Recipe with Carrot-less Directions

One of my kale blog readers actually called to tell me that I had forgotten to say in the Directions just where or how to incorporate the carrots listed as an Ingredient into the actual recipe. I am so sorry!  I am often writing out a recipe for this blog only after we have tasted a dish I created 'on the fly' and decided it tasted great, but the last thing I usually do before posting a recipe up on my blog is to read down the list of ingredients one by one to make sure I have included it within the directions!

Again, I am so sorry, and I thank you for letting me know. Regrettably, I cannot figure out from your message just which recipe it is where I goofed. I hope you will read this and tell me in the comments. Please! I will check the recipe and correct it right away.

This is as good a time as any to let my readers know that I read do all comments, but I also approve all comments before they are posted on this blog. I will not let spam go through, I will not let obscene language go through, I will not let comments go through that I just find 'odd' or 'iffy' with something that just raises a little red flag in my brain. I cannot explain the last one more than that, but I err on the side of caution. If I am not comfortable for any reason, I hit the reject button.

Where kale is more than decoration on my plate!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Here comes the Sun! and Kale!

Another shout-out for my kale blog in an article written by Carolyn McTigue and published in The Toronto Sun along with newspapers in Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - wow!! Thank you, Carolyn, for telling your Canadian readers and eaters about this delicious, versatile, and true super-star of a food that promotes health. Pretty soon I'll be seeing everyone wearing kale t-shirts and hats, no matter where I travel. I'll have my camera ready!

Here is a picture of the kale salad recipe posted in the Kansas City Star article last week. I confess, I made about half the printed recipe, and my husband ate about 1/3 of it while I ate the rest. So I probably ate 'more than my share', but it was that good! Since I don't do that everyday, I will still think of that as not going overboard!


Special note: I squeezed one lime wedge over the entire recipe before eating. Oh wow, that was the perfect extra touch! Maybe that extra flavor is why I could not save any for lunch the next day but instead ate the remainder of the salad while I cleaned up the kitchen. :-)

(Photo: Simple supper of tofu and vegetable stir-fry on brown rice with Kale Salad, recipe printed in the Kansas City Star)

Where kale is much more than just decoration on my plate - it's now an international sensation! 
Woohoo!
Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Kale in Kansas City!

Yes, I think it is now official that the 'kale kraze' is everywhere. The newspaper in Kansas City is promoting the deliciousness of kale (and its multiple nutritional attributes!) and cited my blog. Woohoo! I am honored. Thank you Jill Wendholt Silva for 'stumbling' your way to my blog and giving it a 'shout-out'.

In response to Jill's comment that I do not post up to my blog daily, I must clarify that was never my intention, but instead I hope to encourage eating kale or its many varied and delicious relatives every day of the year, giving you enough information and recipes to get started with that goal. 

However, I confess that I do see with some sadness and chagrin that my kale blog's postings have gone way down during the past 2 years as my husband and I have been getting our garlic farm up and running. In contrast, I am surprised to see that postings to my www.dianadyer.com blog have gone up during that same time-frame, which must be due to trying to keep those readers up to date with our adventure of starting a new farm!  So I think I must be on the look-out for an eager dietetic intern to work with me in the future in order to help me develop many more kale blog posts to continue to inspire my readers to incorporate these interesting, ultra-healthy, and yes also delicious vegetables into a daily delicious habit. 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy experimenting by eating all of them (from arugula to watercress) and eating them all prepared in a variety of different ways, from frozen to raw, and also from center stage like this salad recipe in the Kansas City Star to incorporating a handful into a smoothie. 

There is no 'right way' or a 'best way' to eat kale and its relatives. Just eat any or all of these Brassica vegetables in moderate amounts! I can tell that this salad and its dressing just might tempt you to eat the entire bowl, but everything in life, even kale, can become too much of a good thing. (See my past post The Dose is the Poison with a real-life example of the consequence from eating too much of one member of the Brassica vegetable family - not good at all!)

Thanks again, Jill, for including my blog in your upbeat article. Thanks also for liking my tag line!

Where kale is more than decoration on my plate!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

I not only eat kale, I wear it, too!

(Photo: Diana Dyer with her new kale hat!)

Thanks to my daughter-in-law with the sharp eyes who spotted this great hat and bought it for me for Christmas. After unwrapping it, I was so totally focused on admiring the great colors, thinking how observant (or intuitive) she was to know that I loved the colors purple and green, that I had not yet noticed that there was a kale leaf on the side of the hat!

WOW - what fun is this! I don't think I typically say much about my family on this blog, but I'll bet at least once I have mentioned on my www.dianadyer.com blog that both of my new daughters-in-law are each amazing women that I just love to pieces. :-)

For those of you out there who want your own knit kale hat, all I can tell you is that it came from somewhere in the Seattle area. Good luck tracking down your own kale hat! I'll keep my eyes open and if I see anyone else wearing one (anywhere!), I'll take your picture and (with your permission) post it on my blog as one more true kale fan.

Where kale is now on my head instead of just my plate!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Recipe: Pasta with Kale

I'm all about simple cooking, not really needing 'recipes' per se. Here is an example of what I mean.

When we cook a turkey, we use every bit of it, including the bones to make stock, which always have lots of juicy little 'bits' of meat on them. We freeze that stock with the meat 'bits' in quart containers to pull out later in the year to combine with pasta. To make this a fast supper does require some planning, so at some point during the week, I might pull one of the quarts out of the freezer to thaw in the refrigerator for several days in order to use quickly for some night's dinner when we are pressed for time or just plain tired.

I use locally-made Al Dente pasta (the whole wheat with flaxseed variety) that I purchase in our local grocery store, which requires only 3 minutes to cook. I bring the entire 1# bag to boil in a large pot for 1-1/2 minute, strain it through a colander, do a quick rinse with warm water, and then combine the partially cooked pasta with the quart of turkey broth and meat in the same large pot, and heat to finish cooking with the broth being absorbed. Making a meal of pasta and turkey with a steamed vegetable and salad is quick, easy, and delicious.

I added a large amount (about 4 cups) of coarsely chopped kale or other vegetables during the second cooking session so the vegetables will be cooked but still brightly colored and crisp when the pasta is done cooking.

Yum, yum and easy as can be!

(Photo: Pasta with kale and garlic scape pesto)

I should confess however that my 'secret' ingredient here is garlic scape - kale pesto, which really zips up this dish by just adding a couple of ice cube size chunks from my freezer to the final pasta mixture right in with the turkey broth. Now we're talking extra yum, yum, yum!!

Where kale is more than decoration on my plate - it's in my pasta!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

I'm Rooting for Kale!!!

Chicken? Kale? Chicken? Kale?

I don't get it. Chicken and kale have nothing in common, especially comparing the fast food chicken from Chick-fil-A to any type of kale from anywhere. However, the giant fast food company is asking Bo Muller-Moore, the artist in Vermont who designed and prints the "Eat More Kale" t-shirts and bumper stickers to cease and desist, even asking him to hand over his website www.eatmorekale.com to the company.

I have both a t-shirt and bumper sticker, and I am firmly rooted on the side of kale and small (very small, a one-man ) business.

I don't know how to help Bo except to order more of his products. Chick-fil-A has given him amazing publicity, so I'll probably wait forever for the order to be filled, but that's ok! Yes, "EAT MORE KALE"!! (Addendum: A petition in favor of Bo Muller-Moore can be signed at change.org.)

Where kale is more than decoration on my plate, (because I now wear it and eat it in support of Bo Muller-Moore's "EAT MORE KALE"!)

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

All Hail Kale!

I made a quick trip to a new (to me) local farmers' market this morning to pick up a cheese order from Zingerman's Creamery to take with us to share for Thanksgiving dinner later this week. That trip also brought the pleasure of buying a HUGE 'bouquet' of kale from one of my favorite new young farmers, Megan DeLeeuw who has started Hand Sown Farm in Sharon Township near Manchester, MI.

Here is a photo of the kale bouquet on my kitchen counter.

(Photo: Curly kale from Hand Sown Farm, Sharon Township, Manchester, MI)

Here is what I plan to do with it. First I will make my favorite cranberry chutney to take with us to Thanksgiving dinner and (if there is any left - hope hope!) next I will make Cranberries with Kale as one of my favorite Thanksgiving "left-over" meals.

I am sorry I did not have my camera to take Megan's picture today at the Canton Farmers' Market. Her stand was beautiful and bountiful, filled with gorgeous and delicious vegetables. I have tried to take Megan's picture at markets in the past but her stand is always too crowded with happy buyers (the 'problem' of success!) to get a great shot showcasing her and her lovingly hand-sown food.

So until next spring, I'll just have to be content with the photo of her kale bouquet on my kitchen counter and the anticipation of her sweet, delicious kale tantalizing my taste buds. Megan does promote my kale blog to help people find recipes to use kale, so over the winter, I'm going to work on designing a sign that she can stick into her bushel of kale on her market table to point people to all the tasty recipes on this blog.

What are your favorite recipes? I should look at my blog stats to figure out which are the top recipes people are viewing, but I am more interested in your comments after actually eating my recipes. Feel free to chime in!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my kale (and other Brassica vegetable) fans!

Where kale is more than decoration on my plate, on Thanksgiving Day and for those all-important left-overs!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD