Family Thanksgiving Recipes

We hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday. Here at the Hafen Household we work for two days cleaning, cooking, decorating, and setting a beautiful table with the finest china and silverware. We sit down, give thanks to the Lord, and then it takes about twenty minutes to devour it all.

It was just Grandma Great (Alice), Peter and myself at the table this year. Pretty boring, huh?
Our children rotate spending Thanksgiving with us and spending Christmas with us. We get them all for Christmas this year. However, they all seem to show up for leftovers, games and Grandpa Pete's famous pies.

One of our family favorite recipes is Grandma Rigby's Danish Sweet and Sour Cabbage. Well lets say, it is a favorite of some. But Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without it. I used to tease Grandma Rigby about the smell. You can't enjoy the beautiful smell of turkey roasting in the oven if sweet and sour cabbage fills the air. So, this year we did the cabbage on a campstove out in the shop about 150 feet away from the house.

Here is the recipe. Nothing is exact. Subtract or ad as you like: One head of red cabbage. Remove the outer leaves and chop it into chunks of about two inches each. Put the cabbage in a large pot with about two cups of water. Put on the stove at medium heat and let the cabbage steam and decrease in size. Then add vinegar and sugar to your taste. Bring all to a high heat to encourage the sugar and vinegar to carmelize the cabbage. (easier said than done). Add a little crumbled bacon, apple juice and whatever to suit your own taste. Serve hot. Watch for the reaction of your guests. They either love it or they absolutely hate it.