Power Salad--Kale Style

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a blessed holiday! Sorry I have been MIA for a while, I have been spending time with my family and...trying to perfect bread baking. Let me tell you, bread baking is TOUGH! I still have yet to succeed, although I made this rustic Italian chocolate raisin bread that was divine on the inside, but I unfortunately burned the crust (that was hard as a brick, I might add). But anyway, my family and I made a trek up to Houston yesterday and of course, had to stop at Central Market. Mother and I are absolutely in love with this place and their turkey meatloaf and kale salad. We always tend to stop and get the same thing as always: turkey meatloaf, kale salad, & organic Asian yams, plus some new things that we find on our adventure every time we go! But anyway, this kale salad I talk about is incredible--Mom and I devoured two boxes of it in one sitting (oops). So I was thinking, kale is such a POWER FOOD and a lot of people's new year's resolutions will be to watch their weight and be healthy! So of course, I thought there is no better way to start the new year than without a kale salad! So I created my own version of a kale salad that to be honest, I'm eating it right now with my turkey meatloaf...But anyway here we go! I didn't do precise measurements on the dry stuff, so just do what you like! :)

Ingredients for Salad:

• Chopped Kale
• Tamarin roasted pumpkin seeds
• Sliced, Blanched Almonds
• Dried blueberries
• Dried cranberries
• Gorgonzola Cheese

Recipe for dressing (serves 1-2 people):

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon orange juice from concentrate
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Just dump these ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk until it is all blended. And then pour over salad with all dry ingredients, toss and then serve! 

Bon Appetit!

Holiday Tea Cake Cookies

So in the post before this, you found out that I was rummaging through my grandmother's recipe collection. I have pulled out so many great old recipes of hers that I will be so incredibly full by the time Christmas is over that I will be in a food coma going into the new year. But anyway, I found this tiny, stained, scratch piece of paper with a recipe I could barely read. It looked so incredibly USED that I just had to make whatever was on this tiny piece of paper. Well turns out it was "my friend Mable's tea cake cookies"! They are cakey, fluffy, not too sweet and just delicious! I've never really tasted anything like them before. They are perfect for a cup of hot chocolate by the fire, because the cookie isn't so overpoweringly sweet that the cookie and hot chocolate balance it out to a perfect medium. So here we go "My Friend Mable's Tea Cake Cookies":


Ingredients:

5 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 eggs

First preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together.

then I creamed the shortening and sugar and then added in the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. This worked beautifully thanks to my Mom's KitchenAid Stand Mixer (secretly wish it was mine). Then slowly add in the flour and keep mixing until dough is formed.

Roll out on floured parchment/wax paper and cut with cookie cutters or roll into small balls to make normal cookies :)

Then pop them in the oven on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10-11 minutes until they have risen and look cakey and not sticky. I made icing and drizzled it on top...but I think I seriously joined the ugly Christmas cookie club. Actually, I think I'm the president of it. They taste delicious though! All that counts! 

bon appetit!