cook. For any future economic collapse or double dipping recession; be prepared. The cheapest vegetables are generally potatoes and cabbages ( remember gabbage?) and with some cow’s milk we are guaranteed to stay alive and survive for decades.
Think about it!
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
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I know its late but many happy cabbages Gerard.
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yo
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and happy day of birth
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Oh yeah! Cabbage is my secret fetish. I love it – gimmie braised cabbage, cabbage in soup, german rotkohl or sauerkraut, any cabbage for any meal of the day and I am one happy fellow.
So cheap, so versatile and nutritious to boot.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone on cabbages 🙂
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Frankly my dears, the King of Cabbage Dishes remains Colcannon (Google for various recipes). It’s a regular at this house, where the air quality and clarity is always variable. Who cares other than me?
Sigh!
I’m another who has been bespectacled since the early years, again, about 7 years old, I believe and all that were available were the round-eyed Harry Potter specs with tortiseshell rims and wire earpieces that dug in to the soft bits behind the lugs. Not only were they uncomfortable and ugly but they immediately attracted the unwelcome attentions of the local school bullies and regular beatings-up and taunts of “four-eyes” managed to raise my quotient of fulminating RAGE to such an extent that when I finally snapped and retaliated, I smacked one Joseph Smith (not the Mormon prophet) in the side of the head with a half-brick.
Of course, that didn’t make the RAGE go away and once puberty hit (six or seven years later) I was a very touchy article.
That phase only lasted until my mid-50s, I’m pleased to say and I haven’t been in a serious fight for nearly ten years now.
However, I digress.
I had my optical prescription updated and one pair of new, everyday specs prescribed and issued only last year (around September I think it was) but because of the unusual configuration (I have astigmatism as well as myopia) the total cost was around $750.
Be pleased that the cheap magnifiers work for you, Gerard. They’re useless to me.
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Colannon looks delicious, but then peasant food often is. Potatoes were my favourite vegetable for years.
I came within a hair’s breadth of being seriously beaten by a guy with Rage. Arrived at work very early and wouldn’t let the guy I’d seen hanging about the car park in the door when he came up after I was in. I was the only person in the building. Then I recognised him as being from another department and let him in. He then proceeded to swear at me quite vilely and when I objected in fairly reasonable terms raised his fist and stood over me even more closely than Mark Latham does, issuing threats. I stood my ground but was in no doubt that he was serious. Later he followed me to the tea room to abuse me further. So I locked myself in my office and made an official complaint to management as soon as they arrived. Turns out the guy was a young offender with ‘issues’ and on parole. I agreed not to contact police but only on the understanding that if he approached me in any way that I would not hesitate.
Turns out he decided he was my victim because he’d worked there longer than me and assumed I’d recognised him and therefore was being mean to him, despite me having let him in after some delay. That’s a fairly common pattern: Decide to be someone’s victim then that justifies assaulting them. Just a nasty bully with an excuse.
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Tomo, nice to hear from you. Do these longer replies, plus the occassional dig over at UL, mean that your ankles are improving?
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There’s certainly less constant pain and I find that I don’t need to spend QUITE so much time horizontal to relieve pressure and assist circulation.
That means I can spend more time at the keyboard but I still can’t get out into the garden to potter in some areas that really need doing over.
I’m also involved in a PBEM and a couple of standalone games as well as intermittent 3D graphics (I actually made a major fubar when I deleted 43 Gb of content that I’m still in the process of re-installing. That means that all my previous work has to be re-pathed as I attempt to load it and, since I took the opportunity to undertake a major restructure of my runtimes, I sometimes have to stop loading and find the missing item and maybe even re-install it from the archive.)
I’m going to wait until early September, then try to mow some lawn (I have six – all terraced on different levels and NOT all with steps) .
Once I can achieve that, then I’m off and limping. I think the limp and the walking stick are going to be permanent.
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Certainly makes my intermittently dodgy knee sound pathetic. I don’t know what on earth all of that computer stuff is that you were talking about, I’ll ask my kids. Anyway, good to hear that you have a bit less pain, and some more movement!
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Happy birthday, Gerard!
Yep, cabbage is definitely the king of the vegetables, though my mother and I had wars over whether or not I would eat it as a kid… Now I do eat it; full of iron and vitamins, especially A,C and D… and not only is it cheap but they last for ages in the cupboard too, so even if you live alone you don’t have to worry too much about waste; especially now our local Coles sells half and quarter cabbages…
I’ve been shortsighted since I was seven Gerard; but over the past few years, I’ve also become longsighted; I was hoping they’d meet in the middle and cancel each other out, but apparently not.
🙂
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Gez, you’re listing your own dishes here….yes, yes, they are all very nice too…
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Happy Birthday Gerard! I too have found the notion of big ears as prime minister very depressing but still hold hope. Cabbage a bit of a favourite of mine but kids complain that flatulence and friends do not go well together after an evening meal of cabbage so have had to cut back
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Chucks,
Thank Sally,
I feel more confident Julia will be elected. I wrote this on the Unleashed, hoping it will get a few more ALP voters in:”I fully support Gillard’s gender. My own gender has been supported by ‘Bond’s for decades.”
Yes, the cabbage does cause the Dutch Oven to work overtime.
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Sally, I gave Gerard Bob Ellis’ latest book as one of his presents, to me it looks like Bob is a little bit in love with Abbott, he even thinks that Tony is charming !
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I know – cant believe it. He must have magic potion or something when you meet him – he certainly doesn’t appeal to me. Even his wife was a bit cold fishish to him at the launch (unlike Bishop who looovvves him)
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I just had my eyes checked, my eyes had not deteriorated, but my reading glasses had become somewhat sratchy. I have nicely framed new lences and the frames look so good I feel like wearing them all the time 😉
Not that interested in cooking, Big M, but I have some signature dishes, lasgane, spinach pie, beef stroganoff, borscht, gabbage rolls, lentil soup and the grandsons eat my gravy by spoonfuls, yet I don’t need gravy.
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I’m sure that Gez’s visual acuity must have something to do with your tender ministrations, Helvi.
By the way, a big Happy Birthday to the young fellow!
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Very tender.
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Helvi is her usual modest.
Plus of course, custard cooked apple with ice cream. Nasi ramas, nasi goreng, ayam goreng, bami goreng, amazing baked potato with eggs, onion and bacon.
Of course the best of all; The Indian Raan.
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Yes Voice,
I just shred the cabbage and add it to whatever is in the saucepan without boiling. Cumin seeds seems to go very well with it too. I believe the cabbage is good for bowel problem prevention, sure stirs them up into action.
I had to wear glasses since I was 8 years old. However, about 2 years ago my eyesight returned to ‘normal’ and now don’t wear them. Had to get a driver’s license change-over. I do need reading glasses. Had eye examination by a specialist last year when my right eye vision has a slight curve on the horizontal plane. “Old age, “he muttered and I walked out sans $80.-. The surgery was in the most depressing shopping centre of Goulburn, somewhere at the back of the jail, Bradville I think the suburb was called.
Even so, amazing that my eyesight has restored itself. My friends can’t believe it.
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Interesting about the spontaneous remission of whatever caused your eyesight problem. My father was able to throw away his glasses after having needed them since just about forever, after needing that simple cataract surgery where they replace the lenses. Of course they replace them with properly functioning ones, and the lenses had been his problem.
I don’t know what the eye specialist is, but maybe an opthamologist, with deeper medical knowledge than an optometrist? The standard optometrist eye test is covered by Medicare, although you might need to check what a particular optometrist charges before you go.
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I think most people over the age of forty something need reading glasses. Something to do with the focal length not adjusting properly as the lens hardens.
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Voice, the muscles of accommodation become weaker as we age. This is understandable given that our eyes were probably designed for long distance, rather than the reading, computing, etc, that we all do!
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Now this seems like an incredible coincidence. I have just rediscovered cabbage also. Maybe for a similar reason: a Thai take-away night. It is now popular at my house in sir-fries. I’d never cooked it at home before.
Was inspired to try boiling it followed by warming to evaporate off excess water and sauteing in a bit of butter. Not bad but a bit overcooked despite my vigilance. Might be easier to avoid overcooking by steaming.
Did you know that when you get glasses from an optometrist they test your eyes first for glaucoma and maybe macular degeneration? Early detection makes a all the difference. In most places the actual test is completely covered by Medicare, which gives an indication about how important it is. You don’t have to buy glasses.
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Good point, Voice, glaucoma and macular degeneration take less than 2 minutes to check, and, as you say, under Medicare. My Dad has just had the cataracts replaced by lenses. It has rejuvenated him. Don’t know why Gez’s eyes have improved. Cabbage? Country air? Proximity to guanaco? Helvi’s cooking?
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