Coconut. Fresh rosemary. Mint. Roasted peppers. Dark chocolate. Winter squash. No, I am not making a grocery list or naming ingredients of a recipe. These are certain foods which I enjoy a lot, to the point where I start to crave one and include it in most things I cook and eat. When on a coconut kick, I will add shredded coconut to my baked goods and coconut milk to curry dishes, and buy coconut-flavored coffee K-cups and coconut milk-based ice cream. Then after a couple of weeks, I have had enough and don’t want to see any coconut again for a while.
The food which I am obsessed with at the moment is cabbage, or more specifically, cole slaw. The other day, when ordering dinner, I was given the choice of soup or salad as a starter. Now, I don’t remember which restaurant it was, but one used to give you the option of soup, salad, or cole slaw. And, that is what I did; I asked for cole slaw. The next day, I went to Quizno’s and tried the barbecue pork sub. There were two varieties: regular which had pickles and spicy which had cole slaw. I asked if I could have the regular barbecue sandwich with cole slaw instead of pickles. The manager told me that it is the cole slaw that makes it spicy, as it is a jalapeño-cole slaw. When in the mood for it, I enjoy certain spicy foods and not wanting to give up the cole slaw, I tried the spicy variety. It was good, not too spicy. I’d definitely order that sandwich again.
What started me on this cole slaw kick was a recipe I saw on Taste of Home‘s webite (http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/hamslaw-salad), basically a salad of cole slaw and ham. On my next trip to the grocery store, I bought the ingredients for this salad. At first, I was going to use chicken instead of ham, to make it a little healthier. Also, the salad also uses pecans, and for some reason chicken seemed as if would be a better pairing with the pecans than ham. Before leaving the store, though, I put back the chicken, thinking the ham would just taste better in the salad. At home, I mixed the shredded cabbage and carrots, minced white onion, and diced ham. The dressing in the recipe is made from mustard and sour cream. I made my own dressing with low-fat sour cream, low fat mayonnaise, fresh basil, fresh lime juice and lime zest, and black pepper. I did not add the pecans onto the salad itself, but put them in a small dish, figuring that I may or may not like it with the nuts. Also, if I was serving this to others, I would serve the pecans on the side for that same reason. I tried it with the pecans and also some shredded cheddar. I did not care for the pecans in the salad, and did not use any pecans in my second helping or leftovers which I would enjoy for the next few days.
The picture below is Taste of Home’s from their website; I do not have a photo of my salad, as I started eating it almost right away. It’s been at least two weeks since my cole slaw cravings began and these cravings are still hanging around. I guess I will still have to try the slaws at various restaurants and experiment with different cole slaw recipes at home.
photo courtesy of Taste of Home
The Baker Man 