Kale for Beginners

Kale (r) feat. its pal, Basil (l)

Nothing quite makes one want to hide in a corner with a heaping plateful of healthy greens like seeing an ad for nacho cheese-drowned Cheetos on a gas station window right after yoga class. But maybe that’s just me.

Either way, you’re getting a post jam-packed with leafy goodness.

I’m sure most people have gotten on the kale train by now, but if you’re still intimidated by it, I’m here to hold your hand. Not literally…that would be weird. Instead, I will share/remind you of some recipes I’ve posted in which kale is featured, but isn’t the tough, bitter thing that haunts you in your sleep. But you really don’t have nightmares about it, right?

I might recommend a smoothie to those most freaked out by kale, which may be ironic since green drinks could potentially seem the most repulsive. But you can’t even taste it in this TropiKale Smoothie, I promise! Just pretend it’s green from the kiwi.

Help! What are your freezer-friendly favorites?

Hey, hey, hey...look who's got a bun in the oven!

Rachel and Josh’s kid will be here soon! Sooner than predicted actually, so I need to start whipping up some dishes for their freezer, stat. This experience will be interesting as I’ll be cooking with meat for the first time since November 2009! gulp.

So, help me out, omnivores: do any of you have favorite recipes or suggestions to share? You know, casserole-type dishes? Please link to them in the comments!

Some possible contenders right now include my dad’s meatloaf and/or my grandma’s chicken ‘n dumplings (remember my vegefied version?). mmm…

Spicy Purple and Sweet Potato Gratin with Coconut Milk

If I could go back in time to just last year, I would thank myself for one thing: coconut. I spent all my life hating it, but after putting myself through a year of trying it repeatedly, it’s quickly high-tailing it to my list of favorite things. I keep reminiscing about a recent coconut margarita, and have you experienced coconut ice cream? If not, change that ASAP.

Always seeking out new things to try, one of the most recent adventures involved the purple potato via a curry. Ever since then, I’ve been wanting to pair it with sweet potatoes. This may mostly be for aesthetic purposes because, come on, you know one of the main reasons you visit food blogs is for the food porn. However, the purple spuds are actually little antioxidant powerhouses which I thought would make an awesome duo with their also nutritious orange cousins.

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Patties!

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

You could maybe say that I’m on an uncommitted search for the best veggie burger. So far the winner is the Garden Bean Burger at La Tuna Grill in San Antonio. They make it with refried black beans and then top it with cheddar, guacamole, roasted salsa, and tomatoes. Sounds kind of like a chalupa on a bun, right?

Naturally this challenge gave me the impetus to try to make my own black bean burgers in hopes that they’d be half as good as the ones at La Tuna. Having never made a veggie burger before (what?!), I looked up recipes and found one that used refried black beans…but by “refried”, they mean “smashed”. Probably most bean burger recipes involve smashing…

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Tamales!

Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

Having been born and raised in San Antonio, I can assure you that I have eaten a fair share of tamales! Often my family has them on Christmas Eve, which is a very popular tradition down here. Every grocery store has corn husks in the produce section, and some even sell giant tamaleras for steaming huge batches of tamales. You might therefore assume that I’ve made tamales before, but nope…this is why they’re on my list!

Traditional tamales are meat-filled and usually have lard in the masa so I haven’t had so many in the past couple years due to the vegetarian kinds being less common. All the more reason to make my own! Maranda provided a vegan black bean recipe which sounded tasty, but I decided to go an easier route and fill mine with monterrey jack, hatch green chiles, and cumin.

I’ve always heard about how difficult, or maybe rather time-consuming, it is to make homemade tamales, but never really knew why. It’s a tradition for many families to get together and make large quantities for Christmas, so I guess making copious amounts of anything can become tedious. Since the husks need to be soaked a few hours, there is a little planning ahead, but after that, you make the filling, masa dough, and then assemble and steam.

Roasted Garlic Black-Eyed Pea Hummus

Do you eat anything special on New Year’s Eve/Day for good luck? My mom would always cook black-eyed peas (meh) and sauerkraut (no thanks!), which we’d have for dinner on the 31st. Come to think of it, shouldn’t it be a tradition on the 1st to start the year off with luck?

I don’t think of myself as a superstitious person, but do notice coincidences from time to time.

Two years ago I definitely didn’t have black-eyed peas for New Year’s because I had just made it to New Zealand. I’m not sure if they have them there, but am pretty sure that eating them for luck is a southern US thing. Anyway, aside from that amazing trip, the rest of the year was no good, partially because I was broke and bored: poor from the trip, and couldn’t find work (so I started a blog!). Last year I made this yummy black-eyed pea dip for a NYE party, and have to say that 2011 has been a much better year, at least in those areas. Hooray!

I just went ahead and tried an experiment with the things, and dang, what a win!

Thanksgiving Procrastinators Anonymous

Maybe you figured it out this weekend.  Maybe you’ve known for months.  Maybe you spent last Black Friday brainstorming for this week you freakazoid.

Or maybe you’re just like me and have no clue.  Is it bad that I don’t even know if I’m responsible for more than desserts this year?

I guess it’s time to finally start thinking about what I’m going to make for Thanksgiving.  Hey, when you don’t have a turkey to thaw, it’s never too late, right?  …

Just in case I’ve got some fellow chronic procrastinators out there, here are some yummies made or craved by me:

Butternut Squash Barley Risotto can be a side but is hearty enough to be a main dish for the vegetarians out there.  It’s so creamy and packed with flavor!

Why have Tofurky when you can have Crustless Potpie Over Sweet Potato Biscuit from Vogue Vegetarian?  Oh.  Em.  Gee.

And yet another veggie alternative that I’ve been eyeing for over a year: Nut-Stuffed Delicata Squash from Shutterbean.  Tracy says the sage makes the filling taste sausage-y!

Duh: T-Day requires carbs.  Double Duh: Carbs are 100000x better when homemade.  No-Knead, Overnight Dinner Rolls were a delicious and simple answer to my dilemma with my family’s lunchtime Thanksgiving last year.

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Cooking with Tea!

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique!  We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

Cooking with tea?  Interesting…though I almost didn’t do this challenge.  The vegetarian recipe provided sounded good, but potentially bland.  I did it though, and my instincts were correct, to me at least.

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Moo Shu!

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood.  They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

Okay, I’m days late with this challenge, but wanted to complete it because 1) I’ve missed a couple of recent ones, and 2) I can’t pass up Asian recipes.  I’m glad I did it because it is SO good!!!

Traditionally moo shu is made with pork, so being vegetarian, I went with a different stir fry recipe than what was provided for the challenge.  Otherwise, I used the hoisin and pancake recipes from Shelley and Ruth!

This is an easy dinner to make, but the prep can be pretty time-consuming.  If you chop the veggies and make the sauce the day before you want to eat it, I would approve of that (it’s what I did)!  The pancakes are a little high-maintenance as most doughy things can be, but aren’t complicated.  

Butternut Squash Barley Risotto

In grad school, my main source for recipes was AllRecipes.com.  I wouldn’t find out about food blogs until a few years later, and probably would have laughed if someone told me that years later I’d be writing for fun about baking and cooking.  (I might have stopped laughing if you then told me that I would still be freelancing at this point.)

One thing that drove me nuts about All Recipes is that so many of the comments would go something like this:

This dish sucked!  I subbed peanut butter for the broccoli, nixed the flour and doubled the tomato sauce, and it was TERRIBLE! (1 out of 5 stars)

I mean, really?  That’s totally not the recipe, so how can you rate it?

This was back when I would follow every single recipe to a T for fear of messing it up.

Now I’ve really let myself go and mess with most cooking and baking recipes, even if they’re for something I’ve never made.

Like risotto.