By Memorial Day weekend. Dad grilled. This is the annual event — Steve Kowalczyk stands at a Weber kettle grill that is older than I am, wearing cargo shorts and a Bears T-shirt, cooking brats and burgers with the focus of a man performing surgery. Mom makes potato salad. I made coleslaw — cabbage, carrots, a dressing of mayo and apple cider vinegar and a little sugar, which costs almost nothing and tastes like summer if summer were a side dish. Matt called from Springfield but didn't come up. Kristin didn't call, which Mom noticed and didn't mention, which is how Mom mentions things.
The backyard was small and familiar and enough. Dziadek Wally sat in a lawn chair and told the story about his buddy Frank from the steel mill who lost a finger in 1964 and found it in his lunch pail. He tells this story every cookout. Every cookout it gets funnier, which shouldn't be possible, but Wally has comic timing that improves with age. Babcia Rose ate half a brat and declared the rest "too American," which is what she says about all food she didn't make. She brought a plate of her own kielbasa, sliced thin, as backup. Nobody was surprised.
Jess went to the intake appointment. She texted me Thursday: "went. it was fine." Four words. I held my phone like it was a document proving something — that she's trying, that the current hasn't pulled her all the way under, that there's still a version of this where she comes back. I didn't reply for ten minutes because I was trying to write something that wasn't too much. I wrote, "Proud of you." She sent back a heart emoji. I'm building a cathedral out of heart emojis and four-word texts and I know it. I don't care.
Work at the park district is fine. Uncomplicated. I check people in, I answer phones, I eat lunch at my desk — usually leftovers from whatever I cooked the night before. Tuesday I brought the coleslaw with some leftover brats chopped up and tossed in, which sounds unhinged but was actually good. Denise tried some and said, "You should open a restaurant," which is what people say when you bring real food to a workplace that runs on vending machines. I don't want to open a restaurant. I want to teach. But I want to keep cooking, too, because cooking is the thing I do when I don't know what else to do, and lately I never know what else to do.
Coleslaw is the kind of recipe I come back to when everything else feels too complicated—no heat required, no timing to stress over, just shredding and stirring and waiting for something to come together on its own. I made it Tuesday on autopilot, the way I do most things lately, and it turned out exactly right. If you want something that’s simple without being nothing, here’s how I make it.
Classic Creamy Coleslaw
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min (plus 30 min chill) | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 small head green cabbage (about 2 lbs), cored and thinly shredded
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon celery seed (optional, but worth it)
Instructions
- Shred the cabbage. Quarter the cabbage, remove the core, and slice each quarter as thinly as you can with a sharp knife. You want long, fine ribbons — not chunks. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the carrots. Grate the carrots on the large holes of a box grater and add them to the bowl with the cabbage. Toss together loosely.
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and celery seed (if using) until smooth and fully combined. Taste it — it should be creamy, a little tangy, and just barely sweet.
- Dress and toss. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and carrots and toss well until every strand is coated. Don’t be shy about it.
- Chill before serving. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The cabbage will soften slightly and the dressing will pull everything together. This is non-negotiable — warm coleslaw is a different and lesser thing.
- Taste and adjust. Before serving, taste for salt and vinegar. Add a splash more vinegar if you want more bite, a pinch more sugar if it needs balancing. Season to your backyard.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 105 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 8g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 190mg