Cabbage? Are You Kiddin' Me?

Everyone has that one dish that they take to a grieving family or to the dinner that follows the funeral.  One relative of mine is famous for breaking out the Texas Sheet Cake for such occasions, my Grandma always took sweet beans, my other Grandmother took green beans with ham and bacon in them.

I often arrive with cabbage casserole.

Now if you like cooked cabbage, this is the meal for you. If cooked cabbage isn't your cup of tea, you still may want to give this a try because it is wonderful and the cabbage is so "dolled up" that some folks don't even realize that cabbage is an ingredient! In fact, the last time I made this dish for a funeral dinner folks asked me for the recipe for "that noodle dish you brought".

Over the weekend I had the privilege of cooking this recipe for my Grandma and the rest of my family. Among my gang, loyalty to cabbage casserole runs along the boy/girl divide. The girls love it, the men and boys...well you know my Man, and my son and my father seem to be on his team for this one. It was  a good thing we had some detractors however, because us gals plowed through that 9 x 13 casserole in just 2 sittings.  Grandma really liked it and missed out on the second serving, so I made more the next day for lunch. It's kind of addictive and you'll understand why in a moment.

I first tasted this cabbage casserole at a pot luck dinner at our church "in the South".  The pastor's wife and I had never tasted anything like it before, so she hunted down the dish's owner, snagged the recipe, and shared it with me. I've been taking it to funeral dinners ever since.

Here's what you'll need...(recipe follows AS WELL AS a link to the printable recipe :-)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and then remove the outer layer of the cabbage's leaves and rinse the cabbage.  Next, cut the cabbage into 1 inch squares

and place in the bottom of a sprayed casserole dish.

Place enough cabbage into the dish so that it's about an inch to an inch and a half deep. This usually takes about half of the cabbage.

Chop 2 tablespoons of onion (more if you like) and sprinkle it over the cabbage.

Drizzle 1/2 of the melted butter over the cabbage and onions,

add salt and pepper.

In a small bowl combine 1 can of cream of mushroom soup with one cup of mayonnaise. 

(What's not to love??)

Spread this mixture over the cabbage.

I've found that adding the mixture in dollops evenly spread over the top and then smoothing the dollops all together works well.

Crush one sleeve of Ritz-like crackers and pour in a small bowl.

To that bowl add one cup of sharp cheddar cheese...

...and the other 1/2 stick of the melted butter.

Stir to combine and, 

you guessed it, sprinkle evenly over the cabbage et al.

Bake for 30 minutes for a "crisp-ish" bite to the cabbage, or 45 minutes for a more tender taste.

In addition to the divine smell in your house while this bakes, and the awesome taste of all that butter and  cabbage, you will find that it is super easy to just go ahead and make two casseroles while your at it. You'll probably want one dish to come home to when you return from the funeral dinner!

Cabbage Casserole
(Click here for printable recipe)

~Recipe~

1/2 of a medium to large cabbage chopped into one inch pieces

1/2 medium onion chopped

1 stick of margarine (divided)

salt & pepper to taste

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup mayonnaise

1 sleeve Ritz-like crackers (crumbled)

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese (grated)