Kale Chips

Kale seems to be one of the must have vegetables lately. Every time I get a food magazine, kale is a featured ingredient. And no wonder. It is a super nutritious vegetable and an excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K. I also learned that it is a part of the cabbage family. I decided to give kale a try. My first recipe was a butternut squash and kale risotto. What I discovered is that kale has a very strong, overpowering flavor and I decided it was not for me. But, hey, at least I tried.

Recipes for kale chips seem to be popping up everywhere. All the reviews are just stellar. Everyone seems to just love them and they sound easy to prepare. All summer I kept telling myself I would give them a try but when I stopped at the farm stand each day on my way home from work, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy the kale. The flavor of the previous recipe would come to mind and I would shudder. Just when I had finally convinced myself to try again, the stand was closed for the season. I was saved!

Still, the thought of those kale chips was haunting me. I spotted kale in the grocery store this week-end, took a big breath and threw a bunch in my cart. Once
home, I cut out the stem, broke the leaves into two-inch pieces tossed it in olive oil and put it all into the oven to crisp up. Wow! I was more than pleasantly surprised. The little crisps just seemed to melt in my mouth. With a little salt and garlic powder, they were very tasty. I ate up a good handful and put the rest in a plastic bag for another time.

And now here I am thinking about a little snack. What will it be, kale chips or Tostidos? Hmmm, I wonder.

Random Recipes

After cleaning out my freezer last week, I decided to tackle the ever-growing pile of recipes I have collected before restocking. I have a drawer full of recipes torn from magazines and printed from my favorite on-line cooking sites.

I chose a few, jotted down the ingredients and proceeded to torture my husband with new meals all week. My choices were fairly simple to put together although I am a little slow in the chopping department. I’m happy to report that there were no knife- related injuries all week.


Peanut noodles with chicken and spring vegetables was my first try. The sauce was made from peanut butter, ginger, garlic and chile-garlic sauce to spice things up a little. The noodles were wheat spaghetti and I used broccoli and carrots for my vegetables. I love ginger so I give this recipe a thumbs up but Tom was not a fan.



On to balsamic chicken with pears. Balsamic vinegar has a strong presence so I was a little nervous about how this one would go over. It ended up being absolutely delicious with a nice balance between the sweet pears and vinegar. I threw in some dried cranberries for extra flavor and color.



Apricot glazed flounder was my fish choice for the week. This one also called for ginger which wasn’t a success earlier in the week. I used it anyway but reduced the amount. Success! We love fish and this little sauce was a nice compliment.



Pork, apple and cheddar meatballs with wheat noodles was the final choice. I have never cooked with ground pork before but I will now! This was a very tasty and moist combination. The apples and onions were grated to add extra moisture and eliminate anyone biting into “chunks”. Ouch! Wet slippery produce is tricky to grate.



To cap off the week, I selected this apple sharlotka recipe. It really is mostly apples with a little batter thrown in. My result did not look as pretty as the picture but it was delicious. It’s the kind of dessert you don’t have to feel guilty about eating.



I feel good about my efforts this past week. I need to stay motivated and keep working through my pile because I still have a long way to go!

Pierogi

I enjoy reading through my issue of Martha Stewart Living each month. Martha’s ideas for making the ordinary extraordinary are truly inspirational. She makes everything look so easy and wonderful. The latest issue of her magazine featured an article and recipe for pierogi. The glossy pages of the magazine showed some beautiful pictures of the pierogi-making process and the end result. I was tempted to try but the article said they were tricky. If Martha admitted something was tricky it would certainly be too much for me.

As I was catching up on the shows on my DVR, I came across an episode of Martha making pierogi with her nieces. It didn’t look that hard to me and they all just raved about how much they loved them. Feeling up to the challenge, I pulled the issue out of the recycling bin and decided to give it a try.

A pierogi is actually a dumpling. The outside is dough and the inside can be filled with cabbage, potato or a variety of fruit. The potato pierogi seemed like a good choice for dinner. The dough was a very simple mix of flour, egg, milk and water. After kneading it for the required 8-10 minutes, the dough was ready to “rest”. I was the one who needed the rest; kneading dough is the perfect exercise for arms and abs. I know I’ll be hurting tomorrow!

With the potatoes cooked and mashed with cream cheese and butter and the dough rolled to perfection, I was ready to start assembly. Three inch circles of dough were filled with the potato mixture, crimped and then dropped into a pot of boiling water. They looked just like the picture. Well, close enough anyway. When they were finished, I fished them out of the water and set them on a plate with butter. I drizzled browned butter on the top and was ready to give them a try.

Let’s just say that boiled dough is not my thing. The filling was very tasty but the consistency of the dumpling bothered me. Even though I only made half of the recipe, I have many pierogi left to eat. I think tomorrow I will deep fry them to crisp up the soggy dumpling part. Fried pierogi, I hope it’s a good thing!

Maple-Nut Granola

Challenge: Can I make a granola that is tasty and healthy?

I have always been a fan of granola. It’s a healthy mix of oats, nuts and fruits and I love to sprinkle it on my yogurt and pretend that I’m a healthy eater. I have been buying different varieties of granola at the local farmer’s market but with the market closed for the season, I thought I’d try my hand at creating my own.

The January issue of Everyday Food Magazine included a recipe for maple-nut granola that looked pretty simple. The recipe includes old-fashioned rolled oats, chopped pecans, chopped almonds, vegetable oil, maple syrup and vanilla. I received some “real” maple syrup for Christmas and thought I would put it to good use.

The process was really pretty simple; I mixed all the ingredients and spread them out onto the baking sheet. It only took about 10 minutes to assemble and mix. The trickiest part for me was trying to figure out when it was done baking. Consider this: when all the ingredients were mixed, the oats were a golden brown. The instructions say to bake until the oats are golden brown. Hmm, a puzzle. In the end, I may have overcooked it a little but it was very tasty and crunchy. I think that next time I make this recipe I will add some dried fruit like cranberries or raisins.

This was definitely a success and I would recommend this recipe to anyone who likes granola. Or, why take a chance? I noticed that Well Dressed Foods (http://welldressedfood.com/) also has a maple walnut granola. I wonder if it’s as good as mine.