Oh, KALE Yeah!

I went to my favorite Whole Foods today to pick up some salmon.

Somehow I ended up with way more than salmon in my cart, but that’s not really a surprise. I tend to get carried away in that store. Not irresponsibly. I won’t pay $6 for a container of strawberries or $8 for a bar of soap, but not everything at Whole Foods is a fortune. They actually have some great sales AND they take coupons, so I do pretty well there.

My one splurge today was a bunch of Dinosaur Kale. It goes by other names as well, like Lacinato Kale or Tuscan Kale. It is bigger and flatter than the typical Curly Kale. It also is supposed to have a more delicate flavor.

There is a recipe in Auntie’s newest cookbook, Make it Ahead, for Parmesan Kale Chips that calls for Dinosaur Kale. 

This will bring us to cookbook #11 of 98.

Let’s give it a go, shall we?

Here’s the kale before I hacked it up:

And here it is when it is all laid out on parchment paper. 

And here’s the finished product:

I can’t say enough good things about this recipe.

All three of us scarfed down the entire batch. It is far superior to the typical kale that I’ve been eating. 

Consider us hooked. Auntie does it again!

Parmesan Kale Chips
Serves 6 

Kale is a delicious vegetable that seems to be everywhere now. If you can find flat kale—sometimes labeled cavalo nero, Dinosaur kale, or lacinato—it can be roasted for the perfect light bite to serve with drinks. It’s simply kale, olive oil, and salt, and it roasts in 15 minutes. Of course, freshly grated Parmesan cheese makes everything taste better. 

1 large bunch flat-leaf kale
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

With a sharp knife, remove and discard the hard rib from the center of each leaf, leaving the leaves as intact as possible. Place them on the sheet pans, drizzle or brush them with olive oil, and toss to coat lightly. Sprinkle generously with salt and bake for 10 minutes, until crispy. Sprinkle lightly with Parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. Cool and serve. 

MAKE IT AHEAD: Prepare and cool to room temperature. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Reprinted from Make it Ahead. Copyright © 2014 by Ina Garten. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

The Tides Have Turned

Cookbook #5 of 98....

A little bit of Auntie herself.

Interestingly enough, this is a recipe that I have tried before, but I have NO recollection of making it. I did not recognize the name of the recipe, even when checking the ingredients. I didn't even see the notation I made at the bottom of the recipe:

When it came time to make it, I looked more closely at the page and noticed my very descriptive and potential Pulitzer-Prize winning notation:

Can you see it over there in the bottom right corner?

No? 

I guess that's why I missed it upon first glance. 

If you can't manage to make it out, it says....."ICK."

Apparently I did not like this recipe when I made it. I don't remember it very well. The book came out in October 2008.

My, how things have changed!

Since changing my eating habits with the 17 Day Diet over a year ago, my palate has certainly evolved. Foods I wouldn't dream of touching before are now some of my favorites!

I guess I can count broccolini among them now?

This recipe was quick and easy, although prepared differently from how I typically do my vegetables. Auntie wanted me to boil the broccolini. I have some issues with boiled vegetables. Mainly stemming from my mother-in-law annually murdering a poor head of cauliflower or broccoli at Christmas dinner by boiling the life out of it and plopping it into a bowl.

I know now that boiling for the correct amount of time does not suck the life out of the vegetable. This was a quick two minutes in boiling, salted water. Thanks, Auntie.

After that, its just whisking up a few things in a measuring cup and pouring over the broccolini. 

It was fast, easy and tasted so good hot or cold! 

Action shot:

Keeping the balsamic theme going, I ate mine with my favorite chicken:

Here is the recipe for Broccolini and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I halved the recipe because I didn't want to be stuck with a huge batch. Half made plenty! Enjoy!

Hidden Gem

Cookbook number 4 of 98 just knocked my socks off!

I pulled it off the shelf and figured that this would be one that ended up in the discard pile at the end of this experiment.

Another relic from the late 1990's and the beginning of my relationship with my husband:

The White Dog Cafe Cookbook.

When I was first dating my husband, we were living in New York. He had grown up just outside of Philadelphia and I had never been there before. Being the crazy kids that we were, we decided to get in the car and drive to Philly so he could take me to the White Dog where we would eat nachos and drink Leg Lifter Lager. We literally drove to Philadelphia, looked at the house where he grew up (not telling his parents that we were driving right by) and then went into the city to sightsee and eat.

Ahh, young love. You can stay up all night and do impulsive things and it never seems to take a toll on you. After being married for 15 years I can barely make it until 10:00 before I start falling asleep!

The following year we went back to the White Dog Cafe with my husband's family for Christmas Eve dinner. It was not as good as the beer and nachos night.

As one of our gifts, my future mother-in-law gave us the White Dog Cookbook. I don't recall ever using it. I'm sure I paged through it at the time but it must not have spoken to me, so it sat on the shelf untouched.

Imagine my surprise when I took it out and found myself putting flags on multiple recipes! I guess I needed to grow into the book to appreciate it?

I chose a soup recipe because it is FREEZING here. Literally. It's going to be 0 degrees tonight. Brr.
Making this soup was a bit of a project, but fortunately it was well worth it!

Ratatouille Bisque

This soup was AMAZING. Well worth the effort. It wasn't hard to make, but it was what we call in Yiddish a "patchke." That means it was a bit of a mess. There are multiple roasting pans involved, lots of chopping, using the blender or food processor, etc. This doesn't bother me but I know some people don't care for too many steps and a bunch of pans to wash! Regardless, I think this soup is worthy of the time and mess. It was that good!

I did adapt the recipe just a bit to fit into the 17 Day Diet. I also cut it in half because I didn't want to be stuck with a huge pot of soup that no one liked if it wasn't very good. I'll post my version of the recipe here and just let you know that it can be doubled to make more.

Ratatouille Bisque

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1 small head of garlic, roasted (easy to do...cut off top, pour on a bit of olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 in the oven. I threw mine in the toaster oven.)
1 large red bell pepper, chopped and seeded
1 large yellow pepper, chopped and seeded
1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
1 bulb fennel, fronds removed and core cut out, chopped
1 eggplant, sliced lengthwise
6 large, ripe plum tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups water
1 T Balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 packet of Truvia (recipe called for 1 tsp sugar)

Toss peppers, onion and fennel in a bowl with half of the olive oil.
Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until lightly charred for 45 minutes

Toss the tomatoes with 1 T of the oil and spread on another baking sheet and roast until charred, about 30 minutes.

Rub the eggplant halves with the remaining oil and put them cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

When the vegetables are done, remove and let cool to room temperature.
Remove the eggplant pulp from the skin by scraping out with a large spoon. Discard skins. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skin.

Puree all of the roasted vegetables in blender or food processor in batches.
In a large, non-reactive saucepan combine vegetables with the remaining ingredients. Taste for seasonings and add more tomato juice or water to thin if needed.

Depending on who is eating it, you can serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese or some crusty bread.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what other treasures this cookbook has in store!

Ode to Joy

#2 of 99......

The Joy of Cooking

It was the second cookbook that I can remember buying for myself. The first was a Betty Crocker baking book that I picked up in college. We'll visit that one another day.

This book was purchased at the beginning of my relationship with my husband. All of the cooking I had done previously was either from magazines or my mother's collection of cookbooks. She didn't have many, and most of them were either Jewish cooking or Chinese. Go figure.

The Joy of Cooking was my go-to for absolutely everything. It covers all the bases, and I used it to make everything from Vichyssoise (Leek and Potato Soup) to Tiramisu. My mother's copy was well used, and looked something like this:

I guess I knew my boyfriend and I were on a serious track, because I went out and bought my own copy of The Joy of Cooking thinking I would need it when we set up our own little home. I can't get over the fact that my version is approaching 20 years old! There have been updated editions since 1997, but I'll stick to mine for nostalgic reasons. 

Unfortunately, the poor book fell by the wayside once I discovered Auntie Ina....and even moreso with the internet becoming the go-to place for recipe ideas. I have to say I am kind of thrilled to pick this one up again, it really is a gem.

That being said, I had to stick to my guns and find something healthy to make.

Luckily, there were plenty of options in my old friend!

I chose Baked Eggplant.

I wanted something relatively easy, and something that my husband (the vegetarian) would eat. This recipe had only a few ingredients and took less than and hour to prep and cook.

As usual, I had to toy with the recipe a bit...I ended up using two larger eggplants rather than four smaller ones. I also chose to use some crushed tomatoes we had from our CSA farm share rather than using fresh as the recipe called for. I tossed in some garlic as well. Those are the only changes. I'll put  the original recipe here, and you can feel free to change it up if you'd like.:

Baked Eggplant

4 oblong eggplants (about 6 ounces each)
3 ounces crumbled fat-free or low-fat feta
3 T olive oil
4 plum tomatoes, seeded, peeled and chopped (or just used canned...about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 clove of minced garlic

Halve the eggplants lengthwise. Score the cut surfaces with a knife without cutting through to the skin.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet, then add the eggplant cut size down. Cook at medium heat for about 5 minutes. Turn and cook on the second side for a few minutes. Remove and arrange cut side up in a shallow baking dish.

Sprinkle with ground black pepper and the crumbled feta.

Wipe out the skillet and cook the tomatoes until broken down into a rough sauce. Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste.

Spoon the sauce over the eggplants. Cover and bake until the eggplants are tender, about 35 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle the top with oregano and cook for another 5 minutes more.

Looks pretty good, right?

I ended up crumbling some of my leftover Turkey Sausage on top of it to add some protein. The husband ate it with some crusty bread. The kiddo turned up his nose and ate some Balsamic Chicken instead.

It's going to be a keeper in my house. Just like my trusty copy of The Joy of Cooking!

Old McAuntie Had A Farm

This summer we bought into a farm share. What this means is that every week a local farm delivers a bag of veggies/fruits and herbs to my husband's office. Whatever they pick that week, we get some. There's no real advance notice of what will be coming each week. It's like a treasure chest of healthiness that comes home each Thursday, and it is my job to figure out how to spend our riches!

One of the things that I like about getting a bag of mystery produce is that it forces me to try some things that in the past I either would not touch or had not really had the opportunity to try. The rule is that we all have to try everything in the bag, even if we think we are going to hate it!

Some of the veggies were easy. Lettuce, spinach, Asian salad blend. Others were a bit more involved, but nothing too overwhelming. Broccoli rabe, bok choy, radishes, and escarole.

There were Japanese Hakueri turnips and kohlrabi:

There were garlic scapes that were turned into pesto

And delicious sugar snap peas:

Fortunately the delivery is accompanied by a newsletter that has instructions on how to store everything, and also has some recipe suggestions. I would have had no idea how to prepare kohlrabi without instructions! Turns out, it is delicious roasted with some olive oil, salt and pepper. 

If you don't have access to a farm share, visit a farmer's market and try something new. Check out Pinterest for some ideas on how to prepare it. You may find a new favorite! As Auntie always says, "How bad can that be?"