Visit to the Farmers Market & Kale Chips!

We took a trip to the City Center Farmers Market today. Before we even got home we ate an entire container of HUGE raspberries in addition to a bag of blueberries. I always have a hard time purchasing raspberries because I know in a few weeks my Grandmas garden will be absolutely overflowing with sweet red berries that she gives away to anyone willing to pick them (in bucketfuls). These raspberries, however, were freakishly huge, bright red and perhaps perfect. I managed to take a picture with my phone of one of them before the whole container was gone:

 Here's the rest of our market purchases:

A bag of radishes.. these must be in season right now as they were at all the veggie booths we passed. I'm not a fan of the super tangy radishes but these were very mild. Yum

One long sweet red pepper. It was a toss up between this one and a purple pepper, which I've never tried. This one won the competition due to aroma. 

A little container of mixed tomatoes. There was one super funky one in the package:

Flavor-wise, it was not that funky. Pretty much your average tomato but perhaps a little more firm than the others. In case you're curious, here's what the inside looked like:

In addition to what's pictured, and the eaten berries, we also got some mini cucumbers. We had plans of a major salad for dinner.

From our very own garden we picked lettuce, spinach, kale & some tiny beets with the greens:

Chef Jason was set up at the vegetable chopping station:

While he was busy chopping I steamed the beets, made salad dressing and began my experiment for the night. I've read so much about kale chips and how easy & additive they are. For quite some time now I've been wanting to try them. I didn't exactly follow a recipe but here's what you need to make them how I did:

kale leaves, washed and ripped into bite size pieces
olive oil
kosher salt
parmasean cheese

So what I did was toss my kale leaves in a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and some parmesan cheese. I spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cooked them for ABOUT 12 minutes at 375F... just until they were crispy when I moved them around the pan. Here they are:

And the ever so colorful salad once it was finished:

MY REVIEW: The kale chips were bizzare but good. They kind of turned to dust in your mouth but had an interesting flavor and texture that I would make again. Definitely a good snacking substitute for chips! Very easy to make. I loved the salad and was once again reminded that veggies from your own garden taste so much better than any other veggie.

JASON'S REVIEW: The kale chips were melt in my mouth magic. The salad was an epic win for vegetables everywhere.

Kale and Potato Augratin

It's been over a week since I posted last. How did that happen? It's Christmas time!

And my new  Christmas Cactus is going crazy! For some reason, Honey has no interest in it. Thank god.

Today was most definitely the first day of a what I hope is a short round of the good ol' seasonal cold....

... but I was determined to make a decent supper and use up some things in the fridge that were on their way out. I found this recipe to use up some kale:

Kale and Potato Augratin

* 1 large bunch of kale (about 1 pound) washed, and torn
* 1 small onion
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon butter (a little bit of margarine did the trick)
* 3 large potatoes, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch thick slices
* 2 tablespoons butter (sliced into pats) (again, just a bit of margarine)
* 1 tsp. garlic powder
* 1 tsp. salt
* ½ tsp. pepper
* 1/2 cup shredded cheese (Colby-jack or cheddar) (or a wee bit of marble)
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 2 tablespoons of butter (none of this)
* 3/4 cup milk (I used skim)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a 2-quart baking dish.

Remove kale leaves from stalks, tearing into pieces and wash. Set aside to drain.

In skillet, heat olive oil and butter. Sautee onions until almost done. Add kale to pan and cover, stirring occasionally, until kale is wilted. Remove from pan and let cool.

Sautee onions and kale until just wilted.

In same skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium low heat. Sift in flour, stirring constantly until smooth. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Once milk starts to thicken, add salt, garlic powder and pepper, stirring constantly. Add shredded cheese and stir until cheese has melted. Set aside.

Start with potatoes as the bottom layer.

Layer potatoes and kale mixture in baking dish, making sure you start and end with the potatoes.

Place pats of butter on each kale layer.

Once layers are complete. Pour sauce mixture over entire dish.

Cover and bake at least 45 minutes or until potatoes are done.

JASON'S REVIEW: He said the potatoes were undercooked. The oven is really driving me crazy lately. The recipe suggest 45 minutes at 350 and I had them in there at 400 for well over an hour.  Sadly, it is for this reason that I will not be making any Christmas baking this year. I can't afford to waste expensive ingredients with that unpredictable oven!

MY REVIEW: The potatoes had a nice flavor! Just undercooked I guess. Boo. Atleast we didn't eat out though. And I don't have to feel guilty about the kale in the fridge. I can only imagine how this would taste if I used all the real butter it suggested.

Also - while looking for a recipe, I came across this 365 days of kale blog. It's been bookmarked! Our kale grew so well in the garden this year but I did not know what to do with it. This should help.

Mashed Potatoes with Kale

I'm back! I spent a few days in the mountains... and a few days getting ready for those few days.

Also, my heart was broken for a few days when my most-loved artist died. For those who don't know, I was an ACTUAL fan. Not one of these people who consistently made fun of him and then realized what a legend he was hours after his death. My heart is on the mend now... it still hurts knowing I will never see him live but it MAY have hurt more had I actually bought the tickets for the July 18th concert as was planned.

I also realized I can put video on my blog! Just for fun, let's see how well this works...

Now, on to the cooking portion of my blog... the kitchen (house) has been a mess for the past few days but it's clean now and I'm ready to cook again! I didn't think anyone would be interested in the leftover hot dogs we've been eating recently either.

Although tonights dinner doesn't look that exciting or well thought out..... I'm pleased with it because it was one of those nights when we were SO close to just going out for sushi because the fridge looked empty. I scrounged the freezer and picked some fresh veggies from the garden and made a fairly decent meal. The most successful part of this meal was the kale and mashed potatoes.

We have SO much of this stuff growing in the garden and aside from just eating it plain and steamed, I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I found some information on it that makes me happy though:

Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Because of its high vitamin K content, patients taking anti-coagulants such as warfarin are encouraged to avoid this food since it increases the vitamin K concentration in the blood, which is what the drugs are often attempting to lower. This effectively raises the effective dose of the drug. Kale, as with Broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane, a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties, particularly when chopped or minced.

So for my kale potatoes this evening, I boiled some cut up potatoes and kept a little bit of the cooking water in the pot when I drained it. Once it's removed from the heat, add the cut up kale and put a lid on it. The steam from the potatoes will cook the kale. After about 5 minutes, start mashing! I will admit I added about a tablespoon of low fat cream cheese during the mashing process. There was also some skim milk and black pepper in there.

For the rest of the meal - chicken fingers for Jason, fishsticks for me. Fresh garden lettuce with chopped tomatoes and the dish in the center is steamed baby carrots, orange pepper and swiss chard. Nothing too fancy.

MY REVIEW: Great potatoes! Must research some more recipes for kale... or start giving it away! It looks so healthy & curly out there in the garden.

JASON'S REVIEW: The potatoes TASTED buttery and were filling. Everything else was delicious however the chicken fingers tasted like paint but it's my fault.*

* Jason put a dirty paintbrush in the freezer a few months ago and forgot about it for a while... the scent lingers and apprently penetrates as well.

On a side note, please stop raining. Our basement is going to flood. Thank you