Kale Chips

I can't believe I've never made these before. It's not like I hadn't heard of them or read about them before. It's just that I thought they sounded - I don't know - like they were hard to make.

Kale tossed in olive oil + Mom in the background

Boy howdy was I wrong about that. Wash the kale, toss it in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 15-20 minutes. So, so easy. It comes out thin, crispy and delicious - kind of like potato chips - only not really. And more delicious. I'm so glad my mom suggested making them - and I'm glad we had fresh kale from KCCUA's transplant sale.

giant kale chips

We tried crumbling our kale chips into our popcorn, as per someone's suggestion on Smitten Kitchen. It worked okay, but we couldn't make it stick. In truth, I was happy with the Kale Chips alone. They don't need anything else to make them great.

Here's the recipe from Smitten Kitchen who, remarkably, doesn't like kale (?!)

Baked Kale Chips
Adapted from a bunch of inspiring places

1 bunch (about 6 ounces) kale (I used Lacinato or “Dinosaur” Kale but I understand that the curlier stuff works, too, possibly even better)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs. Cut into large pieces, toss with olive oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet (I needed two because mine are tiny; I also lined mine with parchment for easy clean-up but there’s no reason that you must). Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.

Weekend with Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad came for a visit last weekend - a great visit. Mom and I shopped for maternity clothes on Friday; on Saturday we went to the KCCUA Transplant Sale to buy some vegetables, to check out the farm and to admire the transplants.

Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture

Mom, Dad and me at KCCUA

transplants

Dad and his transplant

Even though it would be days before he got back home, Dad decided to buy a tomato plant - a Zapotec Pleated Tomato plant. We will call it the Miracle Zapotec Pleated Tomato plant if it stays healthy all the way back to OKC. I am optimistic it will and I look forward to trying the pleated, ruffled, pink-red flesh of the fruits that it will bear.

Mattie Rhodes

After the transplant sale - where we bought tons of fresh spring vegetables - we went to have crepes for brunch at Chez Elle on the Westside. It was a beautiful, sunny day so we took a walk through the neighborhood stopping in at Mattie Rhodes gallery, taking a gander at the Herb'n Gardner's urban farm, and picking up some agua de jamaica, agua de tamarindo, and diet coke at the Los Alamos market.

spring outside of blue bird bistro

peaking over the wall at the Herb'n Gardener's Urban Farm
(CSA SHARES STILL AVAILABLE for 2010!)

At home that night we made a big stir fry with all our vegetables from KCCUA - turnips (white and red), carrots, pak choi, bok choi, and turnip greens. Plus some well-preserved green beans from my freezer. After dinner we put up the big screen and watched The Botany of Desire - the fabulous PBS film version of Michael Pollan's book - and had popcorn with kale chips (more on the kale chips).

stir fry

Sunday came too soon and the weekend ended. Time to plan the next visit.