My Day of Kale

Friday night we had friends over for a fish fry.  Bubba and Charles had been fishing on the river earlier in the week and had caught enough bream for a nice meal.  Charles, as usual, brought something from his garden.  Earlier in the week he had given us some lemons, one of which was in a lemon pie I made for desert.  This time he brought more lemons and a bag full of kale, which we had never tried before and certainly weren't sure what to do with it.  Charles enjoys trying new things in his garden and usually has great success with whatever he plants.

Kale is washed and ready to use.

Today (Sunday) I didn't feel like going to church so while Bubba went to Sunday School, I surfed the internet looking for information on what to do with kale.  I washed it very gently getting off any grit and trimmed the stems.  I laid it in a big pan in between layers of paper towels and proceeded to try the following with my newfound healthy vegetable.

Salad:
I didn't think it was going to be that great raw so I just layered kale and tomatoes in a salad bowl and we ate it with ranch dressing. We liked it like this.  I would definitely use it as a salad green again.

This was a simple salad, but it was tasty.

Sauteed Kale with Garlic:
A lot of kale turned into two small servings as I added garlic to olive oil and gently wilted the kale.  This had potential.  It was very chewy and after going back and looking at the recipe again, I realize that I should have allowed it to steam for a longer period of time.  It tastes very much like spinach.  Next time I have a recipe that calls for red pepper flakes in addition to the garlic and I'll cook it longer.

Apparently, this needed to cook longer.  Also the stems
even though they are small and thin, didn't get tender.

Baked Kale Chips:
I was really excited about this recipe.  In my mind this was going to produce something akin to potato chips and I would keep bags of it on hand for a snack when the cravings for something crispy and salty set in.
It was interesting, but I probably would not do this again.  I had two pans full and would have been baking all afternoon if I planned on filling up bags.  One bite and they disintegrate into nothing.  Nope, they won't be replacing potato chips any time soon.  This was an Ina Garten recipe so I was surprised that I didn't love it.

Before

After

I can't wait to tell Farmer Charles that I have properly tried his latest vegetable.

I'm more excited about making a Lemon Cheese Cake using the lemons he gave me.  This is not really a cheese cake.  It has no cheese of any kind in it.  It is a very light cake with a wonderful cooked lemon filling.  I remember this cake from when I was a little girl.  There was an old fashioned bakery close to where we lived and they always had a Lemon Cheese Cake in the bakery case.  Mama would occasionally get one for dessert when we had company and it was delicious.  Of course, I'm eating right again so I may only get a tiny taste but I'm looking forward to trying something new that isn't a healthy vegetable.

Looks good, doesn't it?