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About Me
Join me on a culinary adventure as I learn how to cook with local and simple ingredients by making all the recipes in Simply in Season. Along the way we'll explore the benefits of eating locally, including freshness, taste, nutrition, variety, environment, and local and global health.
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So, for the longest time I’ve wanted to make kale chips, I just never got around to it. Lately the kale in my winter CSA has been a bit on the dry side, so I figured now would be the perfect time to give it a try. I’ve read many variations on the recipe, instructions to bake from 350F to 450F, 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with oil and salt. Various kinds of oils or salt.
My first attempt was with Pam at 450F. About 5 minutes after putting them in I went to check on them and realized they were burned. Oops. So for my second attempt I drizzled olive oil on them, cracked some sea salt over them, stuck them in the oven and watched them like a hawk. Score! Nice and crunchy. Even the stems, which I was supposed to remove but it was difficult because of the variety, were tasty. It was more roasted than crispy, but the oil and salt were finger-licking good. Way better for you than chips!
It seems like everyone has a favorite recipe for baked oatmeal . . . except me. I’ve never made it. When others are exchanging their favorite recipes (usually in anticipation of serving a crowd, or to make a big batch to refrigerate and eat over the coming week), I just smile and nod. Until today!
For the past couple of days the stove and refrigerator have been in my living room. DH moved them so he could finish putting the tile in our dining room and kitchen.
On the right is where my refrigerator should be
Last Monday I had a Slow Food book club meeting. We read the Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine (click here to read my review). We were supposed to bring something with the theme “gourmet roadkill.” I knew right away I would bring venison chili with the recipe from Simply in Season.
Speaking of Simply in Season, I recently bought a couple of new “local produce” themed cookbooks from Amazon hoping to find more turnip recipes.
Doing Fitness Your Way
by Fit Jerk
Help – It’s something everyone needs from time to time. A helping hand, friendly assistance, mentor guidance and so on. And today there is absolutely no shortage of help available. You can literally get help in any niche from the people who’ve “been there and done that”. Some say this type of advice is invaluable… and at times it is.
But at other times, it’s a problem. Because it makes everyone lazy. An unlimited resource of help means fewer people are blazing their own trails. Just because something has worked once, everyone jumps on this bandwagon and tries to replicate and duplicate instead of innovate. It’s bull and it will only get you as far as it got the original person. No wait, it wont get you as far because it’s already been done!
For this month’s Can Jam Challenge, we were to make something that featured carrots. I looked through my books and decided that I would give marmalade another go. After all, this is supposed to be a learning experience, and I thought I might learn something if I tried again.
Elle at A for Effort gave me the Beautiful Blog Award. Isn’t it beautiful?
I found Elle’s blog through SITS, a commenting community which is a great place to find interesting blogs. I love her blog, for some reason I can really relate to a lot of her posts.
The rules for this award are that I have to tell you 7 interesting things about myself and pass it along to 7 other bloggers.
I have been thinking a lot about pantries lately. Not necessarilywhat goes in them, but the pantries themselves. Of course we’d all love a huge walk-in pantry, but most of us – at least me – are lucky to make do with the cupboards next to the stove and maybe a closet-sized pantry with shelves for canned goods.
Now that I’ve been cooking at home more, I have found myself getting frustrated with a lack of organization. Even after purging, I have bottles of spices falling every time I open up the cupboard doors, and bags of rice and potatoes getting stuck in the pantry door. Half of my serving platters are stored in the bottom of my bedroom closet.
Over the weekend I made some additions to the blog that I wanted to bring to your attention.
Look up: See the tab that says “shop?” That’s where I will post Amazon book reviews, as well as links to other things you might enjoy.
Look to your left. Lower. Lower. See the blogfrog widget? That’s a neat little service that connects together various blogs and is kind of like a forum-in-a-forum idea. Join us and share!
Below that is a new section I call “recommended reading.” These are items that catch my attention in Google Reader (some from your blog!) and I think are worth sharing.
That’s all. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
If you had asked me a year ago whether I had ever cooked or baked with wheat germ or oat bran, I would have given you the side eye. For starters, I didn’t bake or cook that much. Secondly, I would have assumed you’d have to go to an overpriced health food to get those items.
My how times have changed. The health food store is still overpriced for packaged/processed goods, but a downright bargain for bulk items and spices. And this morning, I couldn’t wait to make Mostly Oats Granola from Simply in Season.
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