I like vinegar. I’ve even been known to drink vinegar, but I know I am not the only one. There are vinegars made for drinking. Add a little sweetener to vinegar and you’ve got ‘pickle juice.’

Take several types of beans (e.g. green & yellow wax beans, pinto beans, cannellini, black or navy) add vinegar & sweetener, S&P and you have a good ‘bean salad’. I’ve also added sweet pickles, peppadews, onion, pickled peppers or sweet pepper drops to a bean salad. Any vinegary item should work in a bean salad.

Why do I like German Potato Salad? Could be the vinegar & sweetener that changes everything.

I may have only cooked Rotkol once in my life. Not sure how many times I have eaten it, but I know I like the flavors. Once again it is the vinegar & sweetener that changes everything. But, you also add cloves, an apple & onion. I add onion to almost everything I cook. “Any onion is sweet, once it hits the heat.” Meaning, even a bitter, hot raw onion will sweeten when you begin to cook it. I like pickled onions, and okra.

So, I am fixing Traditional German Rotkohl (Sweet/Sour Red Cabbage) right now. I didn’t realize it took a couple of hours to let it cook down. I did not follow the above recipe closely. I chopped up some red cabbage, some onion, a small apple and added it all to a pot with some chicken stock. I put in some margarine, red wine vinegar, Splenda, Agave Nectar, S&P, a little Worcestershire sauce, ground cloves, and bay leaf. I can already tell from the cooking liquid that I’m going to love this.