During the pandemic we started celebrating holidays that we hadn’t observed often in the past to break up the monotony. Last night we celebrated Sukkot a Jewish harvest festival and a commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. Although part of the tradition is to build a temporary structure outside to eat in we merely moved our dinner to the patio. The sukkah or booths reflect the temporary buildings that farmers spend time in during the harvest and the shelters that were used during the exodus.

In addition to eating, blessings are said over the various components—the wine, the bread, the food, and a blessing over a bunch of myrtle, willow, and palm fronds plus a etrog or citron. We used a large lemon instead.

I really do not remember why we settled on stuffed cabbage as the appropriate meal. Both John and I remember having it growing up. It’s more of an Eastern European dish which fits in with John’s Polish ethnic background but certainly not with my English/Irish/German one. Maybe my mother found a recipe in a magazine and decided to try it out.

Our cabbage was stuffed with a combo of ground beef, rice, and vegetables. I cook it in a sweet and sour tomato sauce in the Instant Pot. Sarah helped in the prep and also made some biscuits to soak up the sauce.

Needless to say it is a lot of work. We only make stuffed cabbage for this holiday so it always seems special and very yummy!