Golabki

A few weeks ago a little magazine showed up in my mailbox. It had my full name and correct address, so I knew it was sent specifically for me and wasn't just some free offer or something.

Now, I'm not a big magazine person. I used to be. When I was a teenager, I received about 8 magazines a month. Cosmo and Vogue, music ones, gossip ones, etc. When I moved out of my parents' house and had to stretch my buck I realized that they were trivial and repeated the same rotation of articles in a circle. I cancelled all of them and haven't looked back since.

Until now. Guideposts is a religious-based magazine, their tagline "True Stories of Hope and Inspiration." The other night I read it cover to cover and LOVED it! My cousin teases me that I must be an old woman to enjoy it, but it's great! The stories are written by real people and there's recipes, too! The November issue featured Golabki, a traditional Polish dish of stuffed cabbage leaves. Johnny is 100% Polish, so I was instantly intrigued. Since moving to Chicagoland I've been introduced to Polish culture and the dishes that go with it. I never knew cabbage could be such a versatile vegetable and I've found myself really enjoying it.

Today, I received December's issue and the mystery continued... until I called their 1-800 number and found out my maternal Grandma ordered it to be sent to me! So, thanks Grandma - I love it and am putting the recipes to good use!

Their website is also great, too. They have this video series called The Healthy Cook, hosted by Rebecca Katz. They're just short video clips, but she goes through really interesting things like which oils you should be buying and how to make a great mineral-filled vegetable stock to have on hand. I highly recommend going and browsing around!

Ingredients:
1 large head of cabbage
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork (or veal)
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 egg, beaten
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 1/2 cups of water

Core cabbage and place in a large pot of rapidly boiling water; cover and cook 5 to 8 minutes until soft enough to pull off leaves; repeat until all large leaves are removed. Saute onion in oil until transparent. In a large bowl, mix meat, onion, rice, egg, salt and pepper. Place heaping tablespoon of meat mixture on each leaf. Tuck sides over filling while rolling leaf around filling. Chop remaining cabbage and place half on bottom of dutch oven. Layer cabbage rolls then cover with remaining chopped cabbage. Combine tomato soup with water, sitr until smooth, then pour over cabbage and rolls. Cover; bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Serves 6 to 8.

You'll notice I have no pictures to post. That is because today I have a little something different to show you the recipe!!

Guideposts has a video online to show you! Awesome idea!

Do not be afraid of this. Honestly, making lasagna from scratch is harder (in my opinion). It is so easy to roll the leaves and place them in the pot. The hardest part about this whole dish is trying to get a big, wet, scalding hot cabbage out of a deep pot once you've finished boiling it.

I noticed in the video that she had a lot of meat mixture leftover. I cut the recipe down and only used 1 lb of ground turkey and it was more than enough. My last 2 leaves (I was able to get 10 leaves off the cabbage) were stuffed with the mixture because there was so much left!