Roasted Carrots & Carrot Top Pesto

Lately I've been picking up bunches of organic carrots at Sprouts that still have their leafy tops attached to them.  After a quick search to check that carrot greens are indeed edible (though somewhat bitter if eaten alone), I decided to make a pesto out of them.  I've been using this pesto on pasta, scrambled eggs, veggies, pork - so many things can go with pesto!  Be sure to wash your carrot greens well since they tend to be quite sandy.

Keep your carrot greens and make pesto!

Basic Biscotti

Basic Biscotti Recipe

Biscotti are oblong twice-baked cookies or biscuits, originating from Italy.  Their dry texture makes them the perfect dunking companion for a cup of coffee.  I picked up this recipe from an old roommate several years ago and since then have modified it only slightly.  This is a pretty simple and basic biscotti recipe.  I like that the base has only a hint of sweetness and it's incredibly versatile with your choice of mix-ins.  I typically make my biscotti with chocolate chips, toasted almond slivers, and dried cranberries - simply because those are staple ingredients in my pantry.  It's important not to get overly ambitious with your mix-ins or else your dough won't hold together. Try to keep your mix-ins to a total of 1 cup.  Some other combinations that would work well include:

Favorite Lemon Bars

Favorite Lemon Bars

I've shared this recipe before with a coconut variation, but here it is again in its pure and simple form. After making these for work, I'm reaffirmed that they really are my favorite lemon bars.  I doubled the recipe this time and baked it in a 9x13 pan.  The crust to filling ratio comes out to 1:2 and I think it's a great balance.

Healthier Furikake Chex Mix

Furikake Chex Mix

One of my favorite snacks to make and eat is Furikake Chex Mix.  It takes some babysitting to make, but the result is a deliciously addictive snack that meets my salty, crunchy, and sweet cravings all at once.  I've posted a recipe for this in the past and since then I've been tweaking it here and there to my liking.  This past week I made two batches for a large hangout with friends and I was left with practically an entire batch afterwards.  It's been a great snack in my lunchbox this week and especially with July 4th coming up it'll be a great addition to any bbq or picnic.  Easy to grab a handful, relatively clean, and packed with the right punch of umami flavor to keep you coming back!

Baked Honey Chili Chicken Thighs

Honey Chili Chicken Thighs

Chicken thighs are a great item to cook for a crowd.  They're cost efficient, time efficient when baked or bbq-ed, and pretty forgiving since dark meat tends to be moist even if you overcook it a few minutes.  I was looking for a recipe for an 8 person potluck and found this one after browsing one my favorite food sites, The Kitchn.  The name is a bit misleading since it wasn't spicy at all, but that's probably because I used mexican chili powder instead of red chili powder.  The honey and beer caramelized while baking and added a subtle sweetness to the dish.  I couldn't really taste the beer, so just open up whatever you may have on hand.  The accompanying cilantro sauce goes great with the chicken, with vegetables, and even by itself over rice.  I made the sauce once with sour cream as the original recipe called for and once with plain yogurt.  I liked my yogurt version better since it's healthier and has more of a tang to it.  This reheats pretty well so if you're like me you'll make a big batch to send some home with your guests or have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Cranberry Crumb Bars

Cranberry Crumb Bars

Crumb bars are another one of my favorite go-to recipes for a quick and easy dessert.  These work well with berries though I'd be interested to try peaches one day.  I've used blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries before and they all turned out great.  This time I had a bag of cranberries that I froze way back when so those came out of the freezer and straight into this recipe.  No defrosting necessary!  I paired cranberries with lemon here, but it was kind of tart so I'd substitute orange for the lemon next time.

Once again these made their way to work and fared much better than the coffee cake!  Perhaps the notion of fruit makes it seem "healthier"?

Cranberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces), cut into pieces
1 egg

1 12-oz. bag cranberries, fresh or frozen (or 4 cups berries or other fruit)
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tsp cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 3/4 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingers to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be quite crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan, pushing down to make sure the crust is compact.
3. In another bowl, stir together the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the cranberries. Sprinkle the berry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough evenly over the berry layer.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely then cut into squares. Makes about 28 squares.

Other variations:

Blueberry and lemon

Blackberry and lime

Raspberry and lemon

Peaches and orange (possibly with grated ginger)

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I made this coffee cake for the first Friday of my first week of work.  As the newbie, I will admit that my intention was to lure people to my desk so I could meet more people.  It worked to some degree, though I soon learned that many people at work are quite disciplined about eating healthy.  I did meet a few new faces but at the end of the day I was still left with a third of a pan of coffee cake.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I cut the sugar from the original recipe and I'm glad that I did since I still found it a little sweet for my liking, though it does pair well with a cup of coffee. The top crust had a fragile, sugary crunch where the batter had caramelized but you can still spot the sprinkling of sugar granules that I could have done without.  I might have also thought it was too sweet since this was the first time I used Kirkland Semisweet Chocolate Chips (surprisingly, I just bought this for the first time) I usually use Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pound Plus bar since I like my chocolate dark.  After falling in love with dark chocolate for so long, it's hard to go back to semisweet and milk chocolate!  Give this dessert-for-breakfast a try - I'll admit that I wasn't that bummed that I had a third of the pan left and it sure didn't last long at home.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 cups (200 grams) granulated sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

Filling and Topping:
2 cups or 12 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate bars
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and lightly flour a 9x13 baking pan or glass Pyrex pan. 
2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cinnamon for filling and topping.
3. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.  
4. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Alternately mix in sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture until both are used up and the batter is smooth and very thick.  
5. In a separate bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff and then fold into batter.
6. Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Spoon remaining cake batter over the filling in the pan. Use an offset spatula to gently spread batter evenly over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture and chocolate chips.  Using your palm, gently press the chocolate chips into the batter a bit to make sure they stick. 
7. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let cool, slice, and enjoy!

Strawberry Summer Cake

Strawberry Summer Cake

Inspired by another baker friend, I bookmarked this strawberry cake recipe to try out since strawberries were on sale recently.  I'm usually not a fan of baking cakes, particularly because it's hard to taste test a cake before serving it to others.  Previous times I've shown up somewhere bearing cake with a missing piece, or I just give the disclaimer that I hoped it turned out okay since I didn't get to taste it yet.  I guess a good comfort level among friends doesn't hurt.  Thankfully, everyone liked this cake and agreed that it was a great recipe - flavorful yet not too sweet, with a texture more dense and crumbly than a regular yellow cake.  I added lemon zest to the batter and I think it added a nice touch.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Dried Cherries

Fluffy and moist cottage cheese pancakes

I was looking for a new recipe to add to the rotation of single-serving, freezable breakfast items I stock away for our weekdays.  I had been craving pancakes for a while so it seemed like a good time to try this recipe.  I added in dried cherries and it gave a pleasant tart contrast to the rest of the pancake.  Two conclusions:

• Pancakes take way too long to cook.  Especially when you can only fit one pancake at a time on your single nonstick pan.  I must've been standing there for 45 minutes cooking these.  By the time I was done, I had already eaten 4 of them while cooking and just proceeded to cleaning up.
• I would make this again.  The cottage cheese adds a somewhat creamy component and the beaten egg whites add fluffiness when the pancakes are fresh out of the pan.  They deflate a bit if you let them cool, but they're still tasty.  I love that the cottage cheese is a good source of protein so hopefully 3-4 of these will keep us full enough through the morning.  I've frozen and re-toasted these in the toaster oven and they still taste good.  For those that dislike cottage cheese, it's noteworthy that the typical texture of cottage cheese is unnoticeable in pancake form.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes  
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk (I used 1% milk and it seemed to work fine)
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cups chopped dried cherries, optional (or other dried fruit or nuts)

2 large egg whites

1. Lightly butter, oil, or spray a nonstick skillet and preheat it over medium heat. If you are using an electric griddle, preheat it to 350F. Preheat the oven to 200F if you do not plan to serve the pancakes hot off the griddle.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, cottage cheese, butter, egg yolks and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently whisk them together, mixing just until combined. Try not to over-stir the batter. Stir in the dried fruit or nuts.
4. Beat the two egg whites until they are stiff but not dry and fold them into the batter. The batter will be thick and bubbly.
5. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into the skillet for each pancake, nudging the batter into a circle. These are thick and might take a little longer to cook than most other pancakes.  Cook until the top of each pancake is starting to dry around the edges and a few bubbles form.  Then turn and cook until the underside is lightly browned. Keep in the 200F oven while you finish making the rest, but these pancakes are best served immediately.

World Peace Cookies

World Peace Cookies

My favorite chocolate chip cookie comes from Dorie Greenspan, who originally got the recipe from Pierre Hermé.  Supposedly the cookie's name arose from Dorie's neighbor who commented that a daily dose of these cookies would be enough to ensure world peace.  The name stuck since then and I can attest that these cookies have brought much joy (and peace offerings) to those around me.
 

This cookie doesn't have the texture of your typical chewy or crunchy chocolate chip cookie.  It's actually almost like a shortbread, but kind of sandy as it crumbles and melts in your mouth with each bite.  It's important to know this as I've had a few friends wonder if they followed the recipe wrong when their cookies fell apart more than they expected.  It's also quite a buttery cookie but don't be scared off by the buttery footprints on your cookie sheet - it's totally worth it.

Look at all those chocolate chunks!

Reasons why I love this recipe:

Olive Oil Flatbread Pizza

Flatbread pizza with brussels sprouts, prosciutto, and mozzarella

This pizza dinner was inspired by several factors: 1) we had just bought a bag of brussels sprouts from Costco, 2) on the same Costco trip I was craving cheese and charcuterie so we picked up mozzarella and a mix of salami, prosciutto, and coppa, and 3) we had recently returned from NYC where we ate a delicious brussels sprouts pizza at Motorino.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture from Motorino to show you for comparison (I was too engrossed in partaking in the deliciousness), but my memory tells me it must have looked pretty similar to the pizza we made.

Instead of adding sauce to the pizza, we just drizzled some olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.  I prepped the brussels sprouts the same way I do my oven roasted brussels sprouts, peeling off some individual leaves so they get nicely browned and become like veggie chips in the oven.  I actually roasted the brussels sprouts on their own first to make sure they were fully cooked and crispy.  I love flatbread and thin crust pizza for the extra crunch in the crust.  Plus, thin crust doesn't fill me up as quickly so I can eat more pieces!  I've tried this flatbread recipe several times lately and it's worked out well for pizzas, as an accompaniment to dips, or a snack on its own.  Keep in mind that it will not be a chewy, doughy pizza crust but more of a thick cracker.

Olive Oil Flatbread (and Pizza)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450F and place a pizza stone or heavy baking sheet on the middle rack.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl or mixer bowl.  
3. Make a well in the center, then add water and oil.  With a wooden spoon or dough hook attachment, mix the ingredients on low until a dough forms.  Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and keep the dough together.  Knead dough on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.  
4. Divide dough into 3 pieces.  Working with one piece at a time while keeping the remaining dough covered, roll out dough on a sheet of parchment paper into a circle about 1/4 inch thick.  
5. Lightly brush top with additional olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  If making pizza, add your pizza ingredients at this time.   
6. Slide the parchment paper with the flatbread onto the preheated pizza stone or baking sheet.  Bake until pale golden and browned in spots and pizza cheese is melted, 8 to 10 minutes.  While each flatbread is baking, work on rolling out the dough for your next flatbread or pizza on a new sheet of parchment paper. 
7. Remove finished flatbread from the oven by sliding out the parchment paper and keeping the pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven for the next batch.  Let flatbread or pizza cool on a rack for a few minutes before slicing and eating.

Stone Fruit Galettes

Last summer our neighbors gave us a bag of plums and peaches from their backyard.  I wish we had something to exchange with them in return, but our poor fruit trees have been barren for many years.  In the peak years, we actually had some pretty tasty asian pears and white peaches, but they were often smaller than tennis balls.  Thus, I'm thankful to share in the bounty of others who have greener thumbs.

Plum galette with a flaky crust

I'd always read about galettes and was drawn to their rustic nature and simplicity compared to a formal pie. I found them relatively easy to make and impressive-looking despite the imperfections.  It's probably one of the few desserts that actually embraces imperfections!  I'm usually deterred from making crusts from scratch just because working with butter can get so sticky, messy, and bothersome to clean up after.  I'm hoping that the more I try it out the less bothersome it'll become.

Hello, again!

I've unintentionally taken a hiatus from this blog for nearly a year now.  A lot has happened in that past year, but in all honesty it has been pure laziness and distraction that has kept me from new posts.  Life distracts me somewhere between cooking, snapping pictures, transferring pictures to the computer, and coming up with something interesting to write.  Some highlights from the past year:

• Job searching.  Since moving to the Bay Area a little over a year ago I have been searching for a new job.  It's been quite an emotional and mental roller coaster, often overflowing into other areas of my life.
• Becoming a homeowner!  The process towards our new condo was horrendous but we are extremely grateful for our new place.
• Taking far too much time to paint our dining table and chairs.
• Discovering how much I love the Showtunes station on Pandora.
• Taking new food adventures around the Bay Area.
• Visiting NYC for a high school friend's wedding and food.
• Visiting SoCal over Christmas time and eating our fill in Las Vegas, LA, OC, and SD.
• Spending 9 glorious days in Paris!  Yes, it was all you'd expect it to be - simply amazing and full of deliciously baked breads and stinky cheeses. 

I'll elaborate on some of these highlights in future posts, but for now I leave you with some favorite memories from the past year. 

Savory Dutch Baby Pancake

I'm often torn between having something sweet or savory for breakfast.  The simple solution to that, of course, is to have both!  This morning I made a double batch of dutch baby pancakes.  I split the batter in half and added 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese to one half.  What resulted was a slightly cheesy flavor infused with the usual sweet pancake batter.  I like the browned cheesy bits on the surface of the pancake, but the batter base was sweeter than I would have preferred.  If I do a double batch of sweet and savory pancakes again, I'd add the sugar to the sweet pancake after splitting the batter in half.  Or another solution would be to make the cheesy batter on its own, decreasing the sugar and adding a bit more salt or other savory herbs.  All in all, still tasty and I'll let you know how it goes with a few modifications next time.

Coconut Lemon Bars

It's hard finding a lemon bar recipe that has just the right balance of sugary sweetness and lemony flavor without being too sour or sickening sweet. I got this lemon bar recipe from a good friend and have been using it ever since.  I think the best part is actually the shortbread crust, which holds up its buttery cookie texture while cradling the lemon custard filling.  Out of curiosity I sprinkled a layer of shredded coconut on top before baking.  What resulted was a nice toasty, chewy coconut layer added to a well-balanced lemony treat!

Lemon Bars 
Makes 16 pieces

Crust:
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup strained fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup shredded coconut, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Line an 8"x8" square pan along the bottom and up all 4 sides with foil or parchment paper.
2. Crust: Cut butter into chunks and melt in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25-30 min, or until the crust is well browned at the edges and lightly browned in the center.
3. Filling: While the crust is baking, stir together the sugar and flour in a medium bowl until well mixed. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the lemon zest and juice. When the crust is ready, turn the oven down to 300 F and slide the rack out without removing the pan. Pour the filling over the hot crust. If using, sprinkle shredded coconut evenly over the top.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the topping is puffed at the edges and no longer jiggles in the center when the pan is tapped. Set on a rack to cool completely in the pan. 
5. Lift the ends of the foil or parchment liner and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into sixteen 2-inch bars. May be stored, airtight, in the fridge. Lemon bars keep well for about 3 days; after 3 days the crust softens but the bars still taste quite good for the remainder of a week. 

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

These shortbread cookies were quite amazing.  Full of coffee and chocolate flavor, soft and crumbly with a sandy texture.  They were definitely buttery and  one cookie was perfect for satisfying my sweet tooth.  In my first attempt at this recipe, I somehow mixed up my measuring cups and accidentally used only half of the flour required.  Imagine my horror as I watched through the oven door to see my shortbread melt into a flat pool of dough!  The messed up batch was overly buttery but still tasted so good that my husband refused to let me throw them away.  Instead, he stashed them out of my reach and polished them off within the following week.  I would make this recipe again, but before I do I'd like to explore some other shortbread varieties out there.  

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Toffee Cookies

What a mouthful of ingredients!  This recipe is reminiscent of one of my favorite cookies, a Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Toffee Cookie, that I have yet to share on the blog.  I used my favorite Ghiradelli chocolate chips, though chocolate chunks from Trader Joe's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate would work well too.  This is hands-down a chewy cookie, made so from the oatmeal and toasted coconut.  It was almost difficult to distinguish the chewiness of the oatmeal from the coconut, but there is definitely a subtle coconut flavor.  The best textural component comes from the toffee bits that melt while baking, forming slightly crisp bottoms and edges.  Remember to let these cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before you transfer them to a cooling rack, otherwise the toffee bits may still stick to the baking sheet.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Toffee Cookies
Makes 2 dozen (3" diameter cookies)     

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal (or quick oats)
1/2 cup toffee bits
1 cup chocolate chips (dark works best in my opinion)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread shredded coconut in a thin layer.  Toast coconut in the oven for 5-7 minutes, stirring halfway through.  When coconut is lightly browned, remove from oven and set aside to cool.  Keep lined cookie sheet to use for baking the cookies.  
2. Raise oven temperature and preheat oven to 375F.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 
3. In a large bowl, use a stand or hand mixer to cream together the butter and brown sugar until mixture is light and smooth.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.  Add egg and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth.  Add flour mixture and stir until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.  Add oatmeal, toasted coconut, and toffee bits and stir. The batter will be very thick at this point.  By hand, fold in the chocolate chips. 
4. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons (medium OXO cookie scoop) of dough onto a lined cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart from each other.  
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes until edges are firm and cookies are lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Healthy Oatmeal Pancakes

I had some leftover cinnamon-sugar from making snickerdoodles the other day.  I considered different ways to use it up - breakfast bars, dutch baby, more snickerdoodles - and somehow ended up making pancakes!  With an apple cinnamon topping.  This pancake recipe was great, not only because it contained oatmeal to make it healthier, but also because I only had 1/4 cup of flour left and that's all I needed!  The original recipe calls for quick-cooking oats which I did not have.  Instead, I used old fashioned oats and roughly ground them with a mortar and pestle.  A quick pulse in a food processor would work too, just enough to break down the oats but not so much that all you're left with is fine powder.  The various oat bits, big and small, add a nice textural component to the final pancakes.  The pancakes are 3" in diameter and slightly crispy when fresh from the pan.  Leftovers can be frozen or kept in the fridge for a couple days and reheated in the toaster oven.

Oatmeal Pancakes
Makes about 12 pancakes, 3" in diameter
Slightly adapted from CookingLight

1/4 cup (1.2 oz) all-purpose flour
1 cup oats (quick oaks, or roughly ground old fashioned oats)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or slightly less than 1 cup milk plus 1 tablespoon white vinegar)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg

1. Combine all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.
2. Combine buttermilk and egg in a smaller bowl and mix until well combined.  Add to flour mixture and add the melted butter.  Stir all ingredients together until everything is barely moist and incorporated.  Batter will be lumpy from the oatmeal.  Be careful not to over mix the batter.
3. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat.  Lightly coat pan with a small drizzle of cooking oil or spray.  Spoon about 2 1/2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto the pan, creating pancakes with about a 3" diameter.  Flip pancakes when bubbles appear on the tops and the edges look cooked and dry.  Cook until the bottom of pancakes are lightly browned.  Serve immediately with your choice of toppings.

I don't have an exact recipe for the apple cinnamon topping.  I started with 1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mixture, 1 chopped apple, and 1/4 cup water.  Cook everything together in a saucepan over medium heat until sauce thickens slightly and apples are soft.

Beer Braised Corned Beef Dinner

Beer braised corned beef with cabbage, carrots, and red potatoes.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Oven Roasted Kale Chips

I've been on a vegetable roasting kick for the past year.  Aside from these delicious roasted brussels sprouts, my other staple is roasted kale.  These crisp up very nicely and amazingly do take on the satisfying crunch of real chips.  Don't be overly ambitious like me in piling kale leaves onto your cookie sheet - it's important to bake these in 1-2 layers so that they cook evenly and all take on the same texture.

If you don't plan to serve this immediately, I'd suggest letting them cool in a single layer on the cookie sheet before you place them in a container.  Otherwise, any residual heat will cause them to soften inside the container and lose their crunchy texture.  Good luck with that though, we snacked through half our batch before it even made it onto the dinner table. :)

Oven Roasted Kale Chips
Serves 2

1 bunch of curly green kale (another variety of kale should work too)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, optional

1. Preheat oven to 300F.
2. Remove the stems and cut off the tough center ribs of each kale stalk.  Cut leaves into bite-size pieces, roughly 2" in diameter.  
3. Wash kale thoroughly and spin dry in a salad spinner.  Give it a few extra spins since it's crucial to get them as dry as possible or else the water droplets will steam your kale in the oven.   
4. In a bowl, toss leaves with olive oil, salt, and paprika.  Spread leaves in a single layer onto a cookie sheet.  Use an additional cookie sheet if necessary.
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until crispy.  Ten minutes into baking, check on the kale and use tongs to stir or gently turn the leaves over for even baking.  When kale is crispy, remove from the oven and serve immediately or leave the chips on the cookie sheet to cool.