Exam week

Too panicked (positive spin: focused) to do anything but study the week before an exam, we regress to a hunter-gatherer state. There's often free food in the student lounge if you can be there in the 30-second-to-two-minute window before it disappears. If you sign up for a lunch-time talk or panel for visiting students, the school will supply you with cold wraps and stale cookies to sustain you until dinner. There's the 10% staff discount at the hospital cafeteria: my roommate prefers the $0.89 mac-and-cheese deal.

I've identified the fresh-food options at the convenience store and Italian deli on my block: eggs and dairy at Stewart's; onions, cabbage, and green peppers at Sainato's. It's not like living in a big city, but neither is the rent. Combining these with whatever produce I have left on the bottom shelf of my fridge usually gets me through the week. This recipe makes a lot, all the better to share with your stressed-out friends.

Cabbage soup:

• Head of cabbage, cut off of the core and sliced into thin strips
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 head of garlic, cloves peeled and sliced or rough-chopped
• some other chopped vegetable: I used half a celery root; you could use a potato, carrot, or celery rib
• something sour: white vinegar or half a lemon (I used both)
• cooking wine if you have it
• salt and pepper (whole peppercorns if you have them)
• herbs on hand, such as chopped dill, parsley, thyme, or rosemary
• white beans, rice, pasta, or crusty bread optional
• few tablespoons of olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp butter

In a large soup pot with a lid, melt the butter and olive oil at medium heat, then add the garlic and onion. Saute for a few minutes before adding the cabbage plus vegetable. Add the vinegar and wine, then cover the vegetables with cold water. If you're using thyme or rosemary, add them now; dill or parsley can be added at the end instead. With a lid on the pot, cook at low heat for 30-60 minutes until the vegetables are soft (or until you reach a good study break). Separately, cook the beans, rice, or pasta, or toast a few slices of bread. Before serving, season the soup with lemon juice, herbs, salt, and pepper, and serve with the starch of your choice! 

A little bland-looking, but then again so is mac-and-cheese, and I'd argue that this is just as comforting: