The Covered Dish - Hawaiian Cole Slaw

It’s been a good week on the home front, lots of resting over the weekend,. Had a great late lunch at Cheddar’s, one of my favorite restaurants. Interestingly enough you can get a 1⁄2 pound burger with fries for 10.99. Fast food joints can’t hold a candle to this in quality and most likely price. Our family has gotten to the place when road tripping, we only stop at a couple of foodie joints, one of them being Culvers. The food is great, and again you can get a meal with better quality and price. Not to mention the employees are always so gracious. And; we haven’t touched upon their great shakes and sundaes, etc.
This weekend I boiled lots of eggs for tuna salad and egg salads. I wanted to make a batch of biscotti, but it will come a bit later. I even ordered my own birthday cake for next week. Like my father, carrot cake with raisins is one of my favorites. We don’t usually eat out on birthdays, I cook instead. I just leaned over to my partner and requested grilled pork steaks, pouch potatoes and cucumbers. Something to look forward to instead of how old I’ll be.
My husband, Ervin suggested a Cole slaw for the column this week. I then jumped back with how a good batch of Cole slaw, baked beans and grilled meat sounded really good.
Then the question arose as to ‘which’ Cole slaw recipe to run. I enjoy unique coleslaw these days with dried fruits and nuts. You can make fresh coleslaw dressing, but one of my favorite dressings is simply a poppy seed. It’s very complimentary, especially when there’s dried fruit in the coleslaw. I think my only pet peeve about coleslaw is when it’s left in too large of pieces.
All this chatter about cut up cabbage has me thinking about my mother’s slaw cutter and how fun it’s going to be displaying it within our kitchen. I’m also planning another addition to our kitchen that has to do with the former, Robert’s Grocery Store, which was formerly located in Deer Ridge, Missouri. This was first owned by my dad’s family.
Memories to cherish, and hold close to the heart.
Vidalia onions have arrived and we are looking forward to picking ours up on Tuesday. I told Ervin I would have to make an onion pie to celebrate, can’t think of anything more delicious except for french onion soup! Enjoy your week, the perfect weather and find ing joy in the little things. Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

Hawaiian Cole Slaw
2 bags, (14oz. ea.) shredded cabbage
or 2 lbs fresh shredded
2 red galas apples, skins on, diced

1 large can pineapple tidbits, drained, juice reserved
12 small green onions, finely minced
1 1⁄2 cups cashew halves or macadamia nuts sliced
3-4 stalks celery, slice cut or diced, optional
Dressing
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1⁄2 cup white vinegar
1⁄2 cup reserved pineapple juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground celery seed
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
Rinse the chopped apple in the pineapple or lemon juice to slow the browning process.
Then mix all the dressing ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil.
Remove from the burner and allow to cool. Mix all the salad ingredients together and when the dressing is cool pour over the salad and toss. This makes a refreshing summer coleslaw. You could use sunflower seeds instead of nuts. One week I made this coleslaw and forgot about the leftovers until about five days later. Surprise, nothing had browned and it was still edible!