Happy Anniversary!!!!

Yes, that's right - today marks the Liberty Blog's first anniversary. It's been an interesting year, all-told, and a learning experience for me (to say the least). I was right about a few things, wrong about others (no, Bruce, I'm not going to turn this into another Gale Norton love-fest), attracted some new fans, attracted some new "fans".

We spent a lot of time talking about eminent domain, and on that score things seem to be moving. We've got legislation moving through various states, the House has passed a decent bill, the Admininstration is going in the right direction. We're waiting on the Senate, but then, isn't that true of a lot of things? It's taken us 130+ years to get where we are on property rights, and we're not going to solve the problems immediately. But I am more confident today than I was a year ago that things are getting better.

Let me engage in a bit of self-censorship here: I had actually written a few paragraphs about one of those "fans" (no, not Andrew Kessler), and their recent activities (without mentioning their name). But I decided that there was no point in leaving those paragraphs in - so they've been excised. If I've learned anything over the course of the last year, it's that sometimes it's best to err on the side of caution. I've long-exhorted the phrase "discretion is the better part of valor", and perhaps I ought to exercise that maxim right now.

And in the end, I realized that I hadn't made good on one thing (alright, a bunch of things - yes, I know I need to be better about posting). I haven't said enough about food!!!! So, I'll leave you with a recipe that has planted itself firmly in my repertoire these days: grilled cabbage. This is a recipe that I got out of a book that my sister-in-law and her new husband gave me.

I love grilling, and over the years have honed my grilling skills - in fact, at a lot of friends' parties, you'll often find me in the job of "grill jockey". It's funny, because you'll frequently find folks who are good "kitchen chefs" don't do well in front of the fire, and vice-versa. But I've taken some of my kitchen skills outside. Yes, my Dad and brother make fun of my for how anal I can get - but it causes me physical pain when someone pokes and prods a piece of meat over the fire, and cuts into it before it's had time to rest.

No, don't confuse this with a lot of recipes that grill wedges of cabbage. This is a dramatic dish that while it takes some time to cook, it's well worth it when you bring the whole head of grilled cabbage to the table - in fact, the blog "Armida Cooks" has some pictures - I've tried copying some of them over here, but without success. The link is here: http://armidacooks.blogspot.com/2006/02/grilled-cabbage-with-bacon-and-bbq.html )

1 Medium Head Cabbage
1 medium onion (yellow, spanish or white), diced
4 strips bacon, preferably thick-ish.
1/4 cub Barbecue sauce
1/2 stick butter

If you have leaves that are falling off the cabbage head, pull them off. If there are some loose ones, don't worry about them. They're going to char anyway.

Wash the head of cabbage, then core the bottom, leaving a hole about 2.5 inches across and about as deep. Make a ring out of some tin-foil to use as a stabilizing base for the cabbage, both on the counter and on the grill. Place cabbage on ring, cored-side up.

If you haven't gotten your charcoal ready, do so now (you should have done this 1/2 hour ago!). If you're using a gas grill (like I do) light it now.

Snip the bacon into 1/4" pieces and sautee in a frying pan. When the fat begins to render, stir in the diced onion. Cook until bacon nears done and the onion in translucent.

Drain the bacon grease from the pan and set aside. Off-heat, but while the pan is still warm, stir the barbecue sauce into the bacon and onion mixture.

Take bacon drippings and rub around the outside of the cabbage. You'll probably have some left over. Then take bacon/onion/barbecue sauce mixture and spoon into cavity where the core was.

Cut butter into small cubes and place on top of the now-filled core. Take left-over butter cubes and place around the top of the cabbage. Use salt and pepper on this exposed cabbage and butter.

Take prepared cabbage head out to your grill. If using a charcoal grill, build an indirect fire by pushing coals to one side of grill. If using gas, turn burners under cabbage down to medium.

Place cabbage on grill grate, stabilizing it with the foil ring.

Then turn the cabbage 90 degrees every 15 minutes. Cabbage will probably be ready in an hour to an hour and a half - if it's soft to the touch, it's done (or darn near it).

Make sure your guests/spouse/witnesses/others see it when you bring it in. Trim the charred leaves from the outside (they should come right off) and then cut the cabbage into wedges for serving.

It's awesome.

- Andrew Langer