warm kale salad with apples and raisins

it's funny how certain foods get popular. it makes me cringe when i see hipsters wearing t-shirts with kale slogans, or certain hot sauce roosters. at some point the popularity will wear off, but we're talking about food, not bell-bottoms. the fact will still stand that kale has wheel-barrow amounts of stuff that we need. interestingly, kale also has more protein per calorie than beef. so let's not discard it just because we may be sick of hearing about it!
but let's face it, even if we know it's good for us, and even if we think that eating it might make us cool, if we just don't like, how long will our determination last?
I like kale, but I like kale with things, in things, and with other things on it. like this salad. when i eat this for breakfast i feel satisfied without feeling heavy. and it's delicious.
tip: you don't feel satisfied after eating veggies for breakfast? chew. chew a lot. there is a lot more texture in a kale salad than in a fried egg with toast. take your time eating and give your brain a chance to catch up.


1/2 of a head of green kale, leaves torn from the stems
1/4 onion, sliced thinly
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 green apple, peeled and diced
dressing:
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
2 tsp maple syrup
walnuts

warm the oil in a large pot with a lid. add the onion and saute uncovered until it's soft.

add the kale and wine and put the cover on. turn up to medium-low or medium depending on the strength of your stove. you want the wine to steam the kale, but you don't want it to 'cook' on the bottom of your pot. mix together your dressing

check it often, giving it a stir to mix in the onions and move the kale around. when the kale is bright green and a still a little stiff add in your raisins and apples, stir and cover again for just a minute or two.

move it all to a bowl and drizzle your dressing over the top, and add as many walnuts as you like.

serves 4 as a side, 2 as a hearty breakfast.

goes well with goat-cheese/hot pepper jelly sourdough toast

Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins

 That's right, english muffins! If you are a bread customer visiting my blog for the first time, welcome! This is a forum for my creative adventures (mostly culinary the last few years), and starting this week I will be using it sometimes to share pictures of my weekly special.

  I also share recipes for most of the products that I sell. None of my recipes are secret, and I'm not afraid to share my knowledge. My baking service is just that, a service for busy people that enjoy homemade, healthy, preservative free baked goods. If you have the time to bake your own at home, power to you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. If you want to leave it to me, wonderful! I love feeding people.

Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins (adapted from many recipes, all of which are easy to find)

Night Before:
 1 cup starter
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup whole milk
1 cup warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups unbleached white flour
    Mix together until flour is moistened. It will be very wet and shaggy, but that's ok. Cover with a clean towel and leave out over night.

Next morning:
1 tsp baking soda
1-2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
cornmeal for dusting

Mix in the baking soda, salt. In a mixer with a dough hook (or a wooden spoon, changing over to hand kneading) add the flour half a cup at a time until you have an elastic moist dough that isn't tacky anymore. Then give it a good work out for about five minutes.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness, keeping it even through out. Use a 3 inch biscuit cutter or a drinking glass to cut your muffins. Gather the scraps and roll out again to get as many circles as you can. Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkled with the cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warmish place for about an hour.

Warm your griddle on medium and lightly oil. Place as many muffins as you can comfortably fit in the pan and grill for 2-3 minutes, depending on how hot your pan gets on medium. you want them nicely browned but not too crispy. Flip over and cook for another 2 minutes. This will leave them ever so slightly under-baked in the middle, giving you a classic result when toasted. Repeat with the rest. Store in an air tight container in the fridge. YUM!

Dutch Style Red Cabbage

So sad. I am down to my last few items left over from this years farm share. Some parsnips, a few potatoes, and two red cabbages.

But on the up side, this was delicious! A great peasant meal. We ate it with baked sweet potatoes and some toothsome sourdough rye. I often end up thinking after meals like this "Wow, those peasants sure know how to eat!" It was a wonderfully satisfying combination for a snowy and bitterly cold (11 degrees...) day.

Dutch Style Red Cabbage from Nourishing Traditions

1 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp raw honey, or maple syrup for vegans
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of water
2 apples, peeled and quartered (I sliced them)
2 tbsp. butter, or coconut oil
1 tbsp. raw wine vinegar ( I used apple cider vinegar)
you could also add some raisins for extra sweetness if you'd like

Rinse the cabbage and place in a heavy pan. In a small pan mix the bay leaf, cloves, salt honey and cinnamon with the water and bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage and cook gently about 20 minutes. Add the apple (and raisins if you want) and cook about 10 minutes. Remove cabbage with a slotted spoon to a warm serving dish and toss with the butter and vinegar.

Serve with simple food and marvel at the culinary prowess of those peasants.

Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella

A return to food! Oh how I've missed it. As it turns out, I like writing about food almost as much as eating it (living vicariously, nix the calories?). And last night I finally had it together enough early enough to try a recipe that I have been eyeing for a while now.

This salad came together pretty easily and quickly. I had roasted the peppers right after lunch and then let them sit until I was ready and that was perfect. Watching peppers roast is always one of those things that sounds so easy and effortless when I read about but it usually seems to takes longer than they say and I'm always afraid that if I turn by back they'll go from crisp and fresh to crisp and incinerated in seven seconds flat(not true). So if you feel you may have that tendency as well, I suggest the roasting happens early and leisurely.

4 large red or orange pepper
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 small onion thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. fresh oregano and basil, chopped
1/2 loaf country style bread (I used my oatmeal molasses) torn into chunks
1 ounce thinly sliced soppressata
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces

Roasting the peppers:

Preheat the broiler. Rub the pepper all over with olive oil. Broil them until you've blacked the skin on four sides. You'll have to watch them and turn them a little more often as they warm up.
Transfer them to a large bowl and cover it with a plate. This will steam the peppers and loosen the skins for later. They can sit at room temp all afternoon, if need be.

When you're almost ready to eat:

Turn the over to 400 degrees.
Peel and seed the peppers. Cut them into 2 inch strips and toss them with onion, garlic, vinegar, half of your herbs, and about 4 tbsp. olive oil, in the same large bowl with some pepper juices left over.

Toss your bread chunks with a couple tbsp. olive oil and spread on a cookie sheet. Toast them for about 8 minutes, stirring them every now and them until they're crisped on the outside, but a little soft on the inside. Let them cool.

Now you can arrange everything on a platter. Toss the soppressata with your peppers and throw the cheese around haphazardly. If you like, you can out the croutons on first and pour all that pepper sauciness over them so that they absorb the flavor. Or you can arrange them amongst all the other ingredients to keep them crisp.

I served this with some pasta, soft boiled eggs, and sourdough.

Enjoy! If you tweek it your way let me know how it goes...

Real Black Bean Brownies

Ever since I heard about them I really wanted black bean brownies to work. The idea that something so rich and delicious could potentially be better for you is always appealing, but brownies!? really?

I've had different versions that have completely covered the spectrum. Some were chalky, powdery, hard, etc. Some were amazing. My sister has made some at my Mommom's house (who cannot have wheat) that were dense and gooey and so chocolaty that my grandfather never knew they were anything other than boxed. (We never told him). And my Aunt recently shared some with homemade almond flour, coconut oil, chocolate chips, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. The almond flour gave them a great texture and depth of flavor that I will have to try sometime.

But when I asked both of them how they made them it was "Oh, a shake of this..." "A scoop of that." "You know, about this much..."

So I had to make my own. I've combined ideas. "Coconut oil is hard to keep smooth" said my sister. So I liquefied it and then stirred the sugar in to keep it from clumping. And "It seems to help mashing the beans with the cocoa, because otherwise you get bean chunks" was my Aunt's tip. So, taking all of that under advisement. Here's my version.

Real Black Bean Brownies (Tyson asked "Are those REAL brownies, or black bean...?" How dare he...)

1/2 can of black beans, drained
3/4 cup of dark cocoa
1/2 cup of coconut oil, warmed until liquid
2 eggs, or 3 for more cakey brownies, whisked together.
3/4 cup to 1 cup of sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
chocolate chips as desired (reasonably)

preheat oven to 350 and butter a 9x9 pan.

in a bowl, mash mash mash the black beans with cocoa using a pastry blender until it forms very small uniform clumps and you can't see any more of the whiteness inside the beans. take no prisoners! it will seem very dry and crumbly, but don't worry. stir in your baking powder and salt.

mix your sugar into the coconut oil. stir in your eggs and mix well. stir in vanilla.

mix the wet and dry together. pour into your prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. turn the oven down to 300 and bake another 15 minutes. check on them. if the middle still jiggles a little let them go another couple of minutes.

let them cool on a rack for a few minutes. if you used three eggs they may be puffy, but will settle down a little.

Serve with milk, whipped cream, frosting, ice cream, strawberries, raspberries, etc...

ps. this recipe does use regular white sugar, so they are not exactly "healthy". but I thought you should know that white sugar is much easier for your body to process safely when eaten without white flour. so high five to that!