Finally, the convenience of automatic html generation has lured me away from LiveJournal and over to Blogger. You can find the new blog here: Pieloch Oregon

A friend asked for this. There are many different ways to season and bake/dry kale chips (just do a web search), but this is what leads to the best results for me.

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Kale Chips

1 large bunch kale
Maybe 1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

If your kale is limp, give the stems a fresh cut and place them into a jar/vase of clean water for a few hours. Yeah, like they were cut flowers. It works wonders. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Wash the kale and shake a bit to dry. Tear larger-than-bite-sized chunks away from the central rib on each leaf. (Discard the rib, or let your kids do swordplay with them.) Put the torn leaves in a colander as you go, allowing them to dry a bit.

When you have finished tearing up the kale, dump the torn leaves into a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the leaves and shake some salt on top. Then massage the whole mess together with your (clean) hands. The leaves should be lightly but completely coated with oil. If they aren't, add more oil and continue to get messy until the leaves are lightly coated with oil.

Pile the leaves onto the two cookie sheets. Ideally it should be a single layer, but you can pile them up a bit. They will shrink down some later. If you really like salt (like me), shake some more salt onto the kale now. Now move the racks in your oven so that you have room for two cookie sheets (on different racks) near the center of the oven.

Place the cookie sheets in the oven. Rotate the cookie sheets every 20 minutes (usually twice). When the chips are nearly crisp (and some of them are starting to be done) start checking every 5-10 minutes. Move the kale around if some of the chips are piled up and not drying properly. The cooking process takes under an hour, generally. You can start to remove (eat) the chips that are done early if you like, but at 220 degrees they don't burn. You can speed up the process by baking at a higher temp, but you have to watch carefully for burning. You don't want your chips to be brown, you want them to be crispy.

Now sit back and wonder how you ate an entire batch of kale chips. If you made it through the entire process and still have some chips left, put them into a bowl and watch your family's reactions. The humor value is worth giving up a few chips.

Yesterday was Stu's birthday. For three months we are the same age! Then in November I'll be older than him again. Also I'll be 40. Humph.

Anyway, the kids and I picked berries so Stu would have fresh-picked berries on his birthday. I wouldn't normally count this as a workout, but Stuart chose the cart with the flat-and-broken wheel. I didn't realize the extent of the problem until we were to far out to go back, so I got a surprising arm-and-leg workout pulling Marcus and berry flats in the cart. And of course we gorged on just-picked raspberries and blueberries. (I did save some for Stu.)

In the afternoon, I had to make (1) his birthday cake, (2) alternative "cake" for me, (3) gazpacho (thanks Melinda!), (4) guacamole (for chips), and (5) salmon. The salmon is no big deal, but I still had to walk over to the store to get the salmon.

A few hours and one SCARY messy kitchen later, I decided to drop the guacamole because I was running out of time. But everything (except the kitchen cleanup) was great!

(1) I made the same cake I usually make for birthdays (a dairy-free chocolate cake), only I halved it to make only one layer. Instead of doing buttercream frosting, I based the dessert on this cake with chocolate glaze on the top and raspberry sauce. I used the glaze recipe at the link, substituting Earth Balance Soy-Free for butter, and honey for the corn syrup. I got the raspberry sauce recipe somewhere else, but it was just raspberry jam + orange juice, heated up and stirred together. I think it added up to the same amount of work as a two-layer cake with buttercream frosting, but half the temptation volume and much less sugar for the kiddos.

(2) I'm trying to go without grains and sugar, with an eye towards eating "primal." So the cake above just wasn't going to work. And staring at that cake with an empty mouth? That wasn't going to work either. I found this black-and-white cake, substituting walnut pieces for the white chocolate. I didn't have any chocolate, so I worked out the substitutions for using cocoa. Over a cup of cocoa in this tiny cake?? I used a cup and called it good. Plus 1/3 cup palm shortening and 1/3 cup honey. In retrospect, I should have added 1/2 or even 2/3 cup honey. Also, I had some almond pulp in the fridge (from making almond milk) and I used it in place of the almond flour. The results? I don't think anyone who is currently consuming sugar would be able to eat the cake. It is super-strong chocolate, with not quite enough sweetness to cut the bitter. I had it with the raspberry sauce and it was amazing. I had a little today with tea + almond milk and that was good, too. It would be divine with a good cup of coffee, but I've had my quota for today. If I make it again, I think I would cut back on the cocoa to maybe 3/4 cup. But maybe not.

(3) I nominally used the gazpacho recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, but mostly I winged it. Pureed base, diced veggies to add salad-bar-style at the table. Hot sauce on the table. Not that the kids would touch it. Maybe if I just gave them chopped veggies, as they would eat every single ingredient in the soup. Anyway. Stu liked it, which is the important thing.

(4) Guacamole was called on account of time. There was plenty of food. But here's what I do: halve, scoop out, and mash three avocados. (That's a LOT. If your family isn't so piggy, use less.) Quickly toss with fresh-squeezed lime juice to keep avocado from browning. I like to use lots, often one lime per avocado. In a mortar-and-pestle, grind together 1 clove raw garlic and some salt (maybe 3/4 tsp) to make a paste. Add to the mixture. Add some cumin, maybe a tsp, maybe more. I usually add until I can just taste it. Then, of course, taste and add more of whatever you like best.

(5) Salmon in the Pacific NW is tasty and easy. I just throw it on a piece of aluminum foil in a 350-450 degree oven for maybe 10 minutes, then start fretting about whether it is done. Usually I have Stu check it for me. Often I overcook it. If I do, I make tartar sauce or Stuart won't eat it.

Yum. The tasty meal fortified me for the massive cleanup that isn't even yet complete. And the painting, which is also not yet complete. And the simple meal was more-or-less what the birthday boy (man) wanted, so HOORAY!

I spent all day Monday thinking it was Tuesday, and I would get to run the next day. Starting this morning, I was in Friday mode all day. Imagine my dismay when it wasn't time for me to go run. Bummer.

It didn't exactly raise my heart rate, but we did go pick berries on Sauvie Island this morning. This was the first time the kids had to pick berries with serious thorns (marionberries). They did really well, and I only had to remove one thorn that had gotten stuck under Stuart's sandal.

Last time we picked raspberries, I made jam that day and it was amazing. The raspberry jam I made later from frozen + thawed berries? Less amazing. Any more room in our freezer shall be reserved for blueberries, which are just now coming into season. So I took the plunge and made marionberry jam this evening. It was my first time canning anything. It was much easier than I thought it would be! I have the cutest little jars of marionberry jam, sitting on my counter. I think that they have all gone plink now.

Tomorrow: swim class day 5 (for the kids, not me), park trip with the homeschool group, a run, and packing for a weekend trip to Seattle. (We were supposed to go last weekend, but the kids were sick.)

These aren't the best stories of all time, these are just the ones I love right now. I read them for my kids, but the best stories are ones that I enjoy reading out loud to them.

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

( Read more... )

Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? by, um, Richard Scarry.

( Read more... )

Billy and Blaze series by C. W. Anderson
( Read more... )

I have so many topics I would like to blog about, and little motivation. If you comment saying you would like to read about it, I'll prioritize it. Because I need motivation from external sources right now.

1. Kidwash (PVC-constructed sprinkler in our front yard)
2. Awesome kid books with which I am currently in love
3. Homeschool planning for the "new year"
4. My ER-trip-inducing adventures in Federal Way, Washington and hyperventiation
5. Recent park trips
6. Berry picking and raspberry goodness

Last night, I went out to the mall to get away from home for a while. And plan schedules for the upcoming school year. I grabbed my copy of The Well-Trained Mind, because it had suggested lesson durations for certain age ranges. (Like 2-hours-of-science-a-week-for-first-graders.) While I was flipping through the suggestions, my eyes rested upon Music Appreciation as a topic. This is something we do in fits and spurts, and never in a lesson-like way.

But...it did remind me that we haven't done much music ed lately. So this morning, in the car on the way to IKEA, I whipped out some Beethoven's Wig.

Don't know Beethoven's Wig? Think common classical music pieces with silly lyrics added. It has great potential to be awful, but mostly is awesome. For those who have kids--or those people who are just silly--I highly recommend them.

Anyway, we were listening in the car--we hadn't heard this stuff in months--and it struck me just how much I *love* some of those pieces. And my kids, too--especially Marcus. But we each have our separate favorites. I really like It's the Same Every Verse and Dvorak The Czechoslovak, but Marcus was begging to hear "Beethoven's Wig is Big Hairy and White" over and over again. Stuart had his nose in a book. He just walked in, so I asked him which and he said, "I like Franz Liszt best." (Franz Liszt The Famous Pianist)

Just a quick ramble about some stuff I liked today. Also the cooler weather was nice.

The weather has finally turned from Winter-Spring Cool & Cloudy to Summer Awesome. The other afternoon, Stu and the kids were sitting on the front steps, watching a curious phenomenon. There were ants crawling from one side of the steps to the other, more or less, wandering around the entire time. They were on a mission.

( Pictures ahead! )