Kale Chips

We have been wanting to try making kale "chips" all summer, but it hasn't worked out until now. They were really easy to make, and taste great! We overcooked them, so this photo doesn't do it justice, but now we know to bake them for less time the next time around (I think they were in the oven for 8 minutes, it might be better to bake them for about 6 minutes or so...).

Kale "Chips" (from Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb kale, chopped
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 400˚.
2. Toss kale with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake, turning every 5 minutes until brown and crispy. Kale should be dry and able to be eaten by hand like chips!

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Napa Cabbage

We got a head of Napa cabbage from the CSA a few weeks ago, but weren't sure what to do with it. We finally made it tonight, using a loose interpretation of this recipe for Warm Apple-Cabbage Slaw (I used cranberry juice and added Craisins). We served it with corn from the farm and oven-"fried" tilapia. It was a delicious meal!

Here are some photos:



I also considered a bunch of other recipes before finally choosing one:

• Poppyseed Cole Slaw
• Napa Cabbage Salad with Lemon-Pistachio Vinaigrette
• Sesame Napa Cabbage Coleslaw
• Cabbage-Red Pepper Slaw
• Napa Cabbage, Carrot and Almond Slaw
• Napa Cabbage Slaw with Caribbean Citrus Dressing
• Chinese Cabbage and Peanut Slaw

You can find some great tips about how to cut cabbage here - I never knew that it can turn your knife black because of the chemical reaction when the cabbage touches something metal that's not stainless steel! (although this didn't happen tonight when I cut it and I don't think that our knives are stainless steel...)

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Stir Fry

We made stir-fry again the other night. (I already know what you're thinking - again?) What can I say? It's one of our go-tos...

This version included:

• Eggplant
• Orange and red peppers
• Yellow squash
• Green beans
• Celery
• Onion
• Brown rice

Dan made the sauce a little bit differently this time because I wasn't in the mood for soy sauce, so it was basically just a lot of juice from the pineapple. It was tasty!

Some photos...

The finished product!

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This Week's Share - 9/1/10

We received some new and interesting items this week! Any ideas on what to do with them would be greatly appreciated...

Napa Cabbage

Okra

Celery

Tomatoes

Yellow Squash and Broccoli

Bell Pepper and Hot Peppers

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Red Fire Farm Tomato Festival

This past Saturday was the Red Fire Farm Tomato Festival - I had been excited about it all summer and it turned out to be a lot of fun! It was much more crowded than we had been expecting, which made things a bit hectic, but overall we had a good time.

Inside their barn were all different varieties of tomatoes (see the photos below) and other produce for purchase. We had fun wandering around looking at everything. We bought several melons and a bag of apples. The apples (Macintosh) have been quite tasty - we haven't cut the melons yet, but the ones we tasted at the festival were delicious (we bought one Peace Yellow melon and one small watermelon).


They had food vendors, including Black Sheep Deli which used their veggies in what they were offering. I had wanted to get a quesadilla, but they were out by the time we got to the front of the line. :( Oh well, the bruschetta was very tasty! Dan got grilled tomatoes, which were very good as well. I also got an apple smoothie and an AMAZING lemon almond cookie from El Jardin Bakery.

We waited in line for a very long time to taste lots of different heirloom tomatoes. The tasting was held inside their new building covered with solar panels - it's really a neat concept! As you can see from the second photo below, they will be able to generate half of their electricity from these panels once it's finally hooked up!


Although we would have liked to taste ALL of the kinds they were offering, they had a lot of trouble keeping up with the demand. I would say that we still tasted about 30 or 40 tomato varieties, and I'm not sure that I would have been able to eat that many more anyway. My favorite varieties were Matt's Wild Cherry, Juliet, and Favorita. Although my three favorites were red tomatoes, we also tried some that were green, orange, or brown. It was quite an experience!


After tasting the tomatoes, we had the opportunity to pick some veggies of our own - as CSA members, we are entitled to a certain amount of each kind of vegetable the farm grows. We hadn't had an opportunity to get to the farm before now, so we were excited to pick a lot of stuff!

We picked several pints of tomatoes, two pints of green beans, and ground cherries:


If you've never tried ground cherries, they are quite different from what I was expecting. They are ripe when they fall off the plant, and to eat them you peel off the husk and then eat the small yellow fruit inside. I actually thought they tasted more like grapes than cherries. Dan liked them more than I did!


We also had the chance to pick our own flowers - I'd never done that before, and it was a lot of fun creating our own bouquet. We were allowed to pick up to 7 Sunflower stems, and up to 10 of the other varieties. I've been enjoying our arrangement all week...

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