A Couple of Successes and One Not So Much

Working through the bounty of the CSA last week, I did come up with a few new recipes that I think will be keepers. The first sounds really strange, but was strangely good!

Roasted Crispy Kale
Remove stems from one bunch of kale. Tear leaves into large pieces and wash thoroughly. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper to coat. Place on cookie sheet or rimmed baking sheet and bake at 375 until they are crispy and a touch browned. You will probably have to flip and move them around once during cooking to make sure all sides are cooked, about 10 minutes total.

It sounds weird, but the kale gets really, really crisp - almost like a chip - and melts in your mouth. I put a bit too much salt on (darn humidity made it clump!), but I can see doing this in the future with maybe some garlic powder and chili flakes too. Both my sister and I kept eating it and making ponderous faces after each bite. It tastes like nothing else I have ever had, and was unusual and good all at the same time.

Kale with Carmelized Onions and Balsamic
Based on a recipe in Vegetables Every Day

1 bunch Kale
1 large onion
olive oil
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
salt/pepper to taste

Remove the leaves from the kale and wash thoroughly. Set a pot of water to boil with a heavy pinch of salt. Plunge the kale in and blanch for 3-4 minutes. Drain. Saute the onion in olive oil over medium/low heat until carmelized and soft. Add the kale and Balsamic vinegar and cook a few minutes more.

This recipe I really liked. The carmelized onions added a nice sweetness, and the balsamic added to that with a sweet/tang that really set the dish apart! I have never blanched kale or any green before, but I liked cooking it that way as opposed to sauteing the heck out of it and making it soggy. This I will be making again.

Not really a veggie, but pretzels are a favorite around my house. My sister loves them and we seem to make them whenever she is around.

We use the recipe out of the King Arthur Flour Cookbook. It has never failed us!

The Spring Forward sock is now on a time out. I'm asking a few friends to measure their insteps as the socks are too small for my sister also. I have a bad feeling that they may just get ripped. The pattern repeat is 11 stitches - too many to add another full repeat to the sock. I really do like the pattern, so I may play around with sticking a knit or purl column inbetween each repeat. Or, I may just move on and knit one of the other ninety-billion sock patterns I have!

Blowing the dust off the mittens I started a while back, they are now back in the rotation with the immanent demise of the sock. Yes, I am knitting!

Our Fridge Runneth Over

We got our first CSA delivery this week. All organic, grown locally. A great resource to find one, or any type of local produce and products is Local Harvest - just punch in your zip code and all your local options appear!

Lots of goodies this week including strawberries. There is just something about fresh, local strawberries. The flavor is unlike anything you can get in a store! They are intense!

(click through to get all the details)

To supplement the CSA, I planted bunches of other veggies in the garden that we didn't really get last year. Despite the less than ideal amount of sun per day, the tomatoes seem to be doing well.

The second picture is of the Roma tomatoes. One of my favorite kinds. I'm hopeful we will be overrun with giant red orbs soon!

The hanging plants also seem to be enjoying their upside down growing. Both the pepper and tomato (I grew this one from seed so it's a bit behind the others) are getting big and ready to flower soon.

Believe it or not, I have also been knitting! The Phyllo Yoked pullover is now ready to start the lace section. Doing only four rounds of stockinette seemed quick and easy, but with 300+ stitches per round, it goes mighty slow. Plus, I have not had much quality time with the couch lately. Between the garden, training Ace and the new favorite nighttime activity I have hardly sat down at night. The sock, however, has seen some nice progress due to lunch hour knitting.

I really love how this is knitting up. A very nice texture and the wavy pattern is great! With only a few yarn overs per repeat, it is not overly lacey either. The yarn is wonderful stuff. A wool/bamboo/nylon blend, it can be a tad splitty, but it is worth it. The color is beautiful and I love just looking at it when I knit.

Tucker, Ace and I are off to New York this weekend. It should be fun - Ace will get to meet his Aunt Misty (his dad Razz's sister) and cousin Knight (Misty's son). Knight is also the son of Ravin the red dog I trained a year or so ago. It will be like a family reunion!

Welcome Summer!

I'm just starting to get back into the swing of things after a long weekend in Maine. A whole bunch of my agility friends went, and we had a blast. None of us did very well in the qualifying department (I think there were only about 5 qualifying rounds total amongst the 6 of us and our 36 runs!) but we had so much fun just hanging out and wandering around Freeport at night. We ate at one AMAZING bar-b-que restaurant (I couldn't stop saying how good my sandwich of pulled pork, fried jalapeños and chipotle sauce was!), wandered LL Bean and got some ice cream. The weather was a bit iffy - hot and humid when the sun came out, beautiful when it was overcast. We did get a few thunderstorms also. Good thing Tucker doesn't mind them!

I also spent a lot of time watching the Standardbreds train. There was a track right next door to the area we were at, so inbetween runs, Tucker and I would walk over and watch. We were so close that you could smell the horses - it really took me back to my "horsey" days. They were just memorizing flying around the track. I'm always surprised how many agility people are ex-horse people. I guess it's very similar to Showjumping, but on a smaller scale!

Believe it or not, I have also been doing a little knitting. As I mentioned in my previous post, I managed to get the sleeves and body of the Phyllo pullover all on one circular - now, with about 300 stitches per round, it's taking a while, but I know that the end is near and the fun part of the pattern is about to begin!

I'm hoping to do some more on it this week. Seems like nights have just been going so fast lately that I barely have time to sit down and eat dinner, then it's time for bed!

In honor of the start of Summer of Socks 2008, and the fact that I haven't knit on a sock in I can't remember how long, I cast on for the Spring Forward socks. (looks like Jessica had the same idea!) The yarn - Woolarina Shimmer, a wool/nylon/bamboo blend - just screamed summer to me. It reminds me of sherbet (I'd really like to put another "r" in it - sher-BERT - but spell check insists it has none. I guess I've always pronounced it wrong?). The pattern is easy to memorize, and knits up fairly quickly (when you work on it!).

I think these will be for my sister. We'll have to see if she likes them....