You Put What in My Dessert?

Cabbage has been heralded as a cancer inhibitor in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, is loaded with vitamin C, only has 11 calories per serving, and may be added to enhance almost any recipe. It can be fried, boiled, baked, frozen, canned, or dried, and then ground in a food mill and used to thicken soup. Making it into sauerkraut is an added bonus because it is ready to us—as you will find in You Put What In My Dessert?. Sauerkraut got its start more than 2,000 years ago when the laborers building the Great Wall of China pickled cabbage in wine to supplement their diet. Genghis Khan came along and liked it so much he took it back to fortify his Tartars as they plundered their way through Europe. The Germans enjoyed the pickled cabbage and named it sauerkraut, meaning sour cabbage. Captain Cook knew of its importance when he carried sauerkraut on his ships to ward off scurvy. Sauerkraut is a mainstay in the Loveland household. Alicia keeps it rinsed, drained, chopped (in a food chopper or snipped with scissors), and sauerkraut in the refrigerator. Alicia says, "It's as important to me as sourdough starter is to an Alaskan homesteader."After judging a World Federation of Competitive Eaters cabbage eating contest in Palmer a few years ago, Alicia decided You Put What In My Dessert? needed to be written. She felt sorry for contestants eating plates of plain, boiled cabbage. "I wish I could have spiced it up for them with a little caraway seed, dill, mint, mustard seed, savory, or tarragon." And topped off with a piece of cabbage Hooch Cake.