Kale and Chocolate

We have kale the size of elephant ears, of a hundred elephants! The more kale we pick, the more grows back in its place. We have kale growing out of our ears now.


A friend recently gave me a wonderful recipe book titled The Book of Kale by Sharon Hanna and it has eighty recipes using kale.  Before the book, I was excited about the Massage Kale Salad with Mango and Avocado recipe I found online...but after making it every other day in the summer, it was losing its appeal, even if we did jazz it up with pineapples and strawberries too. Before that recipe, we were only eating it sauteed in a little olive oil and salt. Now, at last, we have some more variety and yeah...still more kale!


Kale is a superfood.  It scores 1,000 out of 1,000 in the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index scoring system..  It is rich in Vitamins A, C, and K. It is also a source of calcium, iron, and potassium, and provides significant amounts of phytonutrients as well. It is a nutritional powerhouse. There are several varieties of kale to grow. We like the Red Russian and the Red Winter kale best. Its broad, thin leaf is milder in taste than the Dwarf Blue Curled that's readily found in the supermarket.

 It has been great fun to learn various ways to enjoy this superfood. Meg and I had a weekend of cooking with kale last week. We started off with the Simple Kale Frittata for breakfast, and had Savory Kale Scones with Pumpkin and Cheese with our Winter Squash Soup for lunch, and then we tried the Kale and Cranberry Crisps with a delicious Ginger and Curry Chutney from the Concord Wine and Cheese Shop for a late afternoon snack the next day, and a Kale and White Bean Salad with dinner. Everybody has enjoyed all of these kale delights, except for Owen who liked the Massaged Kale Salad until I overdid it, and then he grew tired of it and anything else heralding kale. Who can blame a thirteen year old for that?


Tonight, we had Kale and Chourico Soup, but a craving for chocolate prompted a rummage through the cupboards. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa was the most chocolatey thing I could find and luckily we had the ingredients to make its signature chocolate cake with chocolate frosting recipe. It reminded me of something my mother would have made growing up because I can still see the cocoa powder tin in her cupboard. It's exactly in the same place I have mine. Its one of those items I think I have permanently embedded there, along with molasses, baking powder, and cinnamon. Its not something I ever think of buying, but always think will be there when I need it...kind of like the kale:)

As Michael and I indulge in our old-fashioned chocolate cake and a glass of milk, we know we will wake up to a super healthy Kale and Avocado smoothie. Try it, you'll like it!

Plant some kale seeds....its not too late!

xo Bess

Amateurs Have Way More Fun!

I feel like a forever amateur in many areas: blogging, gardening, surfing, writing...however I kinda like it that way. There is something about the excitement of always having something to learn, and the anticipation of the unexpected. When one is a novice, there are fewer expectations, and so more often than not, I am thoroughly pleased and excited about the outcomes.

Lets take surfing for example. Michael signed me up for a surfing competition/fundraiser a few weeks ago. My initial reaction was panic, followed by a reluctant smile and brave face. I couldn't wear the cool t-shirt if I didn't participate. He assured me it was casual and fun.  I wasn't convinced. I have never surfed with many people at once, competing for a wave. I could only imagine the surfing videos I've seen and I couldn't imagine myself in it. The day came, and the forecast was in my favor...no waves! Instead we would paddle out to a buoy and back...that I could do confidently. Many heats were before mine, and as the winds picked up, so did my chances of having to catch a wave..uugghh, except that I was starting to get into the enthusiasm of the event. I also had to be a positive role model for Meg...she was watching and envisioning herself on that board next year. I would have gladly given her my spot, but she wasn't ready yet. The atmosphere was casual and fun as Michael promised. The vintage boards were cool to see, we were sitting amongst the awesome dunes of Cahoon Hollow, and the water was warm.

It was time for my heat, and it was certain that I would now have a chance to catch a wave alongside fifteen other women. My nerves now calmed by the sea and man I love, I ran into the water carrying the twelve foot vintage board, and paddled...this was fun. Around the buoy, and ahead of the others, I was feeling confident...now I just had to catch a wave...and catch one I did...yay! Then I landed on my rump of which the Cape Cod Times caught a perfect picture of and put it on the front page of the next day's paper. I wish I was the cool girl with the panoramic picture heading the paper, but, well, that's for the experts.

The garden is another area which gives me great amateur pleasure. My Carrot Friends poem says "A carrot is hard to grow/" All summer we have been watching and waiting for ours to grow. Last summer we grew them with minimal success...most of them looked like full-figured minature doll legs. This year we had higher hopes. We had pulled a few finger-width and length-sized ones, but they weren't quite ready. Today, we dug with our fingers around the circumference of our largest carrot to date...it .was a real-sized carrot, almost two inches in diameter. We were ecstatic.  "Should we? Pull it?" Yes, it couldn't possibly get much bigger. We gathered all its ferny stems for a firm hold, gave it a little apprehensive yank to loosen the soil, and pulled. Out it came, with a swift release, because it only had one inch to reveal. It was actually shorter in height than it was in diameter. It was a stubby stump of a carrot with two straggly roots. We had been duped..The wider a carrot yields no greater a carrot. Our theory to wait until a carrot grows round to an impressive size before picking it fell literally, and figuratively short.

 Our grape arbor last year provided me material for another poem, told in prose form, about our encounter with Black Rot. This year, we have been watching dutifully, hoping not to make the same mistakes. Two of the four vines have grown to reach the two Owen-lengths height with healthy leaves stretching across the driftwood ,but no jade marbles or any sign of grapes appeared. However, on the two lesser-achieved vines, merely a foot and a half tall with dry, curled leaves, we found the smallest cluster of purple shaded berries, one on each vine.  There was barely enough fruit to feed a babe, less than twenty itty-bitty purple pearls perched on stems, but still fruit, and oh, how sweet on the tongue they were. One was Pinot Noir, and the other Merlot.  What a delight to have no expectations, and to be seduced by a mere sip.

Have no expectations, and you shall find treasure. Have a great day! Bess