Kale Salad with Feta Pecans Cranberries and Pickled Onion Dressing Salad Betrayal

SN - I forgive you and take you back.

All lovers in love have heard that sappy saccharine quote, "If you love something set it free and if it comes back to you, it was meant to be." I recently had an experience that made me think of that quote over and over and I questioned the veracity of those words.

One of my good friends loves my many kale salads. Every opportunity I have, I try and give her a kale salad to satisfy all her cravings. She always eats it with such relish and such willingness that in my head I was sure I had her undying devotion to my kale salads.

However, a few weeks ago, I was stunned to receive this text from her. "I cheated on your kale salad." Turns out she went to a local grocery store and PURCHASED A KALE SALAD BEHIND MY BACK! I am a jealous woman so I did not respond well.  I was stunned. I was shocked. I was hurt and part of me died a little. How could she go so easily to another kale salad when she had mine almost as much as she wanted? 

I sent a series of texts back to her.

Youre disloyal.

You dont deserve my kale salad.

Its over.

You cant ever get my kale salad again.

Youll never see any piece of my salad again.

She kept on interjecting in between my rant with empty words.

I liked yours more.

Yours tastes better.

I cant eat any other kale salad except yours.

Ive learned my lesson. 

Ill never stray away from your salads again.

I shut off my phone and refused to hear anymore from her and her useless words about how she would never stray from my kale salad again.  But in the night, I discovered that separating her from my kale salad out of pure spite and stubborness hurt me more than it hurt her.  

The next morning I texted.

I forgive you.  My kale salads forgive you.

Im happy to say that she went away from my kale salads and came back to them, so it must be meant to be.  My head was sure that she wouldnt stray, but now my heart knows she wont.  This harsh test of our relationship proves that we have what it takes to make it all the way, as long as my kale salad is involved.

To celebrate our reunion over kale salad, I made this new one for her, which has the exciting addition of pickled onions in the dressing, which just adds the right sharp and sour bite to a wonderful salad.  It touches on the Greek salad with the feta, but the richness of pecans mixed with the hearty kale just makes a truly satisfying salad.  Im confident that this salad will also help you maintain loyal relationships with those around you.

Kale Salad with Feta, Pecans, Cranberries, and Pickled Onion Dressing
Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients
3 medium bunches Lacinato/dinosaur kale, washed and rinsed well, finely chopped (8 cups chopped)

½ cup finely chopped red onions
¼ red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
¼  cup extra virgin olive oil
¼  teaspoon fine grain sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup pecans (small pieces are fine, as you’ll be processing them anyways)

½ dried sweetened cranberries
¾  cup crumbled feta cheese

Method
If you’ve never dealt with dinosaur/lacinato kale, you’ll need to remove the stem before trying to eat it.  I’ve found the fastest way is to simply grab the stem with one hand, and with the other, start at the base of the leaf, and it a quick motion, strip the leaf upwards until the stem is left stripped.  I save the stem and chop it finely and put it in my vegetable soups.   I find it much easier to wash the kale after the stem has been removed.  Wash, dry very well in a salad spinner, and then shred.  The smaller the shred, the better the texture in the salad.

In a large jar, add chopped red onions.  Pour red wine vinegar and sugar over onions and shake vigorously so as to coat onions with vinegar sugar mixture.  Add olive oil, salt, and pepper and set aside until rest of the salad is done, so that onions have time to pickle.  It’s okay if the dressing separates and the vinegar stays around the onions because it aids in the pickling process.

Preheat oven to 300.  Lay pecans on a cookie sheet.  Cook until fragrant and lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.  Chop nuts finely, using a food processor.  Set aside.

In a large salad bowl add shredded kale, pecans, cranberries and feta cheese.  Pour dressing over salad and toss.  The salad should get enough of the pickled onions for the full flavor.

Serve.  Because of the sturdy nature of kale, you can actually dress this salad and serve even 30 minutes later and it’s still delicious, although my preference is to eat it immediately.

Printable recipe

This salad demands and commands loyalty.

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Green Goddess Dressing For all the strong goddesses I know

To all my fellow women who fight the good fight for their children and families - you are amazing.

Its been a tough week for the women in my life these past few months.  I have a friend in hospice after a short but frenzied battle with cancer.  She lives for two young children who will soon suffer an anguish that is like no other.  She battles on to spend any additional day with her kids.

I have another friend who fights to get the best education for her autistic child, who is currently not being served in his school.  She battles daily to get what her child needs, often times being defeated by the system, but she herself, never gives up fighting for more.

Still another friend deals with a child recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  This means that for the immediate future, every carbohydrate, every bit of food has to be measured, calculated, and balanced with insulin. There is an incredible amount of math involved in every single meal (mostly addition and division) and nothing food wise is just picked up and consumed on a whim.  The entire family is on standby and she still calculates, measures, weighs all the food that will go into her child.

There are those moms who daily battle with food allergies.  Im currently trying to figure out how to keep #2 safe in a classroom where no one seems to have gotten the memo that she is allergic to peanuts without offended or upsetting anyone elses food choices.

There are my friends who have to take care of aging parents while taking care of young children.  They do it with a smile on their face, sweat on their brow, while the burden of two generations weighs on their shoulder.

I have dozens more stories of the amazing women in my immediate circle who are going through great lengths for their families.  They sacrifice and push themselves for they can.  They are the better for it on the other side of the challenge, but the road through the challenge is not easy.

Women - we are doing it all.  We are doing the best we can.  The road has been hard and the battle has been unpredictable.  But we still go at it, strong, fierce and determined to do what needs to be done.  And for these women, Im so very proud to be their friend and to be a fellow woman.

These women, these goddesses if you will, I offer salad.  Delicious salad with a dressing aptly named - green goddess.  The dressing is creamy, sophisticated, vibrant and fresh.  It enhances almost anything it touches.  (Im partial to it with carrot sticks and cucumbers.)  The dressing is almost as good as a good woman.

Green Goddess Dressing

Serves 6 

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (7 or 8  scallions)

1 ½  cups chopped fresh basil leaves

½ cup chopped Italian parsley

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)

2 teaspoons anchovy paste (near the canned meat section of your local grocery store)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup sour cream

Method

In a blender add all ingredients except sour cream.  Blend until just smooth.  Add sour cream and blend just a bit more.  Use immediately over salad your choice of salad (I like romaine with cucumbers and tomatoes), or refrigerate if not using immediately.  

Printable recipe

With cucumbers, tomatoes and romaine, the perfect salad to go with any meal.

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Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Blue Cheese Dressing Changing my attitude

To all the moms who have gone before me...

#1 is nearing puberty, as she is almost 11 years old, and Ill just go on record that this is a time period that Ive dreaded quite a bit.  It has everything to do with my discomfort with talking about certain topics with #1 (and #2, and #3) and Ive kind of been on pins and needles waiting for this time.

I think mostly my discomfort arises from the fact that my own parents didnt discuss this time period with me.  I have no recollection of their discussing it with my younger brother, and Im fairly certain one of my brothers got the talk from the older one after we had figured some stuff out.  The brother, just 30 months younger, and I were given a book, checked out from the library, with some strange cartoon-ish type drawings in it, explaining the changes that were to happen in our body along with the background on reproduction.  There was no open, warm, loving conversation inviting questions and curiosity but rather a cold book, and a succinct, "Read this" without any follow through. 

The irony of being the daughter of an OB/Gyn doesnt escape me either.  My father KNEW about this stuff intimately, and still I was not given ANY information from his lips or my moms.  There were major cultural issues of course - my parents being immigrant Koreans, despite intimate knowledge of the science at hand, didnt have the ability to communicate such things with me.  They also trusted the school system to give me the nuts and bolts of the matter and left it to the system.  Puberty came and went like some weird secret systemic overhaul, with some tinkering by the school system, with no participation from my parents. Recently, I spoke with my mom regarding this, as I explained I was gearing up and mentally preparing myself for this conversation and I kind of jokingly said, "You didnt tell me anything!  Why do I have to tell #1?"  My mom kind of laughed and said, "There is NO way I would have told you anything.  That is not how things were done back then." Ill have my readers note, however, that while I was a high school teacher, I didnt have any trouble discussing these issues with students that came to me to talk about their confusion and their questions.  They werent my children.

However, now I am a parent, with a real live child nearing puberty.  And in order to prepare myself, I decided to invest in some outside support and help.  I had no real sense of the scope of the matter, what is appropriate, any new science or ideas, and the tone in which to approach the conversation. Many friends tried to coach me to be open, honest, scientific, but my inner self kept shrieking "NO Im NOT READY FOR THIS" and running in the other direction.  I asked my best friend Ob/Gyn if she would be willing to do it in my stead, and she looked me straight in the face and said, "My conversation will be strictly about body parts and how they make a baby.  Is that what you want?" I decided to get help.

Many of my peers who have daughters a few steps ahead of my own told me of their wonderful experiences with Heart to Heart, a program that discusses puberty, reproduction, the opposite sex, but more importantly (for me) gives parents some ideas of how to be open and straightforward and calm in such discussions.  When I signed up #1, and told her how wed be taking this class together, there were such shrieks of consternation and drama that ensued that I was kind of fearful. She used words like, private, embarrassing, weird, to which I responded that some people do feel that way during puberty, but we were hoping for a better result.  The drama was so much that #2, who had some insight into changes of the body during puberty tried to analyze the situation and asked, "Is the seminar where she gets her armpit hair?"

Today was our first session.  And Ill tell you, 120 minutes of my time were well spent.  And Ill say that I learned something really amazing today - that the lecturers TONE and energy was amazing.  She took a room of about 100 mothers and daughters, and had us laughing and smiling and rethinking our [my] fear of puberty.  I dont know if other moms in the room had come to it with the same trepidation and fear and anxiety that I had, but I do know that most of the girls had some level of concern that mine did.  And the lecturer made it all so much better.  She changed my perspective.  Puberty is AMAZING!  EXCITING!  Your mother is your resource and loving expert!!  (Im a bra consultant with years of experience, evidently. ) Most changes have been happening ALL THE TIME!  But its AMAZING!  Wonderful!  The puberty 6 hit parade!  And why do we fear it so much. Later in the car, I found myself with the strength, calm, and humor to speak to #1 about the changes that were going to happen and also asked her how I might support her when these changes do happen, something that wouldnt have happened two days ago. My attitude has completely changed.

So, now, I present to you CAULIFLOWER!  Its AMAZING!  Wonderful!  Delicious!!! And can be an unexpected kind-of-healthy-but-kind-of-decadent appetizer (which by the way, I can consume all on my own.)  And its not like your old cauliflower that you didnt like, but its the new cauliflower that is yummy, spicy, and delicious.  Let this recipe change your mind.  The preparation is straightforward, the sauce is delicious, and its just going to make you think of cauliflower in a whole new way.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Blue Cheese Dressing
Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, about 1 lb, or 1 lb of cauliflower florets, already broken up
¼ cup flour
¼ cup water

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
? cup sriracha
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup chopped chives
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and Pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 450.  Grease a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan.  Prepare cauliflower into bite sized chunks, about 2 to 3 inch pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour and water until it is smooth and uniform.  Add cauliflower chunks and toss until pieces are all well coated with flour mixture.  Place cauliflower on baking pan and cook for 8 minutes in the oven, and then turn pieces over and cook for another 8 minutes.

While cauliflower is cooking, prepare hot sauce coating and blue cheese dressing.  In a small sauce pan, add vegetable oil, sriracha, rice vinegar and warm mixture.  It will begin release sharp spicy notes as it warms up.  No need to boil.

Mix together sour cream, mayo, lemon juice, chives, blue cheese and salt and pepper. Set aside.

Once cauliflower has roasted, dump cauliflower mixture back into large bowl and pour over hot sauce mixture.  Once again toss well, and once cauliflower is well coated with hot sauce mixture, place it back on the roasting pan and stick it in the oven for another 3 or 4 minutes.

Serve hot or room temperature with sauce and celery or cucumbers on the side.  Enjoy alone or with a friend.

Printable recipe

not going to lie...this is something I enjoy just eating on my own.

Some nice resources:

The authors of this book are the writers of the work behind Stanfords Heart to Heart.  They are based out of Washington, and have this book, which is essentially the same material covered in the two day seminar.  I havent gotten the book yet, but I did look through and the tone and the material covered is essentially the same.  There is a section detailing reproduction (family life) so if youre not ready for that, this isnt the book for you.

Many pediatricians as well as the Heart to Heart series recommend this book, which is much more about the body changes of puberty.  Its a great guide, non threatening (although my own #1 found the pictures kind of gross - they were cartoonish) and it is where my #2 got the information about armpit hair.

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Garbanzo Beans with Sun Dried Tomato Dressing For all complaints my name is James

Friend SH and I have recently been lamenting how much our families complain about the food that we put in front of them.  Its funny because her family will eat what Im cooking and my family loves what shes cooking, but when we cook for our own families, no one seems to be satisfied.  Both of us want to emphasize health, more vegetables than meat, and a focus on eating balanced meal, while our audience members seem to think that what we are serving them isnt what they ordered.  For the record, families, there is NO menu from which to choose.

Its hard cooking for family because they are the biggest critics and the biggest gripers.  If I make meatloaf one night, Daughter #1 is over the moon while Daughter #2 and Son complain.  (I happen to really like meatloaf as well.)  If I make some steak, Daughter #1 will complain while Daughter #2 and I enjoy it.  Son is neutral.  If I make a spicy curry, Son and I will chow down while Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 complain.

Ive left Husband off of this list of complainers because he is in a different category.  Dont get me wrong - Husband is incredibly supportive of the food that comes out of my kitchen.  He eats everything that I put in front of him, minus beans, and eats with relish and a thankful heart for the food hes been given.  However, he cant just eat the food and smile and say, "It tastes great."  He always has to offer some sort of comment about how it doesnt quite taste like the last time, or how he wishes it was angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti, or how he likes this same dish with gravy.

Hmph.  Every once in a while, when I get good and fed up about the number of complaints (please address James when complaining) I go all crazy and cook something that I KNOW no one else will like but me.  Beans.  A salad.  Something cold.  Something that looks herby.  Something that Im sure that no one will enjoy but ME.

I raided my pantry, stumbled upon a can of garbanzo beans and made a quick and easy bean salad for myself using up some Italian parsley, shallots, and sun dried tomatoes I had.  And THIS....THIS became the hit for the day among Children.

If I were a cartoon character, my head would have spun around in its socket several times and then rolled off.  And my decapitated head would ask, "Oh!  Is THIS what you like?"  But it is really good and tasty and oh-so-easy-to make.

Garbanzo Beans with Sun Dried Tomato Dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

4 sun dried tomato halves (not in oil), finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed, drained

¼ cup finely chopped Italian parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a medium-sized bowl, add whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, sun dried tomatoes and shallots.  Add garbanzo beans and toss into dressing.  Finish with Italian parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and refrigerate for about 45 minutes or longer to allow flavors to blend.

Serve as a side salad, or on top of toasted bread for a tidy appetizer.

Printable recipe

The sun-dried tomatoes I used - but the amount sold here is a HUGE amount.

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