Red Cabbage with Apple

I've had this recipe marked to test out for a while, so when hubby said he wanted sausages for dinner, I thought I would finally get around to cooking this up. Unsurprisingly, this tasted a lot like cabbage...a bit too much for me. I think I was hoping it would have a bit more going on, but given the short list of ingredients, I shouldn't be surprised with how it turned out. It was nice, but I think I'm more of a fresh cabbage person than a boiled cabbage person now that I've tested this out.

Red Cabbage with Apple
adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion, pg 215
serves 6

1/4 cup water
1 red cabbage, sliced, washed and drained
4 tbsp brown sugar
pinch salt
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
100g butter, cubed



Put water, cabbage, sugar and salt into a heavy based pan. Add apple, cover and cook on lowest heat for 1 hour.

Take off the lid, and stir the apple through the cabbage. Add the vinegar and butter. Cook, covered for another 15 minutes and stir once more. The butter should give the cabbage a nice shine.

Bircher Muesli

I love bircher muesli. It's so refreshing and you really feel good after eating a bowl of it. During Lent, when we can't have any dairy, this is usually what I have for breakfast instead of cereal and milk. As long as I remember to get the mixture going the night before, we're all good. We pretty much always have everything on hand and at its most basic can be made with just oats and water, although I don't think it would taste that good.

Stephanie's original recipe uses the oats with water, lemon and honey as the base. I did try this, but found it a little bland, and prefer to make it with fruit juice. My favourite is apple juice, but any juice can be used. I also like to mix up the fruit, using nuts, seeds, shredded coconut...whatever is going really! The original recipe also adds a grated apple, which I think is optional when using fruit juice, but it is nice to put something in there, whether it's a grated apple, pear or even some stewed fruit in winter. Again, I find the yoghurt optional and think it's pretty good without it.

The picture at the bottom shows the muesli as made to Stephanie's original recipe. The recipe given below, is the way I like to eat it and is shown in the main picture. Mind you, it's not really a recipe, more of a starting point.

Bircher Muesli (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Bircher Muesli, pg 79
serves 2

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cloudy apple juice
1/4 cup craisins
raspberries and yoghurt to serve

Apple and Blueberry Muffins

Lately, the blueberries have been in abundance and nice and cheap, so I thought I'd make some muffins for snack time. I like muffins that aren't too sweet...that's what cupcakes are for. That way, you can have them for breakfast or afternoon tea without feeling like you've indulged too much. I only managed to get 11 muffins out of the recipe, but I think my cupcake cases are bigger than the average.

Apple and Blueberry Muffins (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Basic Muffins, pg 40
makes 12

240g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 tbsp honey
1 apple
125g blueberries
raw sugar, optional