Sweet Sassy Molassy

Greens, glorious greens!

Beet Greens

Greens are amazing, arent they? They are beautiful, flavorful and so versatile! We've had a pretty damp and chilly spring and summer here in Seattle, so we have had the opportunity to experiment with an abundance of various types of greens in our cooking. Beet greens are especially nice, because they become tender and almost buttery in texture when you cook them. Whenever we buy beets with their greens still attached, I usually trim the greens right away (leaving about an inch on the beets), cut off off the tough stalks (and save them for making veggie stock), then wash and dry them and store them in a large ziploc in the fridge. They last for upwards of a week that way and you can use them the same way you'd use kale or chard.

Kale chips

We eat a lot of kale. Lacinato, aka "Dinosaur Kale" is our favorite for cooking, but lately we have been getting bunches of mixed kale at the farmer's market that includes several varieties that have curly leaves. These are perfect for kale chips, which are extremely easy to make and end up with a crispy, crunchy texture like potato chips!

To make kale chips: Tear off the leaves from the tough stalks and make them into whatever size pieces you like. Toss with just a little olive oil (1 tablespoon is plenty) and some salt, lay flat in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes (or until crispy) at 300 F. I used some parchment paper for ease of cleanup and got four large baking sheets-worth of kale chips from a single large bunch of about 10 stalks.

Chicken soup with greens

You can easily add many kinds of greens to soups or stews. This chicken soup was very simple, with just potatoes, carrots and onions, but the addition of some chopped beet greens at the end added some great color and flavor. You could also use swiss chard, kale, napa cabbage, bok choy, spinach or some "braising mix", which usually consists of a mix of greens that are slightly tough when raw but become tender when cooked in some liquid for a bit.

Lime and cilantro chickpea salad with spinach

I'm always on the lookout for interesting recipes that use beans or legumes, because we're tring to eat healthier, which includes less pasta/rice/bread and more beans and legumes. We always have cans of chickpeas in the pantry for adding to dishes or making some quick hummus, so I was happy when I ran across this recipe for a tangy chickpea salad with lime, cilantro and spinach. We've made it twice so far, once with mixed baby greens and once with spinach. Both times it was amazing and the leftovers were extra tasty as well.  I suggest serving it over some fresh spinach to catch some of the dressing!

Orange and beet salad

When summer gives you bolted greens, you can always make salads! It's been pretty cold here, so most of our mixed salad greens, bok choys and arugula bolted pretty early and we were left to compete with the slugs for baby greens. We got a few heads of flashy trout's back lettuce to mature, and I picked a mixture of baby greens and some tart sorrel leaves to mix in with the larger lettuce in a salad. We also had some beets from the farmer's market, an orange and some feta cheese, so into the salad they went as well! I made a light vinagrette with the orange juice after cutting the orange into supremes. I wasn't entirely sure if it would be too weird of a combination of ingredients, but the slight saltiness of the feta really complimented the sweetness of the beets and orange, so I consider it a success!

Sauteed cabbage with red onions

Last, but certainly not least, comes our old friend the cabbage. There are many ways to use cabbage (I personally love a good tangy slaw), but sometimes simple is best. I was home alone, tired from work, hadn't gone shopping and didn't feel like going to the store. I opened the fridge and found a couple of chicken breasts, half a head of napa cabbage and 2 small salad-sized red onions. Napa cabbage is already sweet and tender when raw, so a quick braise would just enhance it a bit. So, I seasoned and browned the chicken breasts, thinly sliced the cabbage and onions, did a quick sautee on those with some garlic, salt and pepper and then added 1/4 cup of veggie stock and braised everything together for about 15 minutes. The cabbage and onions become meltingly soft and sweet together and the meal seemed hearty and satisfying, with the added bonus that I had enough to take to work for lunch the next day.

If you have any great recipes or ideas for incorporating greens into your diet, I'd love to hear them! We stock up every week at the farmer's market and we're always trying to come up with creative ways to use them up!

 

Superbowl beer tasting!

This is an old post from 2008. It lost some formatting during an import and when I edited it to fix that, it updates the date (which I can't figure out how to reset).

lineup

(Scroll down for results)

12. Budweiser 11. Pabst Blue Ribbon 10. Tecate 9. Miller Genuine Draft 8. Modello Especial 7. Budweiser Chelada

6. Miller High Life 5. Mickey's 4. Busch 3. Miller Lite 2. Old English 800 1. Rainier

beer samples

Here's what I wrote down for the different beers. We tasted in order of 1-12, but we didn't know which was which hen we were tasting them.
(Rainier)            1.  ok - pretty good
(Old E)              2.  smells like puffed wheat, tastes the same, strong
(Miller Light)       3. light w/ nutty aftertaste
(Busch)              4. almost same as 3
(Mickey's)           5. bleh, alcohol-y + bland
(Miller High Life)   6. darker version of 3, more bubbles
(Bud Chelada)        7. tomato juice w/ seltzer + salt
(Modello)            8. alcoholy and dark - don't like
(MGD)                9. like 8 and 5
(Tecate)             10. not bad, similar to 12
(PBR)                11. little fruity/perfumey - pretty ok
(Budweiser)          12. weak but slight nutty aftertaste

My final rankings:
Best - I couldn't tell much difference between 3 and 4, but those were my favorites of all, followed by 11, 10/12, 1 and 6. Very hard to rank after the first few, they were so similar.
Worst - 7 was pretty gross, I really disliked 5, 8 and 9 and only slightly liked 2, which was pretty strong, but not terrible

Surprise winner: Busch and Miller Lite! I guess I really am a sucker for packaging, since I enjoy drinking Miller High Life from a bottle more than anything from a can, even though in a blind taste test, I only placed High Life in the middle. Granted, all of these were from tallboy cans, except Old E, and were semi-warm by the time we tried them. There was surprisingly little difference between most of the samples in the "best" category. We decided that next time, we'll narrow it down to the 6 best that we all agreed on and make sure they are COLD!

aftermath

Spicy pickled asparagus

Spicy pickled asparagus

For this recipe, you'll need about 2 lbs asparagus, sliced onions and garlic, and some fresh
dill fronds. It makes approximately 2 quarts of pickles. You can easily double or triple this recipe as well!

Brine:
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups vinegar
- 3 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp dill seed
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp chile flakes
- 1 tsp coriander (optional)
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds (optional)


1. Sterilize 2 quart canning jars,lids & rings. Keep warm & clean.

2. Rinse asparagus and cut to fit jars. (Save ends for soup!)

3. Blanch the asparagus for 10 seconds in boiling water and place into ice water immediately to stop the cooking, then drain.

4. Into a pan place vinegar, water and spices. Place on high heat and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

5. Place asparagus, a couple of dill fronds, a couple of onion slices, and a few pieces of garlic into each jar. The asparagus shrinks a bit when you cook it, so you'll be able to fit more into a jar than you originally think. I used a butter knife to squeeze the aspargus in the jar to make room for more pieces.

6. Pour some of the vinegar solution into each jar. Slide a knife carefully around the filled jar to
release any air bubbles. Wipe rims and jar sides clean and place lid and ring on and hand tighten.

7. Let cool for a few hours, then store in the refrigerator. Ready to eat in 2 days!