Summer Ain't Bad - Part 1

Most people who know me probably know that summer is my least favorite season.  I shall spare you the (long) list of all the things that create significant drag for me in the summertime, because this blog is a happy place.  Instead, I am going to try to embrace summer this year by celebrating the things about it that are good.

For example, corn.  Corn is good.  It's really hard to beat fresh local sweet summer corn.  It's so good, you don't even need to do anything to it.  Just eat it right off the cob.  It's like candy.

That being said, there are ways to kick up corn, and my favorite way is Chili Lime Butter.  Oh my goodness.

Here is what you do.  Mash up about 1/2 a stick of room temperature butter with about a teaspoon (heaping) of chili powder and the zest of a lime until it's combined.  Cook some corn.  It really should be fresh summer corn, but you could do this with frozen stuff if it's the middle of winter and you're desperate.   Put some of the chili lime butter on the corn when it's nice and hot so it melts through.  Then, squeeze some lime juice over it.  Don't be shy with the lime juice.  You can add salt and pepper if you want, but you won't really need it.  Taste it first, and then decide. So good.  I swear.  Thank you, summer, for corn.

Fun with Gadgets!

Last Christmas, I got some Amazon money, and decided to use it to buy a mandoline slicer.  After reading lots of reviews of various slicers, I chose this one by Norpro (also the maker of my ravioli press!).  And yesterday, I finally got around to using it.

Kev.  He's always trying to get there to be more vegetables.  So, he recently sent me this link to a bunch of recipes for veggie chips.  I decided to start with the curried sweet potato chips.  So, I busted out my new slicer and got to work.  The slicer is awesome and so much fun!  It's really easy to use, and slices very evenly.  I haven't tried any of the other blades, but I'll let you know when I do.

After I sliced up the sweet potatoes, I put them in a bag with the oil and spices and let Daphne mix them up:

I had to cook them quite a bit longer than the directions said, so just make sure that if you make these, you keep an eye on them and cook them until they get crispy but not burnt.  Here they are, right out of the oven:

These were really tasty, full of Vitamin A, and made the house smell really good.  They make a nice side dish on sandwich night.  Yum!  I bet you could use butter, brown sugar and cinnamon instead of olive oil and curry spices too.  Might have to try that sometime...

Original recipe below:

Curried Sweet Potato Chips from NPR

2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced paper-thin
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For easy cleanup, line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place sweet potato slices in a large bowl and, using your hands, toss with oil and spices until coated. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove from oven and eat.

Stuffed

Sometimes, we just have easy snacky dinners.  Cheese and crackers.  Sandwiches and a smoothie.   Last night, I wanted to keep things light and simple, so we had a spinach salad with strawberries and fresh mozzarella, some good rosemary bread with dipping oil, and some stuffed mushrooms.  I am positive there are more complicated and much tastier stuffed mushrooms out there, but these are really simple and quick.  I usually just serve these right out of the baking dish, but this time I copied Fireworks Pizza...they serve their stuffed mushroom appetizer on a bed of tomato sauce, so I did the same, and grated some parmesan cheese over it.  Points for presentation.  To make these, all I did was cook some Italian turkey sausage and combine it in a bowl with some bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese.  I took the stems out of some large mushrooms and filled them with the sausage mixture, put them in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and grated some more parmesan on top.  I baked them at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, heated up some Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, and served as above.  Simple, filling, and pretty tasty for as easy as they are.  If you are more organized, you can chop up the mushroom stems and add them to the filling.  Sometime, I want to try using crab meat, too.  But that's way too complicated for a Thursday.

My quest for finding lighter springtime recipes continues.  You will be the first to know if I succeed.

Thank You, Billy the Produce Guy

I don't really love going to the grocery store.  Before we got a Wegman's here in town, it was REALLY bad.  There are few places as uninspiring as the Safeway by my house.  Going there sort of makes you not want to eat food anymore. Wegman's is great, and makes shopping much better, but when all is said and done, it's still really just a chore.  So, when I have to go, I like to have a plan, get in there, get what I need, and get out as soon as possible. This is much easier when I go by myself.  Taking people along creates grocery store drag.

This weekend, I ended up having to take Daphne with me to the store.  On Saturday afternoon, even.  Wegman's is at its most crowded on Saturday afternoon.  I was filled with dread.  So, in hopes of making things easier, and since Daphne can read now, I decided to give her the job of checking things off my list.  I told her to get a pencil because we had a "mission."  I don't know what I will do when tricks like that stop working.

Long story short, for me, this was one of the most fun trips to the grocery store in the history of shopping.  Daphne sat in the cart with the list and her pencil, all business, checking things off and making tally marks if we got more than one of something.  Wegman's was having an organic foods festival, so they had lots of samples and little give-aways.  With all the free pink lemonade and rooster tattoos, everyone was on good behavior, and no one was whining, complaining, or asking for toys and candy the whole time.

Our last stop was the produce section, and after we got everything we needed, we decided to check out the "weird food" endcap by the bananas.  This is where they keep unusual things like aloe leaves and cactus leaves and plantains and weird squashes and so forth.  I told Daphne that she could pick something from the section and take it home and try it for a Star Wars point.  After much deliberation, she narrowed it down to either a kiwi or a starfruit, but then she couldn't decide. I figured this was going to take all afternoon.  But that's when I spotted Billy, the produce guy.

I like Billy the produce guy a lot.  I have asked him questions before and he is always a big help.  So I told Daphne we'd get an expert to help her decide.  I wheeled her over and we told Billy that she wanted be adventurous and try something new, but she couldn't decide between the kiwi and the starfruit.  He played right along.  He told her he's never had a starfruit, so could she please try it and come back and tell him how it tastes?  Decision made.  Then, he told us that if we wanted to be even more adventurous, we should get some kale to take home and make kale chips.  And Daphne got so excited that the "Owner of Wegman's" was talking to us, that she insisted we get some kale right away.  OK!  I wonder if Billy the produce guy could get Daphne to eat melty cheese?  I almost think he could do it.

Anyway, we went home with our kale and decided to make the chips right away to go with the last of our pasta fagioli leftovers.  I was completely suspicious of this recipe, but they were really good!  I let Daphne make them pretty much by herself.  First, you rinse and dry the kale and tear it into chip-sized pieces, getting rid of the stems.  Then you toss it with olive oil and salt:

Then, spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet:

And bake them at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes until they are crispy:

Kale is a superfood.  Low in calories, and really high in nutritional value.  Tons of Vitamin A. 

I will definitely make this again as a snack or side dish.  Super easy and tasty.  I overdid it on the salt a little, so I'll watch that next time.  And I may try to sneak in some parmesan cheese next time too.  If you Google kale chips, there are lots of ideas for seasoning out there.  And at least one person crumbled them up on some popcorn.  Sounds weird, I know, but I bet it's good.

So, there you go.  Kale chips.  Thank you, Billy the produce guy.  We'll see you soon with a starfruit review.