Savoy Cabbage Slaw with Blood Orange Dressing (Week 10) + The "Kum"

Everyone knows that here in the valley, you MUST take advantage of the abundance when it is here.....the old saying "when life gives you lemons....." make lemoncello, lemon curd, lemon finishing salt and everything LEMON until you are sick of it!

This brings me to my Saturday adventure and this weeks recipe. My Hubby was holed up in the garage working on a monster size auto-related nightmare with our neighbor. I, for the first time in "forever" was halfway caught up with homework so I felt compelled to do yard work. This prompted a trip with Leesa (wife of the neighbor in the garage) to OSH. This trip got a little off course with a side trip to the Vineyard Famers Market (hence the Savoy cabbage), coffee, the gym......so the yard work got off to a slow start. I did, however, purchase my favorite garden tool: the Hula Hoe! (Back story.....some yeah-who swiped my Hula Hoe from the garage at my apartment complex!  Seriously?  My Hula Hoe?)

Off in the distance while making short order of my weeds, I heard my house phone and then my cell phone.  I trotted in to the house to find a message from my Uncle Paul (ALSO my Godfather or, as called in Croatian, Moj Kum). Hearing I was out killing myself with a Hula Hoe, he offered advice similar to my Father......"What's wrong with Round-up?" In our house, there is little that can't be fixed/cured/repaired/eliminated with Round-up, Super-Glue, Duct Tape or a swift kick.

Apparently my dear Godfather was tracking me down because his blood oranges were ripe....so Leesa and I high tailed it to Clovis with shopping bags in hand. We thought it was a "pick it yourself" deal but that's not the way it works with my Godparents! HE picked it.....and we walked away with 4 shopping bags busting at the seams and a overloaded plastic tub PLUS a couple of glasses of wine and a few good belly laughs! It reminded me so much of days gone by, my Baba and Nono sitting around the same yellow and green tile table.... talk of briskula games, good food and traditions (that naturally revolve around food).

What could be better?

Savoy Cabbage Slaw with Blood Orange Dressing

1 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar (or honey)
6 Tbsp blood orange juice
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c mayo
1 head of Savoy cabbage, shredded
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c peppitas
1/2 c chopped green onions

Whisk together juice, vinegar, agave nectar, oil and mayo. Set aside. Toss cabbage, cranberries, seeds and onions with dressing.

So....I had all these oranges.....I started making a blood orangecello (more on this later after I am sure it works) but the photo of it in process is here on the blog.

In honor of my wonderful Godfather, I made this killer cocktail that I am calling the Kum. Lord knows he'd be proud of me (I can hear him saying "That's my girl!") and know my Godmother (Kuma Sue), a self-professed "cheap date" will probably want to save this for another trip to that wild place at the coast (sorry folks, inside joke between me and my Kuma...tee hee)!

The Kum (the Godfather)

4 oz blood orange juice
1.5 oz vodka
1 oz black pepper simple syrup (see prior post called the "Dalmatian"....the syrup is in the Maraska bottle to the right of the Skyy Vodka!  Yes....I know the vodka bottle is half missing.....trial and error my friends.)

Pour over ice and stir. Živjeli!