Kale

This was so good, I had to stop myself from eating it all, so Paul could have some when he got home. Yes, he had to work all day today, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the...

We signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. Every week from now until the very last week of October we get a box of organic food, picked that very day, whatever is in season. It's a surprise! Well when I was looking into it I saw that there would be a lot of kale. It was the only thing that was listed more than once. It was listed three times.

Local joe: What do you grow on your farm, JimBob?

JimBob: Down here on the farm, we grow strawberries, corn, kale, eggplant, cabbage, hot peppers, kale, tomatoes, kale, blackberries, kale.... did I say kale already?

Well I've never eaten kale. All I knew that it was a dark green curly leafed vegetable that was probably really good for me and something I wouldn't have liked in high school. But I love the idea of supporting local farmers and eating food that is in season and grown in my very own climate. And maybe I'd like kale.

This is only our second week of CSA and it's our second time eating kale. The first time was good, but this time was a mazing.

Of course, the recipe is Emeril's. He has never let me down. Not one time. I'm trying to think if there's another person who's never let me down. Emeril has transformed my eating standards.

I tweaked it a little, here's my poor-man's version:

Ingredients

• 1 lbs. bacon
• 2 small spring onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds kale, tough stems removed, leaves rinsed well and left damp, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 bullion cube
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a large saute pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. When cool, cut bacon to bite-sized pieces. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan.

Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the butter and when melted, add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring, until soft, 3 minutes. Add the damp kale and stir to combine. Add 1/2 cup water and the bullion cube. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Uncover, add the cream and lemon juice, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the kale is very tender. Add the bacon and adjust the seasoning, to taste.

Serve hot.

Please try. I liked it even better than all the cookie recipes I've tried.

Speaking of cookies, I'm making another recipe tonight. At that point I think I'll be able to confidently declare a winner. I have to say, I do like cookies. I must've just had a lot of bad cookies in my life. But I wish I still didn't like them. They don't make me feel awesome, they just make my mouth awesome, for 1 minute, then I feel all thick in my blood. But the kale leaves me feeling snugly satisfied.

A few projects that are long since completed

Two sets of baby bedding. They're really cute. It's hard to see exactly how cute from the pics, but rest assured it's the cutest bedding you've ever seen. Mamas did a good job picking out fabric.

A lamp I made. Actually two of them. Our music room has absolutely no ceiling lighting. I didn't want a floor lamp, because in the past the children have ruined them. I didn't want a table lamp, because we don't have a table in there. I really wanted something on the mantle, but didn't think a conventional lamp with shade would look right. So I invented this lamp.
I borrowed a jig saw from a friend who has every tool imaginable. I cut two circles out of MDF, one slightly larger than the other. Hollowed out the bigger one, and drilled hole for lamp cord. Glue big and little circles together. Paint. Screw in super excellent socket I got at a specialty lighting store (Home Depot apparently has ALMOST everything.) Attach the cord kit to the socket. Twist in lightbulb. Add candle hurricane from Michael's. Viola. It did cost about $40/lamp. So I didn't save any money, darn-it. But I did get exactly what I wanted. I still have to tape the cord to the fireplace, so it's not tackily floating around. The lamp on the right has tissue paper on the glass. The bulb was a little bright, right at eye level. I realized why all lamps have shades. But I love the look of exposed light bulb when it's not on. I ended up taking the tissue paper off, but maybe will put it back on if I have guests over in the evening.

I made a quilt for a wedding present. Didn't take a picture. The whole quilt was grey and white stripes with mustard binding and a big mustard house on it and embroidery of our kids artwork. There was a big rose, a sun, and cute family of apples. I think they liked it. I should've taken a picture. The bed below was the closest thing I could find so you can visualize it. But my stripes were much bolder. I think they were 4 inches each.

Cool headboard for that bed, eh?

I made the girls Valentine's dresses that are, what I consider, masterpieces.

Pettislip for Maggie's

My first foray into embroidery on clothes. I love how it turned out.

The great thing about Lucy's outfit is that I COMPLETELY designed it myself. I started with the pattern for Maggie's dress actually. So a lot of pattern making went on here.

The red corduroy was leftover from a Christmas table runner I made. So I consider it 'free'. It is essentially a tiered bubble skirt. The linen of the shirt and Maggie's dress was $1/yard at Walmart. As was the fabric for the pettislip.

The shirt was inspired by a Vogue pattern I have for an adult suit jacket. The neck is wide and low and the lapels are actually two separate pieces, the little one under the big one. The 3 pieces that make up the front of the shirt flare out at the bottom, feminine. And the sleeves have an open flutter at the elbow. Lots of buttons. I wish I had a better camera. You'd be so impressed with the awesomeness of the shirt. Elastic in the back, and slightly longer in the back

$10 and many, many, many hours of labor. By the way, we're trying to rock Lucy's self cut bangs.

Easter dresses. Also designed by me, to be fast and easy, and to only use the 1.25 yards I got as a 75% off remnant.

Can you see how beautiful the embroidery of the fabric is? $15 these two dresses.

We've been doing a lot of traveling and hosting the last few months, and I'm jonesin' to get my creative back on. It's been many weeks since I created anything but a 10 minutes clean room.