Spicy Kale Chips

This week, we got our first CSA share of the season.  Our share of seasonal vegetables comes from Waterpenny Farm, out in Sperryville, VA.  They have lots of great vegetables and some seasonal fruits which are both delicious. 

One of the items that came in our first delivery was a bunch of kale.  I'm going to admit it, I am not a huge fan of kale.  It is really tough and I find it to be too chewy in a regular salad.  I've used it in soups, and that works out well.  But I definitely struggle with what to do with kale as a side dish. 

But now I've found a way to make it into a snack -  spicy kale chips.  Using one of my favorite ingredients, chili oil. Light and crispy, these kale chips are *gone* the same day I make them.   

Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon of chili oil
1 tablespoon of olive oil
6-8 stalks of fresh kale
salt

Preparation
1.  Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

2.  Rinse kale and pat dry.  Remove ribs from the center of the kale and cut leaves into 3 inch pieces.

3.  Place kale in a bowl and add oils, toss to mix.  Sprinkle with salt.

4.  Lay kale in a single layer on a baking sheet. 

5.  Cook in the oven for ten minutes and turn kale over.  Cook for another 10 minutes until crispy.

6.  Remove from oven and place on paper towels to cook and remove excess oil.  Enjoy as a yummy snack!

Tomato, Tamato

Our family belongs to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and for the most part, it's great.  We get lots of fresh veggies and we support a local farmer -- Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, VA.  It's a win/win and you feel like a good little environmental steward.  However, there is the occasional problem around 'what in the hell am I going to do with this many (fill in veggie of choice here)?!?'  Because with a CSA, you get what is in season and right now, tomatoes are in peak season.  We get at least 6 to 10 tomatoes each week of a different variety - red, round hybrid, pink heirlooms and yellow hybrids.  It's A LOT of tomatoes to work with.  And coming from me, that's a pretty bold statement since I grew up "Jersey Fresh" and could eat tomatoes sprinkled with salt as a snack every day.    

Needless to say, I've got a lot of tomatoes that I need to do something with, so I decided to make gazpacho.  Initially, I was not a fan of gazpacho from a purely theoretical stand point. Gazpacho is a cold soup and in my mind, soup is a item meant to be served hot (unless you are homeless and are eating out of can, then you take what you can get).  But I abandoned my theoretical construct and embraced gazpacho in order to avoid rotten tomatoes.   

For my first try (since I am a gazpacho virgin), I got my recipe from a blogger my friend recommended, The Pioneer Woman.  I chose this recipe because it used a bunch of other veggies I had sitting around from my CSA share (zucchini, cucumber, garlic) -- two for one on that, choice is made!     

The recipe is super easy, basically chopping up veggies, pureeing a bunch of them with tomato juice, mixing the chopped veggies with the pureed ones, and viola! Gazpacho.  A few things to note that I found I had to adjust based on my preferences:

• My gazpacho came out a little too chunky in the end for my tastes, so I added more tomato juice and did a little more pureeing to adjust the veggie chunk to soup ratio
• Gazpacho is best served chilled (in my opinion) and to get it COLD, I throw my bowl in the freezer before I eat it.  Then it tastes refreshing on a hot summer day.

Overall, the gazpacho was delicious, proving that soup doesn't have to be hot (are homeless people on to something here?  hmmm.....) and like revenge, might be a dish best served cold.  Thanks Pioneer Woman for a super simple, and fantastic, recipe!  I will definitely eat what's on my plate.  And I guess what's on my husband's plate too since he claims to not want to eat 'salsa in soup form.'  Whatever, more for me!