corky octopus

My spoon came home yesterday with not one but THREE pretty big fresh OCTOPUS' ... Kills me. I guess since it is such a nice day out there that the best thing to do is to grill them. But first to tenderize them you must steam them with cork (wine corks will do I am told).. So into a pot of steaming water they went with corks, bay leaves, garlic cloves, and crushed red pepper flakes, a splash or two of white wine. After about 30 minutes, when the corks were kinda 'soft' I guessed the octopus' were ready to take out. So after cooling, I cut them (tentacles) into reasonable pieces I brushed them with olive oil and grilled. Spoon said real good and tender, I personally don't eat octopus, squid I can tolerate somewhat but octopus no... don't know why I guess it is the way the look at me........oh so sorry........I have the same reaction with lobster...oh boy......... hope spoon doesn't bring octopus home any time soon........

here comes the gas

2 weeks ago a new green grocer shop opened and I was instantly in love with it. All fresh veggies and fruits all the time... you would think that is not a rarity but it is because what most green grocers do here is they don't restock until all is sold which means wilted greens and ready to be buried fruits stay on the shelves …yuck! Anyway, so of course I overbought (roka, broccoli, eggplant, cukes, carrots, etc) and so found myself overeating in order not to waste anything. But I was still left with one hearty huge ball of red cabbage… what to do with it? Now 2 weeks later and it is starring me in the face… screaming at me … eat this … eat this… so bravely I decided that today is the day I will cook red cabbage (not just use it raw in a salad), (but how and why?)After looking through many recipes in the cookbooks I have on the shelf and what I found online I really could not find one I liked because most were the pickled or sweet types of recipes. I remembered that my mom use to fry r/cabbage with tomatoes and onions so I decided to give that a try. My biggest Dilemma was what spices of course besides garlic, salt and pepper? I decided to give it a north African twist and used some crushed Coriander seeds... not bad ...not bad at all... now we have to eat it for days and days .... here comes the gas..........