My Weekend Six

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
(while waiting in the car for my favorite Indian restaurant to open - they close for a time on Sunday afternoons!)

It was an unusually warm Saturday here, and even though it's January in upstate New York, I saw several top-down convertible cars driving around in and one guy washing his car in the driveway. Unheard of - we are usually shoveling or snowplowing our way out of a couple of feet of snow by now.

Cleaned out the refrigerator and found some blue cheese I had forgotten about, so I made pork chops with blue cheese gravy. There goes Resolution #1! Steamed the rest of the fresh-picked kale, so hopefully that balanced all that fat ;o) I guess it wasn't that fatty, but when I say "cheese" and "gravy" in the same breath, you've gotta wonder...

Made some spicy apple butter with the rest of the apples that I had picked in September/October. I saw the recipe on tv the other day and it seemed like a good idea. Not too much sugar, so I didn't break Resolution #2 yet!

Crisis for the weekend - one of the cats got out early Saturday a.m. and came back with an injury to his neck. Took him to the vet and was there half the morning. He had got bitten at the base of the ear by "something" but luckily he is up to date on all his shots. Still quarantined for 10 days so this oughta be a fun week and a half. He rarely goes out, but when he wants to, he really wants to. Wish us luck!

Drove to a nearby town where they were celebrating the 212th birthday of Millard Filmore (his birthplace). Kind of fun, birthday cake, parade, activities for the kids. It was also a pot luck lunch, so I took beef stew... I googled and found that his favorite food was venison, but just couldn't make that. Ugh. So we made beef stew with corn and potatoes. We also ttok a jar of pickled beets because we read that his favorite color was "fuschia", but those didn't go over too big ;o)

Stopped at a tiny bakery on the way back and bought the best Italian cookies I've ever tasted. I'd been craving them since Christmas.

Must sort and organize pantry this evening (Resolution #3)! How does one acquire 7 cans of pears?! Gotta come up with something to do with canned fruit.

 
Weekend Six.....

1. first time making kale chips. One word: awesome!

2. Made turkey meatballs, completely improvised recipe, a little fish sauce, a little Sriracha, a little ginger... a little panko, a little parsley, and to add a funky twist some V8 juice. Turned out pretty pretty tasty. Sally pats herself on the back.

3. Made a whole wheat sourdough bread, very simple recipe from King Arthur book. Using my beloved bread proofing box. Great simple loaf of bread.

4. Took a bunch of photos of my dear beloved making his H=U=G=E batch of hippie granola. Will convince him to write a guest post on my blog.

5. Exercised pretty heavily Sat and Sun, so sitting down is an activity that requires mental preparation, otherwise loud moaning is involved. Same goes for getting up from a chair.

6. Filled a big box with clothes and shoes to give to good will. A nice way to end a great weekend.

Too good to be home, cooking, baking, enjoying our pets, our own bed...

 
I've had varying results roasting kale. Organic Delicata seems to work best,

but that doesn't seem to work well for salads. Generic grocery store works bests for crunchy salads, but this last batch over Christmas totally disintegrated when we added the oil and "crunched" it down. I think the store froze and then thawed it. The whole bag was wasted.

 
That's exactly what pushed me to do it....

I watched her show that morning, and the way she was nibbling on the chips made me crave for some.

I went to the store and found bunches of organic kale that looked gorgeous... that was IT. Brought them home, and went to work

so easy, and so delicious!

 
I really enjoy every recipe of hers I have made. Did they stay as

crunchy as they sounded? I'm going to make them.

 
Yes, they did....

I also love her recipes, although I often modify them to reduce the amount of fat a little and definitely use a less liberal hand on the salt

but her recipes ROCK! smileys/wink.gif

the chips stay crisp, in fact we left them in a covered bowl at room temperature and next day they were still crispy

be careful with the amount of salt, I added too much, the leaves shrink, the salt gets quite concentrated. Some of the leaves might dry in the oven sooner than others, so you end up with leaves that might be a little soft in some spots.

other than that, make sure you remove the central rib of the leaves - I don't think she did that in the show, but it is written in a recipe I found in the net, and I decided to follow it. Much better. A few of the leaves I simply cut in half lengthwise, and the central part was still there - not a pleasant texture.

 
It all started with Jacques Pepin several years ago. I'd follow

Ann's most recent version because--by now--all the glitches would have been worked out.

I liked the Delicata for this...the longer you bake, the FLATTER it gets. One batch was totally, absolutely flat....like Wile E. Coyote when he gets run over by the Road Runner. A full bunch of leaves ended up in a small soup bowl. We had a friend's houseguest come over that night. He's a runner and he ate the entire bowl by himself. It wasn't much, but it did start out an entire bunch, so imagine the nutrients packed in there.

I tried other kales and some just stayed soft. Not sure where I went wrong there.

I totally agree with Cathy's comment about cutting out the core/stems. They just don't work.

 
OK! It's official! I either have Alzheimer's or I'm an idiot. Wait...don't answer

that. For whatever reason I remembered Anne deep frying the kale. Now, Sally mentions some hints on roasting it in the oven. I had to go back and find the recipe (linked for anyone who might want it and laugh hysterically at me). So I guess when I make it I'll just go ahead and roast it just like you two. In the mean time I'll just go and whack myself upside the head a couple of times.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/crispy-tuscan-kale-recipe/index.html

 
Oven you say? (see post above) LOL!! I'm so surprised to hear

they stayed crispy so long. Kale is sooooo nutritious so this goes to the top of the must make pile. Thanks

 
My nephew turned me on to these - we did them in a 350 oven for about 20-25 min

Use an oil mister to apply the olive oil for best results, and be careful not to over salt.

They are positively addicting!

 
Yes, bought a used hard drive and had it installed, but my laptop has

become senile. It won't start when I'm on a battery (even if it's fully charged) and goes black for no reason every once in a while, so if I'm doing something important, I have to "save" a lot. Will suffice until I get a new one (when I find a 15-inch one that is in stock!) - don't want to order one online. No rush, this is ok for now although

Thanks for asking ;o)

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top