When Life Gives You Kale, Make Kale Chips

Eating: This blog post (it may be a series of posts, depending on what else I think of) was inspired by the bounty of kale from the CSA earlier this summer.  I had never received kale before and didn't know what to do with it.  As with everything I get in the CSA, I first try it, just a nibble to see what it tastes like - bitter, in this case.  So then I consult Big Red (aka Betty Crocker cookbook) to see what Betty has to say about it.  Her preparation suggestion is to steam it with only the water left on it after washing.  So I do this.  Then, my house smells like gym socks.  Yuck.  I try another bite and still find it bitter and not to my taste at all (and I will eat most anything).  So I stick it in the fridge, awaiting some inspiration.  Or until it gets moldy and I throw it out.  There has to be a better way, right?  Then my friend Beth told me about kale chips.  By this time, it was too late for my kale, but when I get it next year, I will be prepared.  Beth eats them like she would potato chips.

Kale Chips (recipe from FoodNetwork.com)
1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
2 T. olive oil
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 275.  Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.

This got me thinking about the other things I get loads of all at once and never seem to know what to do with.  Thus the post, which could also have been titled "When life gives you radishes, grill them" or "When life gives you tomatoes, make soup." Here are some tried and true ideas for excesses of many summer veggies.

Refrigerator Pickles (for when life gives you cucumbers) Recipe from Cooks.com
6 C. thinly sliced unpared cucumbers
3 small onions, chopped
2 T. salt
1 C. vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
Combine cucumber slices and onion in ice cream pail or large (non-metal) bowl.  Mix sugar, salt and vinegar.  Pour over cucumbers.  Stir well.  Cover and refrigerate - they will be ready in 3 hours but taste even better if left overnight.  Will keep in fridge 2-3 months. (After we ate the first batch, I reused the juice and just added more cuke slices and onion to it.)

Grilled Radishes (for early summer when life gives you radishes) Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com
20 oz radishes, sliced (I always just slice enough until it looks right - you know me and measuring)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. butter, cut into small pieces
Place all ingredients in foil folded to make an envelope.  Seal around the edges.  Place on heated grill and cook until radishes are tender. 

I can only eat so many raw radishes and I add them to salads when I can, but again, can only eat so many.  The grilled radishes are really good.  Even if you think you do not like radishes, you should try them grilled or sauteed.  The flavor is much more mellow.  The other way I started eating them (after realizing I could cook them - duh!) is sliced up and sauteed with a bunch of other veggies.  For lunch on work days, I would just go to the fridge and start chopping and slicing whatever veggies I found, sometimes mixing a scrambled egg in with it for a little protein.  Good combinations with the radishes (mostly because they are ripe at the same time) included carrots, broccoli, onions, green or wax beans, summer squash or zucchini.

Speaking of zucchini, who hasn't had an abundance of zucchini at some point?!  Yikes, this stuff can sure take over your life.  Here are some of my favorite recipes using zucchini, and often also tomatoes or cherry tomatoes which are in season often at the same time.

The first one I am just going to link to here.  Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons and Parsley Brown Butter is easy and so good!  Follow the recipe exactly and you will have super tasty results. As I read some of the comments on the website, I thought, well, duh!  If you take out or substitute a bunch of stuff, of course it is not the same recipe anymore and you can't really complain that it had no flavor or wasn't very good.  That is your own fault.  Brown butter, when cooked as per instructions, has  A LOT of flavor on its own.  As I said in my review of the recipe, "I made this for dinner for a friend and myself. Super easy and very tasty, made following the recipe exactly. Use real butter (a substitute is a poor substitute in my mind, since so much flavor is from the browned butter) and use real fresh grated Parmesan (the stuff in the green can tends to be dry and sucks the flavor out of most dishes). The recipe is a terrific use of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, both of which I tend to have in over-abundance at the same time in the summer. Love it and will make it again and again."

A new zucchini recipe received from Ann at book club is also a soup.  And y'all know how I love soup!  I believe Ann got this recipe from her CSA.  It is prepared similarly to how I make my carrot soup.

Zucchini Basil Soup
2 pounds zucchini/summer squash (reminder to myself to buy a kitchen scale)
3/4 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 C olive oil
4 C water, divided (I don't think you need God's intervention to divide or part this amount of water)
1/3 C packed basil leaves
Julienne skin (only) from half of zucchini with slicer; toss with 1/2 tsp. salt and drain in a sieve until wilted, at least 20 minutes (note: I did not do the julienning part of this recipe at all).  Coarsely chop remaining zukes. 
Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan over med-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add chopped zucchini and 1 tsp salt and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.  Add 3 C. water and simmer, partially covered, until tender, about 15 minutes.  Puree soup with basil in small batches in a blender. (Caution: only do small batches and hold onto the lid when you do this - it may explode in a hot shower of soup.  Not fun.)
Bring remaining cup water to a boil in a small saucepan and blanch julienned zucchini 1 minute.  Drain in a sieve set over a bowl (use liquid to thin soup if necessary).  Season soup with salt and pepper.  Serve in shallow bowls with julienned zucchini mounded on top (I did not do the julienned part of this.)

And of course, when life gives you tomatoes, make Chicken Pasta Fresca (or whatever this one is called) which is so tasty you will want to lick the bowl clean, or try salsa or soup.  I will post E's Blender Salsa at a later time.  I seem to have misplaced it (just had it this morning...)

Roasted Tomato Soup (This is so good I plan to make several batches and freeze them for use with grilled cheese sandwiches this winter.) - Recipe from Tyler Florence, foodnetwork.com.
2 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes (mix of any kind)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 small yellow onions, sliced
1/2 C olive oil (I found this to be way more than I needed - drizzle to cover tomatoes, maybe about 1/4 C)
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 quart chicken stock
2 bay leaves
4 T. butter
1/2 C chopped fresh basil leaves (optional - I used as much basil as I could harvest off my little plant, about 1/4 C)
3/4 C heavy cream, optional (I will not add this before freezing but will stir in some cream when reheating)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Wash, core and cut the tomatoes into halves. Spread the tomatoes, garlic cloves and onions onto a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until caramelized.

Remove roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion from the oven and transfer to a large stock pot (I used a slotted spoon so I didn't scoop all the excess oil in as well). Add 3/4 of the chicken stock (in other words, 3 cups), bay leaves, and butter. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid has reduced by a third.
Wash and dry basil leaves, if using, and add to the pot. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth (if you don't have an immersion blender, puree in small batches in a regular blender.  Remember SMALL batches, and hold on to the cover to avoid a scalding soup shower). Return soup to low heat, add cream and adjust consistency with remaining chicken stock, if necessary. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Just last night at book club, someone asked what to do with eggplant.  Ann suggested roasting it.  I suggested ratatouille.  I love it because it uses a bunch of veggies which are all ready and abundant at the same time.  Here is the easiest recipe I have for it.

Ratatouille - Recipe from Betty Crocker cookbook
1 medium eggplant, about 1 1/2 pounds, washed, pared if desired, and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 small zucchini, about 1/2 pound, washed, cut off stem and blossom end, cube or slice
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped (about 1 C)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, each cut into eighths
1/4 C olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
Cook all ingredients in large skillet (I use my wok) over medium heat 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is tender.  Serve warm or cold.  (I freeze portions of this for eating all winter long.  Also would be good over pasta.)

That is all for now.  Enjoy the bounties of the season and may we never have moldy kale again!

Until we eat again,
Hallie

Cabbage galore

Eating: I am cleaning out the fridge.  For some people that would mean that there is meal of odds and ends of leftovers - a little meatloaf, some chicken soup, a dab of mashed potatoes, a couple spoonsful of green beans - for me today it means figuring out what to do with 3 heads of cabbage, 10 parsnips, 5 turnips and a bunch of other produce just "hanging out" in the frigo.  Our CSA ended over a week ago but I still have a bunch of things that apparently store really well (when they are so fresh to begin with, even a week or more in the fridge and they are fresher than most things at the grocery store).
With the cabbage, I have chopped it all and am first making Freezer Coleslaw.  This idea came from our CSA - I had no idea you could freezer cabbage.  This is the recipe I am using. Super easy and I plan to freeze in smaller portions so I can grab some to have with meals this winter, maybe with some BBQ ribs or pulled pork.
That takes care of about 10 C of it (I have about 30 C), so the next idea is some Weight Watchers Zero Point Soup (I think it's official name is Garden Veggie Soup or something similar to that - I have always called it Zero Point Soup).  It is very tasty and a great way to eat your veggies.  Plus it is zero points (at least it was under the old points system, though, as I understand the new system, it might still be zero points because veggies are "free"), low calorie, high fiber.  And tasty.  Did I already say tasty?  This was the "0 point" item that inspired me to ask, in a WW meeting, how many servings of something zero points per serving can be eaten before you have to count a point or two.  The answer was something about thinking why you are eating 4 servings of something, even if it is zero points, yadda yadda yadda.  That's another 5 C or so used. 
Here's another soup I would like to try sometime.  Unfortunately I do not have all the ingredients on hand.  Another day, perhaps.  Internet search for recipes often turns up a bizarre assortment of things.  For example, "Vegan Smothered Cabbage" - why would I want a vegan all over my cabbage?  And the soup recipe that calls for some beef short ribs, "preferably from a jewish butcher" - guess I am out of luck on that one (I don't think I will ask the butcher at Super Target about his religious background). 
Well, enough about cabbage.

Reading:  I am still working on Treasure Island.  I have been unusually sleepy the past few nights and fall asleep while reading more often than not.  I have only been reading maybe 5 pages before this happens.  Not because I am not interested in the book.  Just excessively sleepy.  May need to try reading during the daytime more.

Creating:  Yesterday I knit up E's new Vikings hat.  I still need to do the ear flaps and braids but it is coming along nicely.  The super bulky yarn knits really quickly.  I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to upload from the iPod. 

Holy produce, Batman!

Ready for a whole day of processing my over-abundance of produce, mostly from the CSA, some also from our garden and the farmers' market. 

9:00am Home from getting coffee, I google how to roast corn (again).  Tyler Florence says "350 for 30mins".  Corn in the oven.  I get out my compost bucket and cutting board and start trimming green beans.

9:10 Beans are ready to blanch.  Just need to get the water boiling and set up the ice water bowl.  And google how to blanch beans (again). Ignore my ringing work phone.  Place in boiling water for 2 minutes then in the ice water.  Drain and spread out on wax paper lined cookie sheet and pop in the freezer.  Now just waiting for water to boil...

One way to skin a tomato...

9:45 Beans blanched. While they were in the boiling water, I cut a small x on the bottom of each of the tomatoes. When the beans were in the ice bath, I popped the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then into the ice bath. They had to bathe with the beans because I didn't get the beans out fast enough to do the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes were done with their cooling bath, I removed the skins and cut out the stem ends as well as any bad spots. They are now ready to be placed in freezer bags.

don't look!  Naked tomatoes!

"We are super green and ready to freeze!"

Meanwhile, the corn timer buzzed. Corn now on a cooling rack and getting ready to be husked and de-kernel-ized. Cranked the oven up to 425, put all the beets into covered casserole dishes with 1/4" water and put them in the oven to roast. 30-40 minutes for the small, 40-50 for medium and 50-60 for the large. They go in with skins on, golden and red beets, all together, living in harmony. Spread the beans out on cookie sheet and ran downstairs to toss them in the freezer. 
9:50  Time for a little break.  Mmmmmm... coffee... Also doing a little research on squash.  Ever the multitasker...

My vacuum-packing device

10:00 Back to work. Bagging the tomatoes for the deep freeze.  First, I cut them in half, squeezed out some of the seeds and water, then "vacuum packed" them.  Unfortunately I do not have a nifty vacuum-packing device.  Fortunately, I had a straw and my mouth.  Beet timer buzzed but not quite ready.  10 more minutes.
10:22 Time to tackle the corn. Ready with my trusty de-kerneling device. Smells sooooo good in here.

10:31 Got distracted by the beets. Baby beets and medium (adolescent?) beets are done. Big boys back for another 10. Now onto the corn...

de-kerneler in action

10:48 Corn ready for freezer bags. Beets cooling and will be peeled later.

11:03 Corn in freezer.  6 ears = about 4 C corn niblets.  Finally remembered on my third trip to the freezer today that I needed to take out meat for dinner tonight.  Google how to freeze beets... U of M Extension site, you are my friend.  Peel, then slice or dice beets.  Easy 'nuf.

Out, out damned spot!

11:56 Beets were more difficult to peel than last time.  Trying to figure out why... Maybe they were not as fresh as they should have been.  That would be my fault, not the CSA's.  Diced them, bagged them and into the freezer with them.  Many hand washings later, beets are done.  Hands slightly stained but nothing a little vinegar can't fix.  Now I am hungry.  Off to lunch.  More later.

12:50pm Yummy lunch courtesy Caribou.  The girlie pouring the iced tea was a little confused by the "no ice" request but unlike Starbucks, they gave me a whole glass of iced tea. 

Back to the kitchen - get the apples in the pot for a little applesauce.  I am only doing a few apples (4) so will not do the usual crockpot applesauce this time.

stained forever?

Good as new with vinegar!

1:26 Okay, so I had to stop to plug in the battery charger for the camera.  Then decided to clean up the kitchen and the cutting boards, etc. that I had used so far.  Apples went quickly with the Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer (it's almost like I used to sell these things...) and are now simmering for 15-20 in a covered saucepan with 3/4 C water, 1/4 C brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (using the fancy Pampered Chef Korintje Cinnamon - okay I'll stop with the ads now).  Next up, some chopping.  I will start with the watermelon.
1:44 Applesauce smells amazing.  Next time will use a little less water, especially with soft apples like Zestar.  Watermelon is half chopped.  Battery charged enough to take more pics.  Back to the watermelon.
1:54 Seeing how much watermelon I have (1.5 "personal-size" watermelons), looked into freezing some of it.  Seems it should work as long as I don't fully thaw before using.  Will try some of it frozen, maybe pureeing later for slushes or other watermelon beverages.

2:12 Making a mess with the watermelon.  At one point I had a slice of it on my lap (How YOU doin', watermelon?).
2:47 A call to my SIL to see which squash she would be most interested in (spaghetti) and to E to find out which squash is coming down the turnpike next week (ambercup).  Now I can split off the portion of the CSA for the in-laws and process the rest of it.  I have the following types: acorn, ambercup, spaghetti, buttercup, carnival and sweet dumpling (though I don't know which of these last two is which since the pictures I have of both of them look the same and none of the pictures matches one of the squashes I have).

3:24  Acorn, half a spaghetti and a sweet dumpling are in the oven.  Will also be cutting up and roasting half an ambercup.  A couple of the squash were VERY hard so were difficult to cut in half so I need a rest.  Oh, and the squash in the oven were cut in half, scooped out, dotted with butter and placed in 13x9 pan with 1/4" water, covered, and will cook for 30-40 minutes at 400. 
3:37  Lied about the resting part.  I found a recipe for cooking the ambercup so I sliced that into wedges, drizzled with EVOO, sprinkled with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  It is roasting with the others.  Now I will rest... Or blog...

I didn't finish everything but made great progress.  E will help with the peppers (he has mad knife skilz), will likely make more applesauce (or apple cake or apple crisp or...), will chop and freeze the onions, make a batch of carrot soup and freeze for my future lunches.  I may need another day!

Hope you enjoyed this blog post.  If you have questions on any of the processes or want more info on the results let me know.

Until we eat again,
Hallie