the friday feed: skillet cabbage and white bean pancake

This recipe for Skillet Cabbage and White Bean Pancake recently popped up on a Food Network page, and it immediately caught my eye. I love all the ingredients - cabbage, cannellini beans, and green onion. I took the liberty of adding some red bell pepper and half a jalapeño. And since I didn't have a green onion, I used red onion instead. Todd wasn't home for dinner on Wednesday, so this recipe became my dinner.

Recently, people on social media have been complaining about restaurants using AI-generated photos to showcase their food. You can be assured that this one came straight from my kitchen, photographed with my own camera. The finished product isn't exactly pretty. The pancake didn't slide out of the skillet nearly as easily as it did for the chef demonstrating the technique. But it was very tasty, especially with some of my homemade basil-garlic butter melting over the top.

The next time I make this, I'm going to make smaller pancakes. They'll be a lot prettier than the big one, and easier to get out of the skillet.

And in case you're dying to make this, here's the recipe.

Skillet Cabbage and White Bean Pancake

1 cup shredded green cabbage (sliced very thin)

½ cup canned white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained and mashed with a fork

1 large egg (to bind the mixture)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or chickpea flour

1 green onion (scallion), thinly sliced

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (for the skillet)

Mix the batter: In a medium bowl, combine the mashed white beans and the shredded cabbage. Add the sliced green onion, egg, flour, salt, and pepper. Stir well with a fork until a thick, cohesive batter forms. Let it rest for 3 minutes so the flour absorbs any extra moisture.

Heat the skillet: Place a 10-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil or butter and let it melt and coat the bottom of the pan.

Form the pancake: Pour the cabbage and bean mixture into the center of the hot skillet. Use a spatula to press and shape it into a flat, even round pancake.

Cook until crisp: Cook undisturbed for 4 to 5 minutes until the bottom is deeply golden brown and crisp.

Flip and finish: Carefully flip the pancake using a large spatula. Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes until the other side is browned and the center is fully set. Transfer to a plate and serve warm.

october 1

 "Oh my gourd! It's October already." 

Please enjoy this poem by Dayton, Ohio native, Paul Laurence Dunbar. In this poem PLD rejects the traditional view that autumn is a sad or dying season and instead celebrates it as a joyful, vibrant high point of the year. He also views autumn not as an ending, but as the "highest time of living” - a time so full of joy and cheer that it naturally flows into a feeling of gratitude and thanksgiving.

🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁 🍁

Merry Autumn

by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1893)

It’s all a farce,—these tales they tell

     About the breezes sighing,

And moans astir o’er field and dell,

     Because the year is dying.

 

Such principles are most absurd,—

     I care not who first taught ’em;

There’s nothing known to beast or bird

     To make a solemn autumn.

 

In solemn times, when grief holds sway

     With countenance distressing,

You’ll note the more of black and gray

     Will then be used in dressing.

 

Now purple tints are all around;

     The sky is blue and mellow;

And e’en the grasses turn the ground

     From modest green to yellow.

 

The seed burrs all with laughter crack

     On featherweed and jimson;

And leaves that should be dressed in black

     Are all decked out in crimson.

 

A butterfly goes winging by;

     A singing bird comes after;

And Nature, all from earth to sky,

     Is bubbling o’er with laughter.

 

The ripples wimple on the rills,

     Like sparkling little lasses;

The sunlight runs along the hills,

     And laughs among the grasses.

 

The earth is just so full of fun

     It really can’t contain it;

And streams of mirth so freely run

     The heavens seem to rain it.

 

Don’t talk to me of solemn days

     In autumn’s time of splendor,

Because the sun shows fewer rays,

     And these grow slant and slender.

 

Why, it’s the climax of the year,—

     The highest time of living!—

Till naturally its bursting cheer

     Just melts into thanksgiving.

 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

This past week was a bit of an off week. After the storms that wreaked havoc in the area, I came down with a bug last Tuesday and was completely knocked out on Wednesday. I slept pretty much the entire day and night, then woke up Thursday feeling a little more back to the land of the living.

We left for Cleveland Friday afternoon to see Andrew, Jen, and the littles. By Saturday, my energy was back, and I sure needed it to keep up with those sweet grandbabies!

We went to a pumpkin farm with lots of open space and plenty of activities for the kids. Owen and Hallie loved running around and exploring. Owen is pictured here eating his second hot dog…because a dog came up and grabbed the first one right out of his hand!

Sunday was the first Cleveland Browns home football game of the season. For quite a few years now, Andrew and a group of his friends have put together tailgates for all the home games in one of the downtown parking lots. It’s been so much fun watching the tailgate grow as the next generation of young Browns fans joins in.

I’m not a huge football fan, but I did go to the game with Todd and Andrew. Knowing that Ohio State’s Marching Band was playing at halftime was enough to get me there. The band performed “Script Ohio,” with the musicians starting out in the Block O and then forming the word “Ohio” in cursive. TBDBITL—the Best Damn Band in the Land! Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and throughout the game rock music filled the timeouts. The weather was gorgeous, the music was good, I sat  with two of my favorite guys, and the Browns scraped and scrapped their way to a 21–18 win. It was a good day and my football game attendance is now good for another few years.

did you see the harvest moon?

It's those little things...

 

monday's mulling: vangogo

Over Labor Day weekend, my fun, free-spirited friend told me she was going to hippify her van. She’s starting to drive her grandchildren around town and wanted a fun vehicle for her littles. This is so her. Her grandma name is “Gogo,” hence the VANGOGO license plate. A Van Gogh theme would be a little too heavy for her lighthearted style, but she did give a nod to the artist with the sunflowers on her van.

v

 

interrobang

The interrobang is perfect for questions that demand a little extra drama. Have you heard of it‽ I have not.

It's a punctuation mark combining a question mark and an exclamation point. An advertising executive invented it in 1962 to add a little punch to rhetorical questions.

An example: People who talk with food in their mouth drive me nuts. “Would it kill you to stop chewing your food with your mouth open‽” Interro-BANG!

finding joy

For me, finding joy in life means paying attention to the small, everyday moments instead of waiting for big achievements to make me happy. Sometimes joy appears in the most unexpected places, like this vintage red municipal call box, covered in layers of stickers, posters, and street art on a busy Manhattan corner. As people hurry past, absorbed in their daily lives, this piece of New York quietly stands there, and reminds me that joy is often hiding in plain sight, waiting to be noticed.

And that's one of the reasons I love to travel...so many joyful moments, big and small, are waiting to be found.