Recipe – Grandma’s Coleslaw

My Grandmother was born in 1900, she passed away in 1993. She saw a lot of changes during her lifetime. I just wish I would have paid more attention to her stories as a child or had more time with her as an adult, I was 34 when she passed away.

One of the things my grandmother did give me was a love of cooking and baking. She lived with us for my whole life, until I got married and moved into my own home, but for all the years while I was growing up, she would make homemade bread and buns every Saturday morning. That’s just one of the things I missed after being diagnosed with celiac disease, was her homemade buns on Saturday. We would have warm buns hot out of the oven. Mine were always slathered with butter, Isley’s chipped ham, and French’s Yellow Mustard. I can still smell the warm bread, the yeast as she would proof it… The one thing I am very sorry about, is that my grandmother never wrote her recipes down. She made everything from scratch and from memory, or as she said about her bread, by the feel of the dough.

So when I wanted to make her Coleslaw, I had to start from scratch with the ingredients and test and taste to get a recipe that was just like how I remembered hers. So today, since we are coming up on Memorial Day weekend and I always make coleslaw along with the burgers and hot dogs, I’m offering up my grandmother’s coleslaw recipe for your enjoyment as well.

Grandma’s Coleslaw Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4.5 pounds cabbage (before coring)
• 1 carrot
• 3 cups Kraft Miracle Whip (not mayonnaise)
• 1/4 cup sugar*
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper (you can use black pepper in place of the white, my mother always did. It will just show in the coleslaw.)

Directions:

• Cut cabbage head into quarters and cut out the core. Grate the cabbage, either with a box grater by hand or in a food processor with the grater blade, (my personal favorite way), and place in a large bowl.
• Grate carrot and add to cabbage, stir to integrate.
• Mix in the Kraft Miracle Whip. Stir until well incorporated throughout the cabbage.
• Add sugar and pepper and mix well.
• Chill and serve.

*If you need to make this sugar-free for diabetics, just exchange Splenda for the sugar, equal measure.