Cole Slaw

J and K are coming for dinner. This is a simple meal. In fact, just an ordinary meal that we have invited friends to enjoy with us. J, Leslie and I have one food thing in common- none of us likes mayonnaise. [J goes as far as to say he is white food phobic.]

I am the newest member of this club. As a kid, I loved mayonnaise, but after our first family trip to France where we stayed in the heart of olive oil country, I use it very sparingly in my food preparation because it no longer tastes good to me. As J likes to say, I only use it to hold things together. Mayonnaise has been moved into binder status, and doesn't come to the table anymore.

However, I love cole slaw. When I was pregnant, uncooked cabbage was suggested as a good food item for me to eat, and boy did I. I ate cole slaw as often as I could. If you do not like mayonnaise, eating cole slaw becomes much more difficult.

This summer I have been investigating non-mayonnaise based cole slaw. Last month I tried the North Carolina Cole Slaw from the epicurious.com site. It wasn't bad, almost good. That is what I was planning to make for dinner tonight. Before getting started I decided to take a look at Bittman's How To Cook Everything to see if perhaps he doesn't like mayonnaise either, and I have hit a home run!

I omitted the bell peppers and substituted an extra cup of cabbage, and added some celery seed that I had ground up in the pestle. Good quality black pepper and I chose Mediterranean salt.

This is fabulous! [see page 104 if you are playing along at home.]