Tuscan Kale Salad

Serves 4 people    



Kale is a form of cabbage within the species Brassica Oleracea and is a cousin to broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. It is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat and has powerful antioxidant properties.  It is also considered to be an anti-inflammatory.  How wonderful that something so delicious is also so good for you!

Ingredients

2 bunches of organic Lacinato Kale (the dark curly variety)
½ c. fresh lemon juice
½ c. extra-virgin olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
pinch of red pepper flakes
fleur de sel or sea salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste
shaved Pecorino Toscano (or Pecorino Romano if Toscano is not available)
2 thick slices of artisan bread with the crusts trimmed off

Wash the kale leaves well and dry on a clean dish towel.
                                               
Trim crust from bread and then crumble bread slices onto a cookie sheet so that you have small crumbs of bread.  Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes or until browned but not burned.  Set on stove top to cool. 

With a reamer, extract the juice of one or two lemons into a glass measuring cup until you have ½ cup.  With your fingers or a small fork, remove seeds and large pulp.  Add ½ cup of the best extra-virgin olive oil you have available to you, along with the minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and white pepper to taste.  Whip with a small whisk or a fork. 

Thoroughly dry kale leaves, then slice ends off with a chef’s knife.  Thinly slice kale leaves with chef’s knife and put in your serving bowl.

Just prior to serving, dress and toss kale with lemon vinaigrette.  Garnish with the freshly toasted bread crumbs.  With a regular vegetable peeler, shave large thin slices of Pecorino onto kale. 

Enjoy your delicious, refreshing and exceptionally healthy salad!

Chicken Breasts with Cremini Mushrooms & Tomato

Serves 2 people (or one person, a dog and a kitten)
                       
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.       

1 supreme (a complete boneless skinless chicken breast)
1/4 pound sliced cremini mushrooms
4 whole garlic cloves
3 fresh heirloom tomatoes cut into quarters
1 Tbsp. unsalted French butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
kosher or sea salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste

Place supreme into a small ceramic casserole and toss in the quartered fresh tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to the uncooked chicken and tomatoes.  Salt will draw the liquid out of the mushrooms while cooking and can cause them to steam rather than to sautee so I add the salt to the uncooked chicken instead.  Sautee the sliced mushrooms and whole garlic cloves in the butter and olive oil for a few minutes, until the garlic and mushrooms just start to soften.  Remove from heat.

Pour the sauteed mushrooms and garlic over the chicken and tomatoes and bake for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  Split portions between two plates and finish with a sprinkling of fleur de sel.     

If you do not like garlic, you can sautee sliced shallots with the mushrooms instead.  The shallots are also delicious and even more French, especially if you add cream, stock and a little port or madeira, which incidentally becomes <<Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons>>.  Oh-la-la!

Introducing . . . Henry!

The newest addition to our family is a tiny Bengal kitten whom we have named Henry Louis.  Henry is 3 months old and a whopping 2 pounds!  He and Enzo have become fast friends.

Beyond the Pale of Knit & Purl

Knit 1, purl 1.  Knit 2, purl 2.  Purl 2, knit 1, purl 2 . . . .  after a while you just want to bust a move and break out of the monotony of knit and purl.  I ventured beyond the pale to try two new stitches and love both of them: lattice stitch and honeycomb stitch.  The two projects above were trial runs made with Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton in Poppy.  The top one is a scarf in honeycomb stitch that I made for my friend Teresa in Los Angeles.  The bottom one is a baby blanket for my friends Rodney and Carolyn in Atlanta who just had baby twins, Vera and Beck.  I think that both projects will become a staple at the little bee marketplace and will be available this fall. 

baby kitty blanket for henry

Henry is coming home on Saturday!  We are very excited.  Enzo is beside himself knowing he will finally have a companion. Thinking that Henry will probably feel a little lost without his mama and siblings for the first few days, I knitted a baby-kitty-sized blanket for him to snuggle up in.  Okay, yes, I know, it will more likely become a scratching pad or be dragged through the house like a dead animal, but that's okay. . . whatever Henry wants . . . .

Tian for Two

A tian is a layered baked vegetable dish that is versatile, light and delicious.  It is best when made with seasonally fresh vegetables and white wine. 

After returning home from a long day at the office, followed by a tennis match, I improvised dinner with what I could find in the kitchen:  Yukon Gold potatoes, Italian zucchini and grape tomatoes.  I sliced the potatoes and zucchini into even rounds, coated them with olive oil, fleur de sel, white pepper and herbes de provence, then tossed it all together with grape tomatoes and layered it in a baking dish. 

For an ideal tian:

Use fresh leeks, a little garlic, zucchini, fresh plum tomatoes with the seeds removed, and small eggplants.  Chop leeks and garlic and quickly sautee in a little olive oil.  Layer bottom of baking dish with sauteed leeks and garlic.  Slice the vegetables into even rounds and decoratively layer in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of your favorite white wine and add bits of cold butter and fresh thyme sprigs.  Season with sea salt and white pepper.  Bake at 375 degree for about 35-40 minutes.  Yummy!

Working with Silk

With the weather getting warmer, I am venturing from wool to lighter blends with cotton, linen and silk.  Loving Malabrigo Yarn as I do, I tried their Silky Merino, a 50/50 blend of delicate lustrous silk and their famously ultra-soft baby merino.  The result is light, shimmery, and ethereal.

Malabrigo makes this yarn in sublime colors like Narciso, Wisteria, Rupestre, Azul Azul, Loro Barranquero, & Evening Violet.   All yarn is kettle-dyed in small batches.

If you love Malabrigo as much as I do, you too can stare for hours at the new colors of Silky Merino online at this address:

http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/sub_yarn.php?id_sub_yarn=15