All Hail Kale!

I found just the recipe I needed in my old binder full of clipped recipes. This one came out of the newspaper and extolled the virtues of Kale! To be specific, it called for Dino Kale, which is exactly what came in the Box this week.  It was a pretty simple recipe: slice up the raw Kale into strips. Mash some garlic and mix it up in a food processor with 3 Tbs. olive oil, 1/4 C. Parmesan cheese, lemon zest and juice of one lemon, and a dash or two of salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Toss the Kale with the dressing and let it stand for 5-20 minutes. Just before serving, add some homemade croutons and a drizzle of additional olive oil and serve. When I reached into my fruit basket for a lemon, I didn't have any more, so I substituted one of the smaller Naval oranges instead. After adding the zest to my salad, I decided to chop the orange up and mix it into the salad, as well. Turned out pretty yummy!

I am really incorporating fruit into our diets this week. While I am not really a fan of grapefruit, this morning I decided to try the Pomelo grapefruit from the Box. I'd seen my Dad eat them by just halving it and cutting out sections with a special grapefruit spoon. I don't have one of those, so I used a regular spoon to scoop around the peel and the fruit, and then used a paring knife to cut out little sections. I started by sprinkling on some white sugar and tasted: sour! So then I added a shake of salt and presto! Much better! I ate about a quarter of a grapefruit and cut up my other portion for my green salad that I packed for work. I left the remaining half out for Lee's breakfast, knowing he would eat it and think of his Dad.

Since we usually have pizza on Friday or Saturday nights, I decided to make my own using pita bread for the crust. I had some frozen shrimp on hand, so I went Mediterranean and put together some red pepper, onion, garlic and tomatoes on a roasting sheet and drizzled olive oil on them. I roasted the vegies for about 20 minutes, while at the same time toasting some leftover sourdough bread for the Tuscan kale salad. I should note that none of these vegies for the pizza came in the SLO Veg box. The tomatoes don't even compare to the ones we had last week. I sure hope my next shipment contains some vine-ripened tomatoes!

A mist of olive oil went onto a couple of pita bread slices and I put it in to toast for about 5 minutes. When I took the bread out, I sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese, then added a layer of shredded Mozzarella cheese and the roasted vegies. I chopped up the shrimp into small bites and added them on top along with some Kalamata olives and diced basil leaves. A little bit more Mozzarella for good measure and the pizzas were ready to heat and serve. This dinner was paired with beer--perfecto!