I don’t like salads. I find them too dry, too tasteless. Sure, I can put dressing on them, but that seems to defeat the purpose of bulking up with some low calorie, nutrient rich (hopefully) food. Besides which, I am not really crazy about cold, creamy / greasy dressings anyway. I am not a fan of dip (aside from salsa), sour cream, mayonnaise, etc. I do like sweetened fresh cream, though – but that goes better with fresh strawberries than lettuce and tomatoes.

In my quest to find healthy and tasty food, I came up with the following salad:

• torn up lettuce leaves
• 1/2 tomato about the size of a small plum
• 4 black, seedless grapes
• coarsely shredded cheese (could be cubed)

1. Fill a single serving bowl 3/4 full with torn up lettuce leaves.
2. Quarter the half tomato. Add to the salad, evenly spaced.
3. Add the four grapes, evenly space.
4. Top with some grated cheese.

The cheese needs to be fairly coarse. You have be able to spear it with the tine of the fork. Use whatever cheese you like, I use a mix of cheddar and mozzarella.

I’ve tried different grape. Only the black, seedless work. Other types just don’t go with the salad. I’ve tried quartered figs, but it didn’t go either. Dried raisins work. Use about 10-12.

You could add some chopped sweet pepper, but, again, I find it detracts from the salad.

I may have mangled the Polish in the title. In English, it would read Dumplings and Meat Rolls with Red Cabbage.

This happens to be my favourite meal. Unfortunately, I have not had it since before my mother death 2 years ago. I have finally tried to make it on my own - trying to remember what my mother taught me.

This is not a quick meal - it takes several hours to prepare, but I think the results are well worth it.

Meatrolls

• eye of round beef roast
• finely diced onion
• finely chopped bacon
• salt
• pepper
• beef stock
• thread

1. Slice the eye of round into 1/4 inch (5mm) thick steaks.
2. Tenderize (i.e. pound very well with a wooden mallet) the steaks.
3. Salt and pepper the tenderized steak to taste.
4. Add some chopped bacon and diced onion in the centre of the steak.
5. Roll up the steak.
6. Secure using thread. There is no need to tie knots
7. Brown the meatrolls in a large pot.
8. Once browned, add sufficient beef stock to cover the meatrolls.
9. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour (you can simmer for longer, just remember to top up the liquid from time to time).
10. Remove the meatrolls from the liquid, and allow to cool.
11. Once the meatrolls are cool, remove the thread.
12. Bring the stock back up to a boil and thicken using starch. Well, I use starch, whenever I use flour, I get lumpy gravy. Also, if you are like me and not very good at browning meats, then you might want to add a drop or two of liquid browning to make the gravy a little darker.
13. Return the meatrolls to the gravy.

Dumplings

• 12 potatoes
• 2-1/2 cups potato flour
• 2 eggs
• salt
• pepper

1. Boil the potatoes until tender.
2. Drain the potatoes and let cool to room temperature.
3. Rice the potatoes. A potato ricer looks like a really big garlic press. You put a potato in, squeeze and out of the holes comes “riced” potato.
4. Add the eggs.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Gradually add the flour and mix / knead until you have a nice, non-sticky dough to work with.
7. Roll out the dough into cylinder about 2 inches (5cm) in diameter.
8. Slice the roll into 1/2 inch (1.5cm) thick slices.
9. Drop the slices into a large pot of boiling water.
10. The dumplings are done when they float to the surface.

Red Cabbage

• red cabbage, shredded
• onion, shredded
• apple (optional), shredded
• 1 tbls vinegar
• 2 tbls sugar
• 1 tbls salt
• pepper

1. Place the red cabbage, onion, and apple in a pot, add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.
2. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
3. Pour off the water.
4. Add the sugar, salt, pepper (to taste) and vinegar to the cabbage mixture. Mix well.

While I did use eye of round for other rolade, this piece of piece of beef is not eye of round, but it got well beaten with a rolling pin anyway (I don’t have a wooden mallet).

Once tederized, the meat occupies a little more surface area. I was able to cut this piece in half and make two meatrolls.

Chopped onion and bacon.

A seasoned meatroll before rolling.

All rolled up, but not tied.

A plate full of meatrolls all tied up with thread. I used thread because I didn’t have any other string in the house I felt safe to cook with.

Cooked meatrolls. Removing the thread was a pain. Next time I will need to get some proper kitchen thread.

Speedily cooling the cooked potatoes in the window.

I don’t have a potato ricer, so I chopped and mashed the potatoes as best I could. I definitely need a ricer.

A wad of potato dough.

Some of the potato dough rolled out into a log and ready for slicing.

Nicely sliced and waiting to be dropped in to vigorously boiling water.

They really do float to the surface when done. These are done dumplings.

Cooked red cabbage.

Dumplings, meatrolls, red cabbage and gravy. Dinner is served.

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