Fixed Sunday dinner recently for my folks at their house. I was trying out a new recipe I had come across that was a delicious-sounding, one-dish meal consisting of layers of sliced potatoes, chunked-up cabbage, apple wedges, sliced onions in rings, and link sausage, cooked over a medium-low fire in a large, heavy skillet. (Now, you can cook it, too.)
I had already sliced the potatoes and onions, and was cutting the cabbage into chunks. Mom came in on her walker.
“Are you going to shred that cabbage?”
“No, I’m gong to cut it into chunks.”
“Shredding it is a good way to cook it.”
“Yes, but this recipe calls for chunks to be spread over the sliced potatoes and the onion rings.”
“Why doesn’t it call for shredding?”
“Well, I don’t know. I watched them make this on television and they said to cut it into smallish chunks like this and spread the cabbage over the potatoes and onions.”
“Well, shredding makes more sense.”
“I suspect that doing it this way allows you to enjoy the tastes of each vegetable as you eat it.”
“Hmph.” She leaves the kitchen.
I finish chunking the cabbage and adding the rest of the ingredients: thin apple wedges and sausage cut into coins. Because my mom has a thing about adding no salt, I add absolutely none. Before long, everything is all cooked and I serve it up with some crusty French bread.
Dad tastes it and tells me, “This is really good. I wouldn’t have thought those apples would have gone so well with all of this.”
Mom says, “You added too much salt.”
“I didn’t add any salt at all, Mom,” I answer.
“Well, then, the potato mix you used has too much salt in it.”
“I used fresh potatoes, Mom.”
“Well, then, some kind of mix you used to make this has too much salt.” Starting with the peppery tone, again…
“I used fresh cabbage, apples and onions. Only thing I used that was already made was the sausage.”
“Well, that’s the problem, then,” she says, triumphantly. “You didn’t use the right sausage! You should have used (stated brand name of kielbasa that the family always uses) instead. There’s very little salt in that. You need to start being more careful.”
Cut to view of trash can, where the package that contained the sausage now resides. It is exactly the kind of sausage she mentioned.
“Okay. Next time, I’ll try that,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“And, next time, shred the cabbage.”
