Tuesday's Twist: Easier Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

Stuffing and rolling something like a tortilla is one thing, but the extra step of boiling an entire head of cabbage just to get the outer leaves doesn't rate very high on my to-do list.  In fact, it rates so low that I've never actually made cabbage rolls by this method.  Instead of boiling a huge pot of water I tried a hassle-free freezer method.  Freezing and then thawing the leaves makes them soft enough for rolling.  (Please note I'm resisting the urge to explain the science principles at work here. You're welcome.)

You can pop the entire head of cabbage into the freezer, or if this weather keeps up just leave the grocery bag in your car.  (Kidding, but ugh I am so ready for spring...)  If you want to use the center of the head in another recipe then just freeze the outer leaves.  Allow a longer freezing and thawing time if using the entire head.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

You know my obsession of trying weird and random things with food?  We're going to focus a little more on the random than the weird by (temporarily?) replacing Weird Recipe Wednesday with Random Recipe Wednesday.  Wait, it's more like renaming than replacing, because knowing me the recipe will likely involve some sort of weird factor anyway.  Okay, now that that's out of the way let's get started.

I'm a sucker for sales and deals, even when I don't need the item.  What can I say, it runs in the family.  Anyway, last week I happened upon jars of roasted red peppers marked down to 99 cents.  I proceeded to put 3 jars in my cart even though I've had an unopened jar of roasted red peppers in the pantry for several months.  Much to my delight, these sweet peppers rang up for only 89 cents a jar.  Since I now had four jars on hand I figured it was time to open one.  Guess what?  I think I know why they were on clearance.  Instead of the sweet roasted flavor you get when you roast your own red bell peppers, I tasted only a fake-smokey-chard flavor.  They certainly look like roasted red peppers, and the ingredient list doesn't say anything funky alluding to added flavoring.