Cabbage Rolls (Aunt Ceci)

head of cabbage

1 lb. hamburger

2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced

large onion, diced

canned or bottled tomatoes

½ c. rice, can be leftover cooked rice or uncooked white rice

Cut around core on bottom of cabbage, remove the leaves. If there are thick veins, cut some of the vein off.

Place leaves in pan, add 2 c. water and steam until leaves are easy to work with. (about 5 minutes)

Mix about ¼ of garlic and onion to hamburger and rice, add salt and pepper.

Heat oil in frying pan or electric skillet (I use my electric skillet). Add onions and cook till soft, then add the garlic and cook for a minute or two. Pour in the tomatoes and mix in with the onion and garlic, add salt and pepper.

Place a spoonful of hamburger mixture on cabbage leaves and roll up like up like a burrito. Place it in tomato mixture. Cover and cook on simmer for about 45 minutes. It may take longer if you use uncooked rice.

Bottled tomatoes from your own garden are the best thing there is. They always taste so much better than store bought canned tomatoes. I wonder if it's because of all the work and time you put into them to grow them then bottle them. Maybe the taste is really no different, but the amount of love that goes into them is.

Our first year in Nebraska, the ward was able to pick the leftover tomatoes from the university crops. Bart and Judy Wolthuis and John and I picked the tomatoes and then went to Bart and Judy's to bottle them.

We lived off of those tomatoes for the next year and were so grateful to have them. Tomatoes can be tricky to bottle. I never really knew if I cooked them long enough. I guess we were blessed not to get botulism.