Oh, how I love cabbage (and other romantic odes)

I was chopping cabbage last night and thinking to myself how much I love cabbage. It isn't that cabbage is the yummiest food on Earth. But it's cheap (49 cents/lb the past month at Fred Meyer -- a bargain for veggies), keeps in the fridge for weeks and weeks, and is versatile enough to make either a hot dish or a cold salad.

Last night, we had sauteed cabbage, seasoned with soy sauce, garlic, ginger and a pinch of sugar. Tonight I'll add cabbage to our dinner of soup and sandwiches, as a slaw-style salad like this curried peanut salad, using peanuts from some trail mix which has had all of the other goodies gobbled up. I try to keep a jar of sliced red or green cabbage in the fridge, just waiting to be added to impromptu salad snacking. It's handy stuff for quick side dishes. I don't buy a lot of the usual convenience foods. But I do consider a head of cabbage to be something of a convenience item, as it doesn't require a lot of prep work, and can be ready to eat in minutes.

This time of year, cabbage makes into many of our meals and snacks.

How do you store opened packages of cream cheese?

For many years, I would store an opened package of cream cheese, as is, still in the foil wrap, inside the small box. What would follow is the cheese would linger in the fridge, to mold and/or dry out inside the foil package.

About a year ago I began keeping the cream cheese on a plate, under a small glass bowl, upturned. What I noticed was that the cream cheese not only did not mold readily, as it had in the foil package, but it also was in view in the fridge, and was consumed at a faster rate.

Anyway, this is my homespun cheese dome. You can spend about $15 to $20 and buy a cheese dome, or you can simply use what's in the kitchen -- a plate and a small glass bowl. Saving the cream cheese saves money.