After coffee, a workout, and packing up our lunches, Daniel and I scooted to the beach (the one we will be moving to in late January) to enjoy the afternoon.

casting away from civilization

Although it doesn’t appear so, this beach is actually quite crowded. That is, if you count all my new turtle friends.

after swimming all day, I’d be napping too

meet Yertle

Aside from turtles, the beach is full of coral, which makes getting in the water tricky. I did attempt my first dip today, however, my feet didn’t appreciate all the gnarly mysteries on the ocean floor. I’ve just added water shoes to my wish-list! Oh, and some floaties.

Some people go Christmas caroling. I go Christmas coraling.

Festive, don’t you think?

After another successful beach day, we headed home for some much desired dinner. Last Sunday I bought a red cabbage. Not only have I never made anything with red cabbage, I don’t even recall ever eating it except in maybe some cole slaw. But nevertheless, I bought one because it looked like something I might like. Plus you just know that a head that colorful is full of nutrients! Today, almost week later, I finally got around to experimenting. I thought about making a slaw, but you can’t east cole slaw as a main dish. I pondered using the big leafs as lettuce wraps … but then I’d have to figure out how to fill the dang wraps. Nope; I wanted cabbage to be the star ingredient. So I settled on the  logical choice – making a red cabbage soup on a hot hawaiian saturday night. Of course, I wouldn’t dream of announcing to Daniel that we were having cabbage for dinner, so I whipped him up an english muffin burger and while he was chowing down, I got to work.

onions and garlic, check

10 minutes later

cabbage, celery, red wine vinegar, celery seed & cumin – (I didn’t have caraway)

tomato puree, chicken broth, hominy (i didn’t have beans), bay leaf, dried thyme, & pepper

topped with fat-free feta (instead of sour cream, and skipped the scallions)

I love the internet for random recipes like this – good thing it turned out well because I’ve got about a week’s worth of stew. My only criticism is that the vinegar is a tad bold – that’s probably why you’re supposed to serve it with sour cream, to help cut some of zing. Oh well, the feta had some mellowing power too.

If you’re interested, here’s a brief read on the health benefits of red cabbage. The article discusses Alzheimer’s risk reduction and mentions ‘anthocyanins.’ Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants with anit-inflammatory properties that contribute to the protection of collagen, large blood vessels, and the nervous system.

Do you have any good red cabbage recipes? I need some help figuring out what to do with the leftover red-head.