Kale- Yeah, It's Still a Craze...

I haven't posted a recipe in a few days. I haven't cooked since I got back from my trip, because I've been at work every minute since we got back to Portland. Okay, I guess that means all I've done since I got home is
cook, but I haven't done any of my own cooking in my home kitchen. It's funny how you stop thinking about what you do as what it actually is, and it just becomes a habit of life. It's what you do, and you don't really know otherwise.

When I got home around 5:30 AM on Friday, the first thing I did when we pulled up was check out my garden and see how it was doing, even though I was exhausted and had been awake for 22 hours straight, and had to work in just a few more hours. I could barely see them in the faint light of the sun coming up, but I could tell that in the 4 days since I left (which ironically was at exactly the same time in the morning on Monday) my garden had exploded. The corn is taller than me. The squash is pushing out of the edges of their boxes and onto the sidewalk, and the 5 tomato plants now appear to be one mega-plant. All I wanted to do was water them, and see what is going on with everyone, but I forced myself to go to sleep. 

In the morning, I went out to water, and was amazed at how fantastic my garden looks in the light of day. There is now corn cobs growing, and tomatoes are on the vine but still not ripe. My indigo rose tomato looks amazing, I've never seen tomatoes like this. The side facing the sun is deep purple, almost black, and soon the rest of the tomato will ripen. I can't wait to use them in a fresh tomato mozzarella salad, or maybe in a gazpacho. The color will be so fucking cool. 

And there's still all this kale. I didn't really eat all that much kale until it started growing in my garden. I just never got into the craze that much. My roommate, Anthony, is kale crazy and puts it in everything he eats. Literally, I don't think I've ever seen him eat something without throwing some of that green shit in it. So yeah, he's the one that planted the kale. A lot of it, like 7 plants. So I've been going out to the garden every time I eat and grabbing some kale to throw in.

It's good. It's versatile. I use it in salads, put it in my scrambled eggs, throw it in polenta, sautee it and eat it with gnocchi, or make kale chips.

Kale chips- I have seen people eating them everywhere, raving about how great they are. And I finally decided to make some while I was preparing snacks for our trip last Sunday. Why not? I have too much, and it will be nice to have something like that to eat while we're on the road. I wanted to do a kind of Asian theme, and it was an excellent choice. I used coconut oil, then a dash of fish sauce, some Asian spice that I put on everything but don't know what it's called, salt, and sesame seeds. After pulling them from the oven, i gave them a quick spritz of rice vinegar. Boom.

They are so simple, it literally took less than 5 minutes to make them. And I was amazed at how good they were. I planned on making them to bring on the trip, but instead I found myself snacking on them right off the tray while I continued to make other snacks. 

And then they were gone. I don't know what happened to them, one minute there was a full tray of kale chips, and half an hour later there were none. It's like magic. I can't wait to make more, because they are a damn good, addictive, and healthy snack. Win-win-win.

Asian Kale Chips

• 1 bundle of kale (I just picked a bunch from the garden, but if you're buying it, use a whole bundle)
• 1 TBSP coconut oil
• 1 TBSP sesame seeds
• dash of fish sauce- seriously, just a dash.
• salt
• pepper
• red Asian spice

Preheat oven to 300. The key is cooking low and long, don't rush and turn up the oven too high, or they'll burn.

All I did was take the leaves off the stems. This is easy if you grip the stem at the bottom of the leaf and pull upward. Just takes the leaves right off. Then I tore the leaves into smaller, chip-sized pieces. Put in a bowl.

Melt the coconut oil, and toss into the bowl with the leaves, and then add all the other spices, fish sauce, and sesame seeds. Make sure all the leaves are coated, but you don't want them to be over-dressed. They won't crisp up and will be soggy.

Lay in a single layer on a sheet tray, and pop in the oven. It took about 15 minutes for mine to be perfect. Once you pull them off, spritz a little rice vinegar on them to give a nice little sour punch. 

Try not to eat them all at once. Or do. They're so good, and healthy that you shouldn't feel guilty.