Beautiful Salad

This kale salad is slightly adapted from Dr. Weil's recipe, and is amazing. I first made it last Thanksgiving, and have made it countless times since. It is similar to Caesar, but features gorgeous Lacinato Kale (or Tuscan/Italian Kale), is easy to make ahead and holds up well as a leftover salad too. I've also had numerous friends ask me why this recipe isn't on my cooking blog yet, so... Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve dinner:  Finnish ham, rye crisp with herring roe, kale salad,
purple potato with pickled herring, sourdough rye bread with Finnish cheese and Two Vines Chardonnay

Kale Salad

5-6 cups chopped kale, ribs removed (or a triple-washed package of baby kale)
Juice from 1 large lemon, or two small lemons
4-5 Tbs. olive oil (truffled olive oil from Trader Joe's is amazing in this)
4 cloves pressed, fresh, garlic
Kosher or sea salt (to taste)
lemon pepper (or Penzey's Sunny Spain) to taste
3/4 cup shaved or grated Parmesan, Asiago, or other hard, flavorful cheese
1/2 cup panko crumbs (optional)

Whisk the fresh-squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, pressed garlic and seasonings in a large salad bowl, then add all but 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and whisk again. Let sit for at least 5 minutes, then mix in the panko crumbs (if using) just before serving, and top with remaining Parmesan. Enjoy!! 

Wordless Wednesday: Candy Crush Pops

Callaloo! Kallaloo!

I first learned about Callaloo a few years ago from the book "Kallaloo" by David and Phillis Gershator. It's a Caribbean twist on the stone soup story and also has two recipes for callaloo in the back of the book, one using callaloo (a green popular in Trinidad) and one using spinach. I never got around to making either of the recipes, but we checked the book out a few times since it's a fun story.

Fast-forward to this June when I spied Callaloo ("Trinidad's most beloved soups - kale and coconut based with hints of nutmeg and topped with pulled chicken and lemon") on the menu at The Beach Cafe at our PTA Board dinner. I had to try a cup, which was delicious and spicy, and then I was determined to try my hand at the recipe! I didn't check the Kallallo book out again, although I should now that the kids have tried (and love) it... I just browsed online and found a wide variety of riffs on this popular soup. Since I really liked the version I tried at the Beach Cafe, I decided to wing it, and came up with this "recipe" all my own. It would be really delicious with large hunks of firm white fish in it too - or in place of the chicken.

Katrina's Kallaloo Soup

About 2 Tbs. olive oil (heat over medium until shimmering), then add
2 large shallots, chopped
6 cloves crushed garlic, and stir/cook until translucent and fragrant, then add
1 can anchovies in olive oil, drained
4 cups washed, mixed baby kale
2 bunches washed, chopped Lancinato (Tuscan) kale, ribs removed
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (or more to taste) 
1-2 tsp. habanero hot-sauce (to taste), and stir/cook until kale is softened

Next, add 
1 (32 oz?) carton mushroom broth or chicken (I only had mushroom) 
1 carton butternut squash soup, and simmer for 20-30 minutes

Then, use an immersion blender to completely puree the kale, onions, etc. Taste soup and adjust seasonings if needed. 

Finally, add 
1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed, shredded
1 can light coconut milk
4-6 oz. nonfat plain Greek yogurt
zest from one large lemon

And, simmer until you're ready to serve. If you want to thicken up the soup, make a roux from a couple Tbs. of melted butter and flour. Enjoy!! 

And, that's a wrap...

... final lunch of the school year! 

Avocado & cream cheese sammies on Dave's Killer Bread, fresh local strawberries, carrots with sesame-miso dressing, and Jungle Animal cookies... she loved it all.

Creative Lunches... For The Win!!

Back when M was in preschool, I packed her glorious bento-box lunches three days a week, filled with fun, funky, amazing things. Fast-forward a few years (filled with preschool lunches for brother too), and a full year of 1st- and 2nd-grade lunches (minus the three times she bought lunch), and I'm pretty tired of making lunch every single day. 

And, while sometimes I wish that the girl would just buy lunch, I've visited her cafeteria during lunch a few times this year and tried to eat a healthy, semi-appealing lunch from the lunch line and it's very challenging. So, I understand why she doesn't want to buy lunch. I wouldn't want to eat it either.

While I was away for a week in Hawaii earlier this year, M packed her own lunch every evening, for the next day, and she did gain a real appreciation for the lunches I send with her daily. She's also developed a taste for the simple - PB&J or bagel with cream cheese, fruit, a small treat, and veggies with ranch. Pretty easy. 

But, as we neared the final two weeks of school, and everything seemed to pile up (as it always does at the end), and I was so tired of lunch-packing, and we all just wanted summer, I decided to buck the system because this is the finish line! So many parents just seemed to be celebrating "giving up" on caring about school, and stopped packing lunches, volunteering, or making sure kiddos get homework done. Even one of the kids' teachers shared that she was "done" with the year, and it didn't matter anymore... everyone was doing it (or so it seemed, since so many were paying lip-service to it), and I just had to step away from the crowd and get away from the negativity. 

You don't peter out when you're about to cross the finish! That's a terrible lesson for kids. We're all excited for summer fun, but endurance is the name of the game when it comes to kiddos, life, and a healthy attitude. And, so I got really creative with lunches for the final two weeks of school to pump a little fun into the final miles... here are a few of M's favorites, and you know what? It totally worked - flipped all our attitudes around and we've had a fantastic final two weeks full of in-class fun, field-trip and field-day and party chaperoning, lots of reading and art-lesson teaching, Girl Scout fun, and Thank-You gift coordinating! Attitude makes a world of difference. 

Rainbow Lunch with M's favorites, including fresh pineapple and fresh English Peas. What? No protein you say? She bought white milk, and took cheese & crackers for her snack. 

Flat Stanley party lunch today... flat Stanley PB&J on Dave's Killer Bread, flat-sliced apple with cinnamon cream cheese, flat-sliced strawberries, Stanley cheddar slices, Big Cheezits, and Flat scottie-dog shortbread cookies. Fun!

M's faves lunch... salami, carrots & homemade ranch, roasted Yukon Golds and ketchup, Brussels cookies and fresh Bing Cherries.

And, another rainbow lunch with carrots, orange supremes, and canned pineapple.

Best Salad Ever...

Fantastic salad! Vincent made this to contribute to a dinner that we hosted at our place with the gang. Luckily, the recipe came in his weekly produce box (which we also happen to subscribe to). It's a keeper!

Shredded Carrot and Pistachio Salad (adapted)
Full Circle Farms 

1 (to 1.5) c. shredded carrots, pressed dry
1/2 c. yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/3 c. pistachios, toasted and chopped
1/2 t. salt
2 T. Greek yogurt
1.5 T. olive oil
1 T. black or yellow mustard seeds
1 T. chopped fresh cilantro

Mix everything except mustard seeds; add oil to pan and heat over medium until they pop. Add oil and seeds to carrot mixture, stir and serve immediately. 

A Zesty Souvenir

So, there is this fantastic cafe in Kailua Kona on Alii Drive called Island Lava Java. Jen and I ate breakfast there every morning that we were in Kona, except for the two mornings that we ate papaya at our condo. My objective, pretty much every day in Hawai'i was to eat a papaya half, try a local specialty, and enjoy a tropical cocktail oceanside. I excelled at these goals. 

Waipi'o Stack Breakfast with 1/2 papaya and a 20 oz. Kona coffee - heaven...

Island Lava Java's fantastic menu

One of the most delicious things on the Lava Java menu (besides their 20-oz. cups of Kona Coffee) was the Waipi'o Stack Breakfast, which I've been attempting to re-create. It was a stack of goodness, starting with toasted homemade wheat bread, slathered with chipotle aioli, sliced tomatoes, spicy rocket (arugula), smoky bacon, over-easy eggs, and ripe avocado. Pure brilliance. I think I've finally got the chipotle aioli down... There's a chance that I may move on to their ginormous cinnamon roll recipe next (they're so popular, they let you reserve them ahead of time).  

Best Cinnamon Roll on the island... they sell out early. We paid for this one the day before, planning to pick it up on our way to Hilo the next morning. We picked it up and decided to stay for breakfast. Mmm... good choice.

Katrina's Chipotle Aioli for a Waipi'o Stack Breakfast at home... 
(makes enough to share with a friend)

1.5 c. good light mayonnaise 

4 whole chipotle chiles (canned in adobo sauce from the Mexican section of the grocery)

Juice from one medium lime
1-2 Tbs. honey or agave (to taste - I used one)

2 cloves crushed garlic (or two cubes of frozen crushed Dorot from TJ's)

1/4-1/2 tsp. Hawai'ian sea salt (I did slightly less than a 1/2 tsp) 

Whiz this all up in your food processor (or Magic Bullet like I did) and enjoy!! Add more chiles for more kick (or a little more of the adobo sauce from the can), or use full-fat mayo if you want (or regular sea salt, I just have some from Hawai'i). Heck, you could even make your own mayo, but I just don't have the time for that... 

This was pretty good tonight on top of my cooked potato with a dollop of Greek Yogurt and a tablespoon on this zesty goodness. I'm totally giving a little jar to Jen ASAP!! 

Right on Alii Drive... ocean-view with live music everyday - hard to beat!

*Sigh* Kona Coffee Perfection with a side of Aloha!

Dirt Cake

So, the most fun part of this dirt cake was the root-beer flavored gummy worms from Oriental Trading. I've (amazingly) only made dirt cake once before in my life, and that was before I had kiddos.

This time I intended to make it for our Halloween dinner party, but didn't get to it, so made it the following evening.

Vanilla pudding, light Cool Whip, crushed chocolate Oreos and WhoNu? sandwich cookies (which are fantastic, by the way - I like them more than Oreos), all layered and served up with the worms!

Luckily, we did have some last-minute dinner guests to enjoy this with and they had two servings each. It was a hit and very easy to whip up.

Rainbows, Birthdays, and Pumpkin Spice Kisses

This isn't the first (or even the second) time I've made an "epic" rainbow cake for someone's birthday, but I usually do save it for a significant milestone. Madeline's 5th, Sharon's 60th, and now Jamie's 40th. Jame's was the tallest cake yet since we did the full Roy G. Biv of rainbow colors, plus a pink layer on the bottom. Eight layers of goodness, especially since I used the vanilla cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen! It was delicious, sturdy, and worked well with all my colors. I used this recipe for the frosting (always delicious).

And, this weekend I made these Pumpkin Spice Kiss (and Kissless) Cookies that I spied on Pinterest from Sprinkle Some Sunshine right here. They are not too sweet, especially the rolled-in-cinnamon-sugar kissless ones), and tasty!

Wicked Witch Treat Mix

So, instead of adding the cute witch hats to a batch of my Wicked Caramel Corn (which would be tasty), we went even easier (but very tasty) with a batch of air-popped popcorn (4 cups? 6 cups?), several cups (maybe 3-4 cups) Rice Chex cerals, 2 cups (or so) of pretzels rods, and about 1 cup of broken pecans mixed together then tossed with one 14-oz. bag of melted Wilton white candy melts, 1/8 cup of orange sprinkles and 1/8 cup of black & orange Halloween nonpareils. I really mostly eyeballed everything in my large rectangular roasting/sheet cake pan. That's how we do things around here. Thankfully, it worked out for us. 

We think the pretzel rods look like broomsticks, and the Chex a little like bristles. One child may have suggested that some wicked witches crashed their brooms - oh, the imaginations! Hmm... regardless, this is a tasty and cute treat mix with our witch hats tossed in bags for friends to enjoy!

A Touch of Magic!

Last year on Pinterest, there was this sweet holiday snack mix with Chex and M&M's and pretzels and some other items, including adorable Santa hats made from dipping Bugles in melted red candy melts, then white sprinkles on the bottom and a mini marshmallow on top. Totally adorable. It was on the Cookies & Cups blog, and I never ended up making it, but my lovely friend Heather gifted some to me. Maybe I'll make some next year — check it out — her photos are light-years more lovely than mine!

So earlier this week, when Erik requested Bugles at the store, I bought some and then remembered those adorable Santa hats, and thought of making witch hats by dipping Bugles in dark chocolate. When we got home, I found that we had green candy melts and butterscotch chips, so we melted both in the microwave, I filled small Ziploc bags with a little of each and piped circles onto parchment paper for the hat bottoms. Then we dipped the Bugles in the melted candy and popped them onto the (slightly hardened) circles.

The kids loved helping with these, and I think that they will be adorable mixed into a new concoction of my Wicked Caramel Corn with Chex and pretzels and nuts (and maybe some Halloween-colored M&M's). Cute and sweet, just like these two!

Crepes? Oui, Merci!!

You really can't beat a piled-high platter of crepes for brunch. Add a buffet of topping/filling choices like lemon or lime slices to squeeze, powdered sugar to sprinkle, lingonberries, whipped cream to top, butter, syrups, Nutella, bananas, berries, peaches, sauteed apples, yogurt, chocolate chips, dried fruit, or savories like cheeses, sliced ham, and chopped fresh herbs... use your imagination! Add a plate o' bacon, or a platter of sausage, and some tasty beverages and you are set.

So, the best advice for crepes? Mix them up in a blender! Pour directly from your blender into your pan. Use whatever sized pan you want, but a lighter pan is easier to manage when you're tilting and swirling the pan to coat the bottom with your batter. Especially if you are working two pans at once (and feeding a crowd). Brush the bottom of your pan with a tiny bit of melted butter as needed to prevent sticking too.

I've made this recipe for years, and it is a favorite of my best bud, Jamie, whose birthday it is today! Happy Day Jame!!

Jamie's Favorite Crepes

2 c. milk
3 large eggs (or 4 smaller ones)
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. melted butter
1.5 c. flour

Add the ingredients to your blender, wet first, then dry, and blend until smooth (scrape down if needed). You can chill mixture in fridge briefly, or even overnight if making it ahead of time, or just get cooking. Blend the batter briefly right before you start pouring. 

I usually use about 1/4-cup of batter per crepe so the 9-inch pans I use, but adjust as you go to get thin, but sturdy crepes. Cook over medium heat, but adjust temperature as you go if they're browning too fast. 

This makes about a dozen crepes, and I often double the recipe. They freeze wonderfully, just stack them on a plate with a piece of waxed paper between each crepe. Enjoy!! 

Perfect Autumn Dinner

Our sunny skies abruptly changed to drizzly, sprinkly, gray and chilly, misty then downright rainy in the blink of an eye on Friday. Thursday people were in shorts, and Friday? Break out the Gortex folks, the rainy season is upon us!

But, lucky for me, I love the Pacific Northwest, and adore Autumn a fraction more than the other seasons, so I am ready. And, what better way to kick off the season than to cook up a staggeringly delicious pot of green chile bisque? Well, if you have our friend Vincent's recipe, get yourself some chiles, pronto because you need to get roasting!

Vincent's Green Chile Bisque
(adapted slightly by me, because I always tweak things)

1 lb Italian sausage (sweet, mild or hot, depending on taste)
2 cloves minced/chopped garlic
1 medium, chopped yellow or sweet onion
2 medium chopped tomatoes (heirloom taste the best)
1/2 cup chopped NM green chile (medium to hot, roasted and peeled)
32 oz. chicken broth (divided)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup flour
1 cup heavy cream (or half-and-half, or whole milk with cornstarch, or *not Vince-approved* pureed Silken tofu) 
Salt & Pepper to taste 

Brown and drain 1 lb Italian sausage (sweet, mild or hot, depending on taste), and add 2 cloves minced/chopped garlic near the end; cook about 2 more mins. At this point, I dumped the cooked sausage into a bowl and cooked the rest in the pan separately, knowing that I was going to use my immersion blender to blend all the cooked onions, tomatoes and peppers (all of which Erik would turn his nose up at) into a pretty green-yellow soup of unidentifiable as veggies) 
Add 1 medium, chopped yellow onion to pan (I used a Walla Walla Sweet). Cook for 5 minutes or until onions are transparent, then add 
2 medium chopped tomatoes (heirloom taste the best) 
and 1/2 cup chopped NM green chile (medium to hot, roasted and peeled). To be honest, I couldn't wait to drive over to Whole Foods in Bellevue to get NM Hatch Chiles, so I grabbed three banana peppers and two gorgeous pablanos from the fruit market. I simply roasted until the broiler, then peeled and de-seeded when cool enough to touch. Add 16 oz. chicken broth to pot (slowly) and blend with immersion blender. 

While this is cooking, melt 1/4 cup butter and whisk in 1/4 flour to make a roux. 
Cook 1-2 minutes, then slowly add an additional 16 oz chicken broth while whisking. 
Add roux and broth mixture to meat mixture. Cook to thicken, then add 1 cup heavy cream. So, I also couldn't do the heavy cream. I planned on subbing 1 cup of pureed silken tofu (which doesn't curdle when hot, and would cut fat and boost protein) but couldn't find it, so went with half-and-half instead. I think whole milk and a bit of cornstarch would work well too...  

Simmer 10 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with warm tortillas and good beer and/or wine. 

Hot Pink!

The kids adore pancakes, and I love them to eat as many veggies as possible, so... this past week I made Beet Pancakes and Sweet Potato Pancakes for breakfasts. They loved 'em all... the heart shapes didn't hurt either (they're free-hand, using a muffin scoop). 

I love the bright pink of the beet ones, they were delicious (I didn't even use syrup for mine, but the kids swear by the raspberry syrup with these babies). The recipe is from Weelicious, right here. 

The Sweet Potato Pancakes is a family-favorite recipe, from a spot in Atlanta... Highland Bakery. I'll post it when I get a chance.

I look forward to trying Carrot Cake Pancakes and Zucchini Bread Pancakes, plus, latkes over the holidays (or before) because the kids love them. And... Spinach Muffins from Weelicious too. I'm not a big fan of hiding veggies in other things, because I think kids should learn to love and appreciate whole foods that fuel their bodies, but, hey... if I can healthy-up their favorite breakfast and keep them guessing on how I get them to be such cool colors and so darn delicious?? That works for me. Madeline even said, "Wow! Mama is magical!!"

Mmm... Gingerbread

I don't know what it is with me and gingerbread, but I love it. And, I've been craving gingerbread cookies lately. So, what to do? Incorporate those fantastic flavors into a healthy (and sometimes old-hat) breakfast! 

I give you, Gingerbread Oatmeal! I will tweak to perfect, but this first go was pretty tasty. A little molasses-heavy, but it's full of iron, so that's OK. 

Gingerbread Oatmeal


1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk


Cook according to directions - 3-5 mins. in the microwave, then stir in: 


1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. molasses
1 tsp. dark brown sugar
and a dash of cloves, sea salt, and fresh-grated nutmeg


I cooked for 30 more seconds, and splashed on some milk to eat. Delish!! I might add some hemp seeds or toasted pecans at the end next time, and adjust the molasses (1.5 tsp maybe?)