Has this ever happened to you?

You come across a blog. A cooking blog. You see a recipe that appeals to you on some unexplainable level. Naturally you leave a nice comment and then you move on. You look at all kinds a great recipes that day, but for some reason later that same day you find yourself thinking about that one particular recipe. You try to shake it out of your head. You're not even hungry, yet you find yourself going back to that blog for a second look.

But the trouble with going back for a second look is now that recipe becomes lodged in your brain. You can't shake it off. Everything you see reminds you of that one particular recipe. Stiill, you try to stay focused on the tasks at hand and move on with your day.

Somehow you make yourself believe that you have moved on. Sure that recipe is flitting around the corners of your mind, but you think you have got the situation under control. Then out of nowhere, while sitting around one night watching American Idol weeks later– BOOM, there's that recipe front and center in your brain blocking your view of the television.

What do you do to get a litttle peace and quiet? Well, I'll tell ya the only thing you can do is get to the kitchen and put the whole incident to rest.

Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen. I don’t mean regular old sweep the floor, wash the dishes, and wipe down the counters cleaned.

I mean top to bottom, wash the walls, clean the exhaust vent, organize drawers, empty and scrub out the fridge, 4 hours of work kind of cleaning.

So I was prepared to say to Carl Cook and Betty Baker. “No Sup! for you” (ya’ know like Jerry Seinfeld)! Because, I was not about to make a mess; no kind of mess at all.

I hate admit it but I was enjoying imagining all of you pleading and begging for more. “Please Sup! I want some more” (ya’ know like Oliver Twist)!

But then I thought. “My goodness! Where did this streak of cruelty come from?” I like to think of myself as “happy and peppy and bursting with love” (ya’ know like Felix Unger)!  I mean would Lady Di withhold food from the starving?

But then again, I’m not Lady Di, and you are probably not starving. And this is of course, virtual food. Some might even say pretend food.

So I resolved to stick to my guns. “No Sup! for you (ya’ know yada yada yada…)!

But it did not work out that way, because today you get two recipes!

This week at the Hollywood Farmers Market I chose cabbage. Not just any cabbage but the tastiest most prized cabbage of the entire Brassicaceae/Cruciferae family. Savoy cabbage.

I live in Southern California. There are only a couple of weeks a year that are not considered “growing season” in my particular Sunset: Western Garden zone 23 neighborhood. And those couple of weeks usually fall in January. So you really need to adapt yourself to the season and choose things that are at their peak right now.

One of these things is cabbage. Cabbage is wonderful. It has a slightly spicy taste. It is very high in calcium, and very high in vitamin-C. So it really is a good choice for the “cold and flu season”!

But what do you do with cabbage?

Well have you considered cabbage soup? I know what you are thinking – “Cabbage Soup? What year do you think this is Greg”? Besides (you opine) cabbage cooks up all stinky and slimy.