Avocado Kale Salad

Leafy greens are a staple in my family's diet. I try to cycle through the darker varieties - spinach, Swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, collards, and kale.

This salad was inspired by one I had from a health food store salad bar. I thought that salad had potential, but was a little boring with just kale, onions, and the avocado dressing. I livened up this version with mini heirloom tomatoes, raw pepitas, and cucumber. 

There is a lot of nutritional value to be excited about in this tasty raw salad. Kale is high in Vitamins A, C, and K, and also contains significant amounts of calcium, folate, and potassium. Avocados contain beneficial fats in addition to a high fiber content, Vitamins C and K, and folate. Lemons are full of potassium and Vitamin C.  Pumpkin seeds are a good source of zinc and other trace minerals. Tomatoes are rich in antioxidants.

Avocado Kale Salad

1 big bunch of kale, washed, chopped, and stems removed (or a 10oz bag of pre-chopped kale)
2 avocados, peeled and pitted
2 lemons, peeled and seeded
1/3 cup water
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup raw pepitas (hull-less pumpkin seeds)
1 medium English cucumber, diced (about 1 cup)
1 cup diced cherry tomatoes (I used some mini heirlooms)

In a food processor or blender, puree avocados, lemons, water, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Place kale in a large mixing bowl. Pour avocado dressing over the kale, mix well, and then use your hands to massage the dressing into the kale. This will make the leaves tender.

Stir in the pepitas, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes.

The salad can be served immediately or refrigerated and allowed to marinate for several hours or overnight.

Adventures in Fermentation

(L to R) Pickled Onions, Moroccan Preserved Lemons, Sauerkraut, Sourdough Starter, Kombucha. The second sourdough starter in the back is being adopted by a friend soon.

About five weeks ago, I attempted growing my own kombucha SCOBY from a bottle of commercial kombucha. I didn't realize at the time that the instructions I was following were for the old formulation of kombucha prior to it being temporarily removed from store shelves in 2010. After a couple weeks, I tossed out the weird, transparent jellyfish-like-blob I'd grown and acquired a real SCOBY. My first batch is in its first fermentation now. In a couple days, I'll taste-test it and if it's ready, I'll bottle it up with interesting flavors like carrot juice, hibiscus flowers, or orange juice and send it into the dark for its second fermentation.

About two weeks ago, I began a rye sourdough starter using this method. It took off and grew into a monster ooze that bubbled out of the old spaghetti sauce jar I'd started it in. I split the starter into two jars, one for a friend and one to keep, and fed the cloned monsters succulent grains of organic rye for a couple days before capping the jars and storing them in the fridge.

Rye Sourdough Starter on day 3. So many bubbles and the monster is only hours away from overflowing the jar.

Today I took the starter out and made my first loaf of sourdough using this recipe. It was a test loaf to make sure my starter was good. Well, it was certainly good, and I ended up with a 10-inch in diameter fluffy loaf of sourdough bread with a chewy crust and a pleasant tang.

My lovely first loaf of sourdough bread.

I fed the monster to replace the starter I used and it bubbled out the top of the jar within an hour. I have some happy yeast in that starter! The spaghetti squash jar wasn't going to cut it anymore, so I picked up a 2-quart jar, added to my recently-fed starter, and watched the monster grow to fill 2/3 of the new jar. I sense a large quantity of sourdough recipe experiments in my future.

Not content with just a brewing kombucha and a happy sourdough starter, I felt compelled to find new things to ferment. I went shopping for organic produce - onions, lemons, and cabbage. I had a bag of onions already, but they sprouted in my cupboard and now I'm waiting for the frost to pass so I can plant them outside.

The cupboard dwellers. Their owls have not yet arrived.

In the span of an hour and a half, I made Moroccan Preserved Lemons, Sauerkraut, and Pickled Onions. They have taken up residence on a cookie sheet in the cupboard under my buffet counter, little jars of mundane things waiting to create some magic.

So, here I am after midnight, typing with briny hands and hoping everything works. Fermenting is a curious thing -  an exercise in patience and an obligatory strong stomach ready to ignore the oddness of what you're eating or drinking in favor of appreciating the beneficial microorganisms. I'm trying to figure out what I should make next. Any suggestions?

Aromatherapy Play Dough

We're still fighting illness around here. Turbokid was coughing all night, so I decided to make him some peppermint-scented play dough to help relieve the congestion. Since this made a huge batch, I split it to make nine different colors and scents. When Turbokid squeezes or kneads the dough, the scent is released.

Salt doughs and play doughs are the only thing I use bleached flour and cheap iodized salt for. The color of the dough isn't as light if I used unbleached and whole wheat is too coarse. This is a cooked dough, which has a smoother texture than no-cook doughs. Making this play dough will give you a bit of an arm workout between the stirring and kneading.

I only have five essential oils in my cabinet so far(lavender, lemon eucalyptus, chamomile, orange, and peppermint), so I experimented with coconut and vanilla extracts. The scent is more subtle with the extracts and you have to be careful not to use too much or the dough becomes sticky. You only need 2-3 drops of most essential oils to scent a ball of dough the size of a preschooler's fist.

Red - tension blend (lavender-chamomile-peppermint), natural white - vanilla extract, blue - peppermint, light purple - lavender-chamomile, orange - orange, green - lemon eucalyptus, brown - coconut extract, dark purple - lavender, yellow - chamomile

Aromatherapy Play Dough

2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups warm water
food colorings
essential oils or extracts

Stir together flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. add oil and water and mix well with a hand mixer, making sure there are no lumps.

Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until the dough forms a big ball and is no longer sticky. Remove from heat and allow the dough to cool until it is cool enough to handle.

Divide dough into desired number of colors. Knead sections and roll into balls. Make a depression in the center of a dough ball and drip in food colorings and essential oils. You only need a 2-3 drops of each to start with and you can easily add more to get your desired color and level of scent. Kneed the dough ball until the colors are well incorporated. Repeat with other dough balls, scents, and colors.

Store in an air-tight container between uses.

You can use any skin-safe essential oils you like. Peppermint is good for congestion, lavender and chamomile are good for stress, and citrus is energizing.

Fruit-Infused Water

I have trouble getting Turbokid to drink water. His father has a juice habit and it has rubbed off on him. I've been encouraging him do drink more water by trying two different things. I either mix just an ounce of juice in with seven ounces of water in his sippy to give the water flavor, or I make up a pitcher of fruit-infused infused water. This is also good for people who need to drink more water but don't like it plain.

When I was pregnant with Messy Mouse, my midwives always had a huge pitcher of infused water out on the counter at the birth center. Every appointment, they had a different flavor. We had to avoid some of them because they contained mango or cherries, but the ones we could drink were greatly enjoyed by Turbokid. He especially liked any combination with strawberries. I dealt with morning sickness all nine months, so the ginger infusions were particularly refreshing.

Infused waters are easy to make. All you do is combine thinly sliced fruits and herbs in a pitcher, cover with filtered water, and let sit for 8 hours or overnight. Then just strain out the fruit and enjoy the water. You can even make smaller quantities in jars if you have a couple slices of fruit leftover from another cooking project.

It is fun to experiment with different combinations of fruits and fresh herbs or just combinations of fruits if you don't have fresh herbs on hand. Here are some tasty combinations to add to a pitcher (approximately two quarts) of water:

Lemon-Cucumber
1 sliced cucumber
1 sliced lemon
10-12 mint leaves
1 Tbsp thinly sliced ginger

Lemon-Basil
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced cucumber
8 basil leaves

Strawberry-Orange-Ginger
4 sliced strawberries
1 sliced orange
1 Tbsp thinly sliced ginger

Raspberry Lemonade
handful of raspberries
1 sliced lemon

Rosemary-Citrus
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sliced limes
1 sliced orange

Peach-Basil
1 sliced peach
handful of raspberries
8 basil leaves

Ginger-Pear
1 sliced pear
1 Tbsp thinly sliced ginger
1 cinnamon stick

Strawberry-Citrus
5 sliced strawberries
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange