kale Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

Kale & Roasted Tomato Salad

January 26, 2015 by Mariah 22 Comments

In an effort to get us to eat more vegetables, and to eat a bit lighter for our meals at home, I’ve started a one salad a week for dinner rule. So far, so good, and we are mostly through January 🙂 I’ve always been a salad fan, but I don’t always think of it as a complete dinner. The salads we have eaten, have been surprising satisfying meals. Sometimes I will add a side of bread, but usually just the salad will do for us. Today, I’m sharing one I made-up last week.

Salad
1 bunch red-kale (or whatever kale you like), massaged
1 bunch radishes, chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved & roasted (see below)***
1 large cucumber or english cucumber, chopped
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained

***DO THIS FIRST: Pre-heat oven to 400º F. Halve the cherry tomatoes and spread on foil lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt & pepper over tomatoes and stir to coat tomatoes. Roast in oven for 20-30 minutes.

Wash kale well, dry, de-stem, and tear or cut into pieces. On board or in a bowl sprinkle with a little kosher salt and massage (squeeze/mush around). Place in big bowl. Chop radishes & cucumber, add to bowl. Drain & rinse the white beans (you could heat them a bit in a pot if you wish), add to bowl. When tomatoes are done, let cool while you make dressing and add to bowl…I like to add them when they are still warm.

Dressing
2 Tbsp granulated organic sugar
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp dijon grain mustard
2 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch salt/pepper

Add the above to a mason jar and shake. Taste and adjust seasoning as you wish. If you don’t have a mason jar, than just whisk in bowl. Add in slowly, until your salad is coated to your liking. This should give you more than enough dressing, so don’t just dump it all in.

This was enough for a dinner for both of us, though we did not have left-overs. Our kale bunch was on the small side, so a larger amount of kale would make a bulkier salad.

To see some of the other salads we tried, make sure to check out my Pinterest “Food” board.

Do you have any favorite winter salads to share?

Quiche~ It’s What’s For Dinner

March 30, 2014 by Mariah 6 Comments

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Bacon Cheese Quiche

I used Chapel Hill Creamery Hickory Grove Cheese but any kind of white salty cheese will do. For the crust I used Immaculate Baking Pie Crust.

1 homemade or store-bought single-crust pie dough
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup chopped leeks
1 clove minced garlic
1 cup chopped kale
1 cup sliced shiitake mushroom
Coarse salt and ground pepper
6 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded cheese (parmesan, asiago, gouda)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 F and bake crust according to package directions or see the Martha Stewart recipe on how to prepare your homemade crust.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high. Add leeks cook 3 minutes, add garlic and shiitake mushrooms, season with salt and pepper cook 4 to 5 minutes (until mushrooms are soft), add kale and cook until just wilted about 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside and let cool slightly (don’t add it hot but warm is fine). In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk, season with salt and pepper. Mix cheese into mushroom mixture, place mixture into pie crust distributing as evenly as possible, pour egg mixture over mushroom mixture, you may need to stir a little to distribute filling better. Place the pie pan onto a baking sheet, cover crust edges with aluminum foil, and place into 375 F oven. Bake until center of quiche is just set, 40 to 45 minutes. If your crust is not browned to your liking remove aluminum foil 5-10 minutes before quiche is finished. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The Rest of the Week

Shrimp with Green Curry: turned out well. I think addition of ginger would bring a little more flavor to the dish. We just bought medium sized shrimp and cooked them whole.
Saffron Pappardelle: This dish was ok, I was not wowed and I don’t think it will make it back onto the menu. I also made P cut the cinnamon added by half and while I couldn’t exactly taste it per say I could smell it. I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon in savory dishes.
Lasagna Soup: This soup is SO good and not good for you :). We cook the noodles separately, that way they stay a bit firmer and they don’t absorb as much of the liquid. We used Coon Rock Farm Italian Sausage.
Cinnamon Bun Scone: These turned out great. I did use a food processor to blend in the butter, because it is really easy and I’m lazy. You want the butter pieces to be pea size or a bit larger. I think I did about 5 or 6 pulses, don’t just turn it on. The dough is quite crumbly (most scone dough is) so don’t be worried about that, just push it together into your measuring cup or spoon and plop on the cooking sheet.

Kale & Bacon Pasta

February 2, 2014 by Mariah 2 Comments

I know, I know, kale is SO 2013, but like with most other trends I’m behind the bandwagon…really i’m wondering off in the field because the bandwagon is too hard to keep up with and I’d rather find it on my own; even if it “finding it” was after it was thrown off. I’ve had kale before, but at home, it’s been mostly contained to smoothies or soup. In this dish the kale really worked, and made the dish seem lighter and more healthy (it’s greens!). I used the curly kale variety. I think P and I will be looking at kale a little differently after we had an amazing kale salad last week…it was crazy good for being just a salad. So, here I am picking up kale from the food trends graveyard.

This recipe was slightly adapted from this Cooking Light recipe. I find unless there is a lot of sauce involved orecchiette pasta tends to stick together so I went with conchiglie pasta, though shells would also work. I hate using half the box of pasta (and we like to have leftovers for lunches) so my version uses the full box.

16 oz uncooked conchiglie or shell pasta
6 cups curly kale, washed, de-stemmed, and torn into bite-sized pieces
6 slices center-cut bacon (up to 8 slices would not be overdoing it)
1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/8 teaspoon salt
3 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Cook pasta in boiling water 8 minutes or until almost tender. Add kale, and cook 2 minutes. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
2. Meanwhile, chop up bacon and cook until crisp in large skillet (large enough to hold the cooked pasta and ingredients). Set aside the cooked bacon, reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon grease, and discard the rest. Return skillet to stove set to medium-low and add the bacon grease back in. Add sun-dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper, and garlic to drippings in pan; cook 3 minute, stirring frequently. Add pasta and kale, reserved 1/2 cup cooking liquid, black pepper, and salt to pan; toss to combine, cook for 3 more minutes. Top pasta with 2 ounces of cheese, and drizzle evenly with lemon juice. Garnish with bacon and remaining cheese in individual bowls.

The Rest of the Week:

Tuscan White Bean Soup: This recipe needs way more beans, I would say maybe two more cans worth. We utilized bacon instead of pancetta so we could use the full package this week we bought for the pasta dish. This was ok the next day but separated overnight, so it did not seem as appealing.

Veggie ~~Soba~~ Rice Bowl: This week we used brown rice instead of the noodles, and I have to say I think it works better. We could not find the roasted red chile paste this grocery trip so we just used a bit more sriracha and it turned out fine.

Blonde Brownies with Chocolate Chips and Marcona Almonds: these were a bit on the sweet side for me, I was not wowed like I normally am by Joy’s recipes but P liked them 🙂

Turkey, Kale, and Rice Soup

December 8, 2013 by Mariah Leave a Comment

Well, in the interest of keeping it real and revealing our eating habits, I have to say this week was lighter on the cooking side than normal. I think possibly cooking fatigue from Thanksgiving and trying to use up leftovers (plus I was a bit under the weather).

We did manage to make turkey, kale, & rice soup using mostly our leftovers; so that was a win for the week.

For this recipe, you could use pre-cooked chicken instead of turkey.

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 cups kale, chopped
1 tablespoon, fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon, fresh sage, chopped
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
48 oz chicken stock
2 cups water
1 ½ cups to 2 cups chopped cooked turkey or chicken meat (we used dark and white)
4 cups cooked rice (we used brown)

Start cooking your rice according to directions in separate pot, when finished set aside. Heat olive oil in large pot over medium high heat. Saute celery, carrot, and onion until they begin to soften (about 10-12 minutes). Add salt and pepper, garlic, kale, rosemary, and sage; saute for another 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, water, and turkey; bring to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat to simmer for 45 minutes to an 1 hour. When ready to serve, place rice in individual bowls and ladle soup over rice. I like to keep the rice separate so that it does not absorb all the liquid in the soup.

This recipe is very adaptable. You could use noodles in place of rice. Also if you want to only use 32 oz of chicken stock that would be fine (I had extra laying around), I would suggest increasing the water to 3 cups and making sure to let simmer a little extra to get the flavor from the meat.

Since this week was so light for meals from us, I pinned a couple of my favorite cookie and appetizer recipes instead. I know during this time of year there tends to be plenty of opportunities to need a dessert or appetizer.

Smoky Bacon Pimento Cheese

Kimchi Deviled Eggs

Old Fashion Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, and Smoked Sea Salt Cookies

*This cookie is unbelievably good; threats have been involved over who gets the last one and everyone who has one wants the recipe. I actually like to buy dark chocolate bars for this and chop them instead of using chips. Also do not be afraid of the smoked salt…I use Frontier Alder Smoked Salt (grinder) found at Whole Foods and it smells crazy smokey. The first time I made these I was super light handed with the salt but there is no need to be, after they bake the smell is not as intense; so salt it up. I use salted pistachios, and you can find pre-shelled ones at Whole Foods but they are a bit pricey…I just make P do the manual labor. 🙂