weekend cooking – Page 3 – Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; Buttermilk Coffee Cake from La Jolla, CA

Okay, I’m not really there but one of my favorite cookbooks is Southern California Cooking from The Cottage by Jane and Michael Stern and Laura Wolfe and it makes me feel like I’m there. I whipped up this breakfast cake for overnight guests from a visiting church choir. I adore this cookbook and I remember purchasing it because of all the great breakfast recipes and I think it was the first cookbook I sat down and read like a book. It has great stories about how the restaurant was purchased by the Wolfe’s mixed with surfing and restaurant memories. I have several starred recipes with penciled in notes about when I made each and how it turned out.

The cookbook is divided into 10 typical sections (breakfast, breakfast breads, soups, salads, sandwiches, dressings and sauces, sides, dinner, and desserts) but the recipes that fill each are extraordinarily yummy!
We love breakfast at our house and I could easily make every single recipe from the two breakfast sections. Everything from Country French Toast, Breakfast Chiliquiles, 3 different eggs bene’s, to Laura’s Meatloaf Hash which uses leftover meatloaf. I’ve not made that one but now that I have several sources for good, local beef it could happen.

The sandwich section is my second favorite part of this book with recipes like the B.L.A.T (we love avocado here too), the Eggplant Panini, and the Brie, Avocado and Sun-Dried Tomato Melt. Yum! Who’s ready for lunch??

Here is the Buttermilk Coffee Cake recipe:

A great cake to serve in the morning or anytime during the day. Buttermilk Coffee Cake has been a staple at the Cottage since the beginning. We offer bites of it to customers waiting for a table when the place is packed on weekend mornings. (I love these little notes for their ability to place me right there, waiting for a table.)

1 cup canola oil
3 1/3 cups flour (unbleached)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 tsp. baking powder (aluminum-free)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I had pecans so I used them)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13 x 9-in pan. In a large mixing bowl combine the oil, flour, sugars, cinnamon, and ginger. the mixture should be crumbly. Set aside 1 1/3 cups of this batter. To the remaining batter add the egg, buttermilk, baking powder, soda and salt. Mix well. Pour the batter into the baking pan. To the reserved batter add the nuts and spread topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 25 minutes or until cake springs back to the touch. Makes 12 pieces of (warm, crumbly) cake. (52)

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads-click there to find many more food-related posts.
Some day I hope to take a food journey to La Jolla so I can sit at the cottage and enjoy the casual ambiance.I might even have a Sam Smith Organic Lager listed on their drink menu. Click here to see The Cottage website.

Happy Cooking!

Weekend Cooking; Whipping up something yummy with Groovy Girl

[photo credit]

Did you know October is National Cookie Month? I didn’t until we visited the library a few days ago and they had a table display of kid’s cookbooks laid out (just for us, I’m sure) and we picked just a few!

Kitchen for Kids; 100 amazing recipes your children can make

Jennifer Low

176 pages including index/glossary

We didn’t make cookies but we did read through the whole book cuddled together in our comfy chair. Wednesday night after she thumbed through it again she found a recipe she really wanted to make and said in her sweetest voice: “We have all the ingredients! It will be so simple.” I’d already made a pan of our favorite eggplant lasagna for dinner and wasn’t looking forward to more time not relaxing after dinner but after I perused the recipe I agreed. I couldn’t resist her or the recipe. Could you have resisted?

Gooshy S’More Cakes
[makes 4 ramekin cakes]

Cakes:
4 large marshmallows
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour [spoon in, level]
1/3 cup whole wheat flour [spoon in, level]
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Chocolate Goosh:
1/4 cup water
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Pop the marshmallows into the freezer.
2 Preheat the oven to 350*
3. To make the cake, melt the butter in a bowl at 50 % power in the microwave (about 1 minute). Use a whisk to stir in the sugars. Cool slightly. Stir in rest of ingredients for the cakes (so not the Goosh) until smooth. Spoon into four ramekins or baking cups, filling 2/3 full. Put a cold marshmallow in the middle of the cake.
4. To make the Goosh, put the ingredients in a cup and heat at 50% power in the microwave, until hot. Stir smooth. Pour over the marshmallows and cake batter.
5. Put the ramekins or cups on a baking sheet. Bake 23 minutes or until puffed, the chocolate is bubbling and the marshmallows melt into top crusts. Cool until warm. Don’t unmold.

Eat it right up! You could lick your bowl but you might get your nose stuck in the ramekin! I would have taken my own photo of them but I couldn’t find my camera fast enough and then… they were gone.

The cookbook is well-designed with lots of photographs to ooh and aaah over. 6 sections are divided into 1. breakfast, lunch and dinner
2. breads and crackers
3.cookies
4. cakes
5. pies, pastries and squares
6. candies, confections and cool treats.

You can see where the emphasis is; kid-friendly sweets. Low also provides an interesting section on organizing the kitchen for your child, tools and measuring instructions.

We liked the Paddy Thai Noodles from the first section, the big soft pretzels from the second section, alphabet cookies from the third section and candy marbles from the last section. Most recipes don’t include as much microwaving as the s’mores cakes, which is good because I’m a little weird about using the microwave too cook. Many recipes in the book are done in smaller sizes or kid-sized. This is definitely one book you will want to read the recipe through before making something just to make sure you will have enough. I’m pretty sure we’ll make a few more recipes before we return it to the library.

Jennifer Low’s website.

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads. Stop over there and find many other food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Weekly Menu

Tomato Pie

Oh so many recipes to share! This week my menu planning for has been very exciting. We ate leftovers (garbanzo pesto soup) from last week’s guest menu two days out of the week. Then I made a Sweet Potato Soup inspired by this post at one of my favorite new blogs, Sweet Mama Jane’s. On Thursday night I made this amazing Tomato Pie that I discovered on Janssen’s Everyday Reading and she via Perry’s Plate. This pie was delicious and because I didn’t think my kids would really enjoy the combination of flavors I made them something else and served the pie just to my husband and I, date style, after he got home from a late meeting. He loved it and I shared a piece with my co-worker, Janice, and she asked for the recipe. This pie was quite perfect as it was but I could imagine it with sprinkles of local bacon under the cheesy/mayo topping. The pie had a BLT quality and this got my mind thinking about bacon.

It is a virtual cornucopia of recipe sharing out there. It is so easy to pick and plan when there are such a wide variety of recipes around! I find much of my inspiration on the internet, googling ingredients to find a recipe or from blog posts but I’ve also turned inward toward my own cookbook collection to new and favorite recipes. Friday night, with a little extra time on my hands, I used the last of Janice’s cherry tomato bounty, which she shared with me, to make Giada’s Cheeca Sauce and tossed it with spiral pasta. Shocking was the fact that Groovy Girl hated it. She said the orange cherry tomatoes taste funny to her. Seriously.

I found this Potato Pancake with Cinnamon Apples in a Tyler Florence book from my own cookbook shelf and I plan to make it this coming week. I love apple season.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads-pop over and see many other food related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Oatmeal Apple Scones for our guest

It’s not a happy thing to look back on my week, blog-wise and know that my last post was my cooking post from last weekend-especially when I have many finished books waiting for review. We did have a busy week plus we had a guest this week-my husband’s cousin came from Colorado via the train and we had a great time catching up. My husband drove the two-hours to pick him up from the train station and I got inspired and made scones for the next morning. This recipe was incredible easy, fairly healthy and they tasted good. I can’t find my camera or I would share a photo of the finished scones.

Oatmeal Apple Scone Drops
(makes 12 scones)

1 cup uncooked old-fashioned cooking oats
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 medium, organic tart apple, unpeeled, cored, finely chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 egg, slightly beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine oats, flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl; stir until well mixed. Cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed.
Drop batter by 1/2 cupfulls, 2 inches apart, onto lightly greased baking sheets. Slightly flatten each mound.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick trick comes out clean. Remove to wire cooling rack.
Can add drizzle of powdered sugar (3/4 cup with 2-3 T of water) if desired over warm scones. Serve warm.

Drizzle would make them pretty but I chose not to add it and they were wonderful. I would add it though if I were to make them for a party or brunch. I did not have golden raisins in my pantry so I substituted dried cranberries, which totally worked. I would try other substitutions next time like slivered almonds with the apples sounds good. I always use milk mixed with a little vinegar to make my buttermilk. I just cook so infrequently with buttermilk that this easy substitution works great for me.

They turned out like a breakfast cookie, with a more casual free form shape, compared to another scone recipe I make that requires rolling the dough and cutting into neat large triangles. Everyone liked them and even though our cousin is health-conscience and is trying to stay away from sugar, he had one because, as he put it…he knew I baked them with love in honor of his visit. I didn’t have the same willpower; I ate three the first day.

Happy cooking!

Weekend Cooking is sponsored by Beth Fish Reads. Click on her link to see my cooking related posts.

Weekend Cooking; An Easy Green Product to Love

Every Saturday morning this summer my husband has been getting up at the crack of dawn to load up his van and goods from our kitchen to sell at our local farmer’s market. He is steadfast and hardworking. We aren’t farmers though and the only reason he chose to do this is to do something with his church youth group-it was a way to earn money for their mission trip to W. VA. Half way through the summer they had enough so each teen could go on the trip and their original fee was waived. The market kept going though and now the earnings are just getting the youth group fun back in the green.

Handsome husband, Groovy Girl and youth group + customer

My husband learned last Spring how to grow a variety of different sprouts and those have sold well at the market. I started making about 4-5 loaves of my Simple Pot Bread every week and they usually all sold. When I first started experimenting with making multiple loaves I didn’t like wasting the saran wrap the recipe called for to cover the rising bread. I tried using parchment paper and some rubber bands (FAIL-the rubber bands kept snapping off) and ended up in the grocery aisle searching for a solution.

I found a funny looking product by Cover Mate; Stretch to Fit Food Covers. They look like clear plastic shower caps!! They work perfectly to cover bowls of dough, allowing it to rise and then I can use it again and again and again! I dislike throwing things away and I love it when I find a positive solution.

Weekend Cooking is sponsored by Beth Fish Reads. Click to her link to find many more food-related posts. She has a chicken wing recipe that my husband would love-maybe I should make it for him for all those early Saturday mornings he left me snoozing while he tip-toed out and to the market!

Have a peaceful week!

Weekend Cooking; Chocolate Birthday Cake

Groovy Girl’s birthday is just around the corner and tomorrow I will be making her a cake and decorating it too, Last year I made the same chocolate cake but with white frosting because she wanted to decorate it herself and there she is up above with her decorated cake-turning 8. This year our little cake lover is going to stick with a more subdued chocolate frosting and a little less decoration-they result will still be delicious and creative.

I’ve made this chocolate cake for her three years in a row and it is from my Baking Illustrated; The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker from the America’s Test Kitchen people. I LOVE this book because it provides me with all kinds of tips, tricks and the reasons why they work.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake (360-361)
(serves 12)

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
12 T. unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup nonalkalized cocoa, such as Hershey’s, sifted
2 tsp instant expresso or coffee powder
1 cup plus 2 T milk

1 recipe (to follow) Rich Chocolate Cream Frosting

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease two 8-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with rounds of parchment and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Beat the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and instant espresso powder in a medium bowl. Combine the milk and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer at the lowest speed, add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the milk mixture; mix until incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process twice more. When the batter appears blended, stop the and scrape the sides with a spatula. Return the mixer to low speed; beat until the batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan sides and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until they feel firm in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick comes out clean, 23-30 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack; cool for 10 mins. Run a knife around the perimeter of each pan, invert the cakes onto the racks, and peel off the paper liners. reinvert the cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.
5. Assembly and frost the cake according to illustrations on page 144-when you turn to pg 144 you are given detailed directions on anchoring the cake with frosting, frosting in between the layers and how to get a smooth top. Mine never looks like their’s even though I follow the directions but it still tastes wonderful. Frost and slice.

Frosting:

16 ozs. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; pour over the chocolate. Add the corn syrup and let stand 3 minutes. Whisk gently until smooth; stir in vanilla. Refrigerate 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until the mixture reaches a spreadable consistency. This frosting does not keep well, so it should be served within a day.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads-click on over to other wonderful food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Mouth-watering Vegan Chocolate Pudding

My stepdaughter, Kaylee, has been here all week and anytime she is here I step up my cooking. This week I tried three new recipes; one from my Sept. Vegetarian Times and two from Alice Waters’ In the Green Kitchen. All were delicious but the most adored recipe was a Vegan Chocolate Pudding from VT. It was completely unfair to pit this mouth-watering chocolate recipe against two other very good choices so you can find their recipes at the end of this post. Several of us dreamed about the pudding that night after eating it and talked about it the next day.

(image courtesy of Seraphic Singles)

Velvet Smooth Dark Chocolate Pudding (Sept, 2011)

This warm stove-top pudding packs a punch of deep chocolate flavor. It’s the perfect recipe for a quick company dessert or a simple nighttime treat.

3/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
3 T cornstarch
2 1/4 cups unsweetened hazelnut or almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz vegan semisweet chocolate, chopped

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in hazelnut milk, whisking constantly to combine. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, or until mixture thickens. Stir in vanilla, and remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate, and let stand for 1 minute. Stir until smooth.

Mine didn’t thicken as much as I thought it should. We called it chocolate soup but licked our bowls anyway. Now I have to try, try, try to make this again and see if I can perfect it! Oh, the tribulations!

Here is the Lentil Soup recipe.
Here is the Apple Galette recipe.

I’ve loved paging through In The Green Kitchen and am thinking I might have to buy it. Waters’ has it set up with an informative opening about what a green kitchen is and how to stock a green pantry with a great list. Each featured chef has their own section, with their green cooking tip; something like David Tanis’ Simmering Beans advice followed by his recipe for White Beans with Garlic and Herbs, which I plan to make this week.

Weekend Cooking is a weekend meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any food related post can join in-click on her link and take a look at all the other foodie-posts!

Weekend Cooking without the cooking; Food For the Soul

It is blisteringly hot here. We just rode our bikes to the library. It was Groovy Girl’s idea…oh, it was hot, hot, hot especially for a little girl to pedal a bike without gears. We did pick up quite a few tasty nuggets while we were there though so I present to you today a combination Library Loot and Weekend Cooking; a mixed bag of ~~greens~~ books!

Food for the Soul:

1. In The Green Kitchen; Techniques to learn by heart by Alice Waters (2010).

Alice is a food queen, to me! I’ve briefly paged through this handy book and know I’m going to enjoy it. She highlights chefs known for their love of local food and each shares a cooking tip and a recipe. As I open the book at a random page, David Chang is the featured chef , and his tip is “Pickling Vegetables” (81) where he writes about using salt and sugar for quick pickling to serve watermelon, radishes, daikon radishes and cucumbers as appetizers. Right now this sounds like an excellent idea as it doesn’t involve turning on the oven. I may have to request this for my birthday which is just around the corner (Aug. 3rd).

2. Mama Panya’s Pancakes; A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlain; ill. by Julia Cairns (2005).

This is a delightful book from one of my favorite publishing companies, Barefoot Books. Adika and his mother head to the market. As they travel Adika, always one step ahead of his mother, invites all the friends they meet to join them for his mother’s delicious pancakes. He brags and she worries! Mama knows she only has two coins in her pocket to buy flour and a hot pepper. Adika keeps telling his mother it will all work out and as their friend’s arrive for the pancake feast they each have something to share.

The watercolor illustrations are filled with the bold colors of Africa and the end pages have tons of related information including a map of Kenya! I love when a book about a country does that; it makes it so much easier to share that information quickly with students as you read the story. Great choice. Of course, the pancake recipe is included. According to the notes pancakes are eaten around the world and it shares the names-Scotland-bannocks, France-crepes, Mexico-tortillas, Indonesia-dadar gutung and China-bao bing. Now I’ll know how to order one of my favorite foods.

Find other food-related posts at Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post.

What else did find at the library, you ask?

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (read yesterday’s post and find out why I was happy to find this one on the shelf.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman-It was on the hold shelf for me and it will be my next read after I finish One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper-This one just practically jumped off the shelf at me as I perused the YA new shelves.

Now I’m grabbing my book and I’m off to the local water-~~ing hole~~ park to join Groovy Girl and her friend.
Have a blissful weekend whether you’re cooking or not!

ps. I found this great blog, Sweet Mama Jane while perusing for a photo of Alice’s book. Click there to read a full review of In The Green Kitchen.

Winning Recipe of the Week

(Food Network Image)

Menu planning has been chaotic this summer but I’m still working at it. My friend, Verda, sent me this recipe to try. One week I purchased some of the ingredients at the farmer’s market but then that week I didn’t have time to make an actual recipe-it was a lot of noodle soup and cold sandwiches. Yesterday I had the time and my ingredients were still good. Oh, and the results were so delicious and luckily there are leftovers.
Thank you for sharing Verda!

Lemon Rice and Eggplant-Chickpea Curry

3 T. olive oil, divided
1/1/2 cups basmati rice
4 cups chicken stock, divided (I used veggie stock)
1 bay leaf
1 lemon, zested
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cardamon, optional (i didn’t have this)

1 T. butter

1 med. onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped (I used two baby eggplants and didn’t peel)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 14-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 15-oz can of chick peas, drained
salt and pepper
2 rounded T. mild or hot curry paste
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped roasted cashews (I used sliced almonds because they were already in my cupboard, begging to be used)

Directions:
Heat a med. pot over med. heat with extra virgin olive oil. Add rice and toast for 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups stock and the bay leaf, lemon zest, tumeric, coriander, cumin and dardamon. Cover pot and bring rice to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer rice for 18 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork, remove bay leaf and add butter. Toss to coat the rice evenly.

While the rice cooks, make the vegetables. Heat a deep non-stick skillet over med. heat with 2 T olive oil. Add onion, garlic, eggplant and bell pepper. Cover and cook stirring occasionally 7-8 minutes. Uncover and add the tomatoes, chick peas, salt, pepper, curry paste and remaining 1 cup stock. Simmer 6-7 minutes longer. MIx scallions into rice and top with vegetable mixture. Garnish with roasted cashews (or almonds in my case).

The spices were wonderful and Groovy Girl walked through the kitchen at one point and said “something smells really good!”

This recipe is from Rachel Ray and the Food Network.
Linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme-anyone can play along with a food-related post.

Weekend Cooking; Ribbons of Kale

Last week I wrote about my Farmer’s Market shopping spree and through the week I’ve made a few recipes with my produce. I discovered two new recipes for kale and I made my children eat beet greens (they didn’t eat a lot but they ate some). I researched kale and found 9 reasons to eat kale and if you click the link you can read them also. Loads of fiber, antioxidants and vitamin K.

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale
(adapted from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson)

Slow Cooker size: 4-6 qts
Cook Time: 8 hours
Setting: Low

1 T. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/4 cups dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
6 cups vegetable stock or water
1 T. tamari or other soy sauce
Sprinkles of Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 to 5 large kale leaves, tough stems removed

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic, cover and cook until softened, 8-10 minutes
2. Transfer the cooked vegetables to a 4- to 6- qt slow cooker, add the lentils, stock, and tamari; cover and cook on Low for 8 hours. (this is where I completely veered off recipe and made the entire thing in the same large saute skillet-apparently I LOVE heating up my kitchen in the heat of the summer) Season with salt and pepper.
3. Meanwhile, or beforehand, tightly roll the kale leaves up like a cigar and cut them crosswise into thin ribbons. Cook the kale in a pot of boiling salted water, about 5 minutes, and add to the soup when ready to serve.
I served ours over brown rice and I didn’t boil the kale down. I just popped it into the lentil mix about 10 minutes before eating and it wilted enough for us. It was yummy!

Second kale recipe:

Tuscan Kale with White Beans and Garlic
(The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman)

1 cup dried cannellini (white kidney) or great Northern beans (I had garbanzos on hand-used them instead)
6 cups water
1 onion, halved (I like onion so I diced it and kept it in the bean mix)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds of kale, stems removed and leaves chopped, 16 cups lightly packed)
8 ozs smoked turkey or ham, diced (optional)
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 T. olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Saok the beans for at least 8 hours in plenty of water to cover. Drain the beans.
2. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine the beans with the water, onion, thyme and bay leaves. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer partially covered, until the beans are tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Remove and discard the onion, sprigs of thyme and bay leaves. At this point beans could be refrigerated for up to 1 day before continuing the recipe. Bring the beans and their liquid to a boil. Add the kale and the salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, stirring down the kale every few minutes, until the kale is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the meat, if using.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small heavy skillet over very low heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant and soft, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Do not let garlic brown. Mash the garlic with a fork. Add the hot pepper flakes, if using.
5. Pour the hot oil mix over the beans and greens and serve immediately.

I mentioned that our dinner had kale leaves in it and he said…oh, hmmm, that sounds good-I’ve heard kale is really healthy! Wow. Needless to say everyone ate both recipes and I went ahead and bought more kale at the market today. Also we had some ham from a local farmer so I did cube that up, heated it, and put the bowl on the table for our occasional meat eaters to add to the own plates.

My own garden has baby eggplants growing, okra (we’ve already eaten 5 pods from our two plants), tomatoes, basil, two kinds of peppers. This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme; anyone can play along with a food-related post. Click her link to see her review of Danyelle Freeman’s new book Try This.