Savory Kale, Eggs, Prosciutto—Breakfast!

Eggs, proscuitto, kale, and serrano sauce on a corn tortilla. Yummm.

For  breakfast, most of my life, I ate oatmeal with skim milk, jam on so-called whole wheat toast, an occasional egg, or more likely, Cheerios, Wheaties, Bran Flakes, Corn Flakes and other extruded industrial  processed grain crap. I was on auto pilot.
In those long-ago days, Sunday mornings and special occasions demanded blueberry pancakes, French toast, bread-infested breakfast casseroles and the like. I slowly gained weight, of course, and at one unlovely point, contemplated size 16 jeans. That was shortly before launching into yet another low-fat diet in my yo-yo weight gain/loss life.

Then, about 10 years ago, low-carb became my mantra and breakfast became more problematic. I haven't eaten industrial cereal since 2003, and also gave up bread, for the most part. Without bread, or cereals, including oatmeal, one must be resourceful and forward-thinking, which I often don't feel like being at the crack of 9 a.m. (Retirement! Yeah!)

Now I have another little breakfast problem. I have been advised by a healthcare practitioner to banish dairy. The reason why "no dairy" and how a person is to deal with such deprivation, is fodder (ha ha) for another post, but the short answer is bone spurs.

On a recent morning, unable to enjoy my typical delicious yogurt-based breakfast with berries and low-carb granola,  I went on a hunting expedition in the Amana. Shoving around mouldering bits of this and that, I uncovered prosciutto with an expired pull date, a bunch of kale, and a little feta.

Note: Feta, a brined cheese made from sheep or goat milk, is allowed in seasoning-type amounts by some who promote a dairyless diet. I have grabbed on to this small pleasure until further notice. 

I also unearthed some corn tortillas, which are my major carb splurge, as well a jar of homemade serrano sauce and wonderful organic eggs produced by my wonderful yoga teacher's winsome hens.  She sells the eggs cheep cheep because she says the hens have a high entertainment value. It is good to have an entertained-by-hens yoga teacher.

The breakfast that transpired was beyond satisfactory and has been repeated numerous times. You don't need to be a carb avoider or a dairy swearer-off-er or a nutcase to relish this breakfast entree, which could also pass for lunch or dinner. It is delish and nutrish no matter your condish. 

Ingredients
one serving
2 eggs
2 slices of prosciutto, fat removed
Big handful of tender kale or spinach, torn
Feta or other cheese to taste
Serrano sauce. Sriracha chili sauce is a good substitute.
Corn or flour tortilla, small or medium sized
Olive oil for frying
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions - 10 minutes, start to finish

1. Fry the eggs in a little olive oil. Break the yolks. The eggs pictured are from the yoga teacher's hens, those happy and entertaining little bug and grass eaters who produce incredibly orange yolks. Turn the eggs, unless you prefer runny. Remove from the frying pan and set aside. 

2. Saute the kale or spinach and set aside with the eggs. 

3. Place the tortilla in the hot pan, and melt whatever cheese you prefer in whatever quantity makes your socks roll up and down. I currently avoid most cheese, but at the time  I was uninformed about the hazards of  dairy, and I used a little grated Swiss and some crumbled feta. If you don't want cheese, warm the tortilla in the pan anyway.

4. Place prosciutto on the tortilla to heat, then add the cooked kale or spinach.

5. Arrange the fried eggs on top of everything and spread with serrano chili sauce, if you're lucky enough to have it, or use sriracha chili sauce. I like the tart, hot, tangy taste of both serrano and sriracha, but you could use a milder sauce to give it a little zip.

6. Fold that sucker in half and eat it with your hands. You will be glad you did!

Farm Fresh Kale and Strawberry Salad

Tina Arapolu co-owner of Easy Valley (organic) Farm in Southern Oregon, helps produce tons of veggies just a couple miles from where I live. I asked her to show me where she grows kale.  Wow! The hoop house was rockin' with vitamin vibes from all that kick-ass kale. Maybe you don't get as excited about kale as I do? It is an acquired obsession.

PK and I enjoyed yet another potluck party last weekend, prompting me to fiddle around making one more raw kale salad. When a pot-lucker  told me that it was the first kale dish she'd ever liked ,and she couldn't even taste the kale, and a few more asked for the recipe, I figured it was worth a yet another kale recipe post. This will be the eleventh! (Scroll down for links to earlier recipes.)


But this one is really good. It's all about using super fresh ingredients and a homemade strawberry vinaigrette dressing.  I think the dressing would make cardboard palatable.

One bunch of just-picked lacinato kale is $2.50 at Tina's

make-your-own change farm stand. I prefer this variety for salads. And

I love the country feel of the on-your-honor sales approach.

Local berries, one mile away, are the BEST! Our berry
crop failed this year so I frequent the strawberry stand. 

Let's get to the dang recipe! This is a non commercial blog and lacks a "print" button, but you can do it the old-fashioned way: select and copy the recipe to a word processing program.

Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

6-8 servings

1 bunch of farm-fresh kale, de-ribbed and chopped
1/2 head (small-medium) organic cabbage, chopped
1 small-medium sweet spring onion with some greens, sliced
1 handful of arugula, chopped (optional, I just happened to have some)
1/4 to  1/3 cup dried cranberries (dried cranberries have a lot of sugar. They taste great in the salad, but leave out if you're diabetic or avoiding carbs.)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese 
1/3 cup roasted salted pumpkin seeds (or slivered almonds, roasted pecans or another roasted seed or nut)
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions
Chop the kale, cabbage and arugula, if using. Add the white parts of the sliced onion and the cranberries. Mix in a salad bowl and cover, or store in a plastic bag and refrigerate, if making several hours in advance.

An hour or so before serving, assemble the mixed kale, cabbage, arugula, cranberries and onion and toss with dressing in a salad bowl. Start with 4 tablespoons of dressing and add more as necessary.

Let it marinate. refrigerated for at least a half hour. Before serving, sprinkle the feta cheese on top, followed by the nuts or seeds, then the sliced strawberries.  Sprinkle with the sliced green onion tops, or substitute chives. 

Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

I reviewed a dozen or so recipes and finally came up with this, which turned out great. 

1/2 cup strawberry vinegar*
3/4 cup oil. I used half avocado oil and half olive oil
3 tablespoons honey, or to taste. This yields a light to moderately sweet dressing. Low-carbers can choose Splenda, stevia or other low-carb sweeteners. 
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard

Directions
Use a wire whisk or a food processor to blend ingredients. The oil may separate, so shake or stir before dressing the salad.

*Strawberry Vinegar

This recipe is adapted from Epicurious. It is the essential ingredient in strawberry vinaigrette dressing. It is incredibly fresh and strawberry-tasting.

Make it a couple hours, or even a day ahead. Don't freak out! It's easy! You can use this fruity vinegar for a week or so, according to Epicurious. I tripled the recipe because I was making salad for 36 people. One recipe would have been plenty! The ingredients below make about two cups of vinegar. Adjust accordingly.

1 pound strawberries, trimmed (3 cups)
2 tablespoons sugar (or low-carb sweetener)
2 cups white balsamic vinegar, or, as adapted by me who lacks access to white balsamic, 1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar and 1 cup balsamic

Directions
Using a food processor, pulse berries with sugar until finely chopped and juicy. Lacking a food processor? Try a potato masher. Transfer to a bowl and add vinegar. Stir. Let stand one hour or more. Strain vinegar through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. This can take 30 minutes or more. Discard solids. Refrigerate, covered, in a glass jar. Stays fresh tasting for about a week. 

Why bother eating kale? 

Here are the Top Ten Health Benefits. 

Curly kale. Great for kale "chips", soups, frittatas etc. 

Lacinato kale, AKA  dinosaur or Tuscan. Mild.

Siberian kale, mild and also good for chopped salads.

More kale recipes from Ordinary Life

Kale chips!
Asian Mexican Fusion Kale Salad
Creamed kale with dried tomatoes
Kale and Yoga Eggs Fritatta
Killer Kale Salad with Sesame Dressing
Savory Eggs, Kale, Prosciutto Breakfast
Kick Butt Kale Soup
Key to a Happy Marriage (includes kale!)
Spring Smoothie
Quinoa Kale Salad

Spring Salad - Asparagus, Avocado, Kale  and Cabbage
The potluck party that inspired this recipe. (spring salad)

A dull day turned delicious—Chicken, Chard, Cauliflower, Chipotle Soup

A so-good impromptu super low-carb soup on a dull day turned delicious. That dollop in the middle?

The ever-present chipotle sauce. See below.

How many quart bags of chard did I freeze last year?

These are a year old and still good. Even though I felt sorta stupid not

using the fresh chard from the garden. Bird in hand thing. 

But more importantly, the grew-that-weeded that-picked it-froze it- going-to-eat-it thing.

I woke up feeling blah. My day was looking like the same ole same ole. The barometer was down and the weather blustery. Motivation eluded me. Felt flat. Worthless. What the hell am I doing living? I brewed coffee. Kicked around the house. Thought about doing yoga. Didn't. Thought about going to see elderly mother. Did. Held arthritic hands with her and others at her assisted living home. When I'm there, I think about how far I am from being there myself. Twenty years? Thirty? The thing is, it won't be that long. Twenty or 30 years is a flash, as anyone over 60 recognizes.

The last of 2011's green beans. Bye bye!

I forced myself into the garden. Sky was spitting, wind biting. I fell to my knees in the blueberries, pulling weeds from around berry-heavy bushes. I don't know the names of the weeds. But I killed them. I wasn't apologetic. Take that, you bastard! I wrested them from the soil and tossed them into the grass. I pruned berry limbs that were on the ground. I rearranged the peas along the fence behind the berries. I reattached the prayer flags. I forgot about feeling bad. It was 5 p.m. I thought about dinner.

A few whole chipotle peppers bubbling in chicken broth.

Dried tomatoes. Killer sweet.

On "blah" days, infrequent as they mercifully are, I don't think much about cooking, and writing is in another room, one with the heat off and the shutters closed.  But I was perking up. Dinner! What can I make? What can I write? I'm back!  How the hell does that happen? I suppose it's a matter of will. It's forcing yourself to move when you don't feel like moving and create when you don't feel like creating and just getting your mind off yourself and out of gloom and into thinking this: Wow. I'm alive. I'm healthy. I'm lucky. I love people. A few love me. I love life! I'm going to make a freaking kick-ass dinner! And I did.

On my knees in the garden—and also generally in the moment— I clicked off the pantry inventory, head down, pulling weeds like crazy: 1 pkg. of frozen green beans—the last from 2011; frozen 2011 chard; cooked chicken; frozen homemade chicken broth; dried whole chipotle peppers; dried tomatoes; canned serrano sauce; onions and garlic; raw cauliflower; chiptole sauce; sliced fresh avocado; fresh cilantro. Well, hell. No problem. No problem! I love coming back from blah to blast.

It's not like tonight's was the greatest dinner ever. But it was a super tasty repast pulled from our own dried and frozen sources, mostly, plus our canned pepper creations. And also from my flagging psyche. I don't expect anyone will be able to recreate exactly what we had for dinner, although I wish you could. My message time and again, is to go with what you have and trust your culinary instincts. But this was really good, and if you can approximate, go for it!

Low- carb Chicken, Chard, Cauliflower, Chipotle Soup

Enough for four, served with salad and, if you can indulge a few carbs, served over brown rice. Not for me, but PK can throw down the carbs like crazy, so I cook a cup of rice for him every three or four days. To gain weight, he must eat a large bowl of ice cream daily. Plus lots of rice, potatoes, and pasta as were featured in our family meals in pre-low-carb days.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil or butter
Quart or so chicken broth, canned, frozen, boxed, whatever
Half a medium/large onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 dried chipotle peppers. (Substitute 3 canned in adobo sauce chipotles if you lack dried.)
Large bunch of fresh chard, rinsed and de-stemmed, or box of frozen spinach (I have never seen frozen chard for sale. Why is that? It is so good.) If using frozen spinach, just dump the frozen lump into the soup.
Handful of dried tomatoes—about 3/4 cup.  Or more. In tomato season, try one large ripe fresh.
1 cup sliced green beans (This addition had entirely to do with what I had in the freezer. You can skip the green beans and instead add spinach, zucchini, another green, whatever you have on hand.)
Half a head of large cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
11/2 -2  cups cubed cooked chicken, more or less
Serrano sauce to taste (if you have it)
Garlic/chili sauce to taste (you can easily buy it! And you must. This is essential.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh cilantro as garnish
1 medium avocado, halved and sliced, served atop the soup
Chipotle sauce as desired (and it is SO desired! The sex queen of the kitchen.)
Grated cheese
Directions
Saute the onions and garlic in oil or butter. Add the chicken broth and the dried tomatoes, and the dried chipotle peppers or the chipotles in adobe sauce. (Try substituting three canned chipotles with a tablespoon of the adobo sauce, and freeze the rest.) Mash them up as they cook. Add the greens—chard, spinach, green beans, thinly sliced zucchini and cauliflower. Cook until cauliflower is tender/crisp. Add the chicken and the pepper sauces to taste. Heat through. Ladle into bowls and top with grated cheese, fresh cilantro and a dollop of chipotle sauce.Adorn with avocado slices.

This dinner is guaranteed to turn blah into bliss, especially if you're the one to cook it!

Chipotle Sauce

2-3 cubes frozen chipotle cubes - or 2-3 canned chipotles in adobo sauce, minced
2/3 c mayo (more or less)
2/3 c sour cream (more or less)
2/3 c plain yogurt
2  tsp. lemon or lime juice.
2 tsp serrano sauce or garlic/chili sauce (to taste, as always)
Mix and serve over, or on the side, with grilled meats, fish, veggies, eggs, or atop soups or stews.

Hell, have it on your cereal, if you still eat cereal.

Garden on a plate - can life get any better? (don't answer)

Chard, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, garlic and more make an amazing no-noodles low-carb lasagna.

October already!! Can it be? October means that at any moment, winter will set in and the late summer and fall harvest we've been relishing will come to a frosty halt. We will mourn the garden's passing the moment it begins in earnest. That's one bad thing about getting older. You know what's coming. 
But still. We now have soooo much! We're still collecting zucchinis, tomatoes, cukes, chard, a few eggplants, basil, dill weed and seed, parsley, and winter squash.

It's prime time for making summer-culmination dishes such as the voluptuous spaghetti squash and chard lasagna in the photo. No noodles, folks. And you won't miss them, especially if you're privy to fresh veggies.

This lasagna's success depends on fresh everything, including, of course, homemade from-scratch marinara sauce. The thing about the "recipe" linked in the previous sentence, is that it understates the amount of time required to reduce fresh tomato puree by half. For a large deep skillet or a soup pot full of freshly whirred-up garden tomatoes, figure at least eight hours at low heat.

Garden-fresh cooking requires devotion and patience. A good shot of tequila doesn't hurt to carry you along. First you must plant the seeds and grow the vegetables, then tend them throughout the growing season. You must be able to put up with stooping between the rows to tug at weeds and dodge the multitudes of birds and bees that have set up house in your microcosm. You'll be forced to endure the rich earthy aroma that arises in waves from between the tines of your pitchfork or garden shovel as you turn the soil or compost. Sometimes it's enough to make you swoon.

You'll need to brace yourself against the wildlife dramas that may play out, such as bluebirds being driven from their nests by swallows, or hawks swooping in to catch critters outside the garden fence. You must be steeled against the time-telescoping that gardens so brutally illustrate—that spring-summer-fall-winter cycle that you can't help but notice applies to all living things. Me? I'm maybe late fall, early winter. But I do have that grandbaby, Noah, in his earliest of spring seasons, to keep me grounded. I am so enjoying his sproutiness and even the ever-so-slight wilting of his over-worked parents' leaves. (See you soon, little sprig!)
Well, enough of the life/garden analogies. On to more photos and important cooking stuff.

Sour cream and vinegar cuke and onion salad, with classic Caprese on the right. This photo is my current screen saver, not that I'm a foodie, or anything. I am so shameless I could lick the screen. Cuke/onion salad recipe is below.

A couple days later, leftover "lasagna" on the left, with sliced tomatoes with dabs of chipotle sauce atop, and zuke, onion, and pepper stir fry. It's easy. See below. And a link to chipotle sauce recipe and more.

Spectacular spaghetti squash/chard lasagna
Ingredients
1 medium- large spaghetti squash, baked whole, seeded and removed in strands from rind
(To bake squash, prick with fork, place on oven rack and bake at 350 for at least an hour. Check with fork. When fork will penetrate easily, remove from oven and cool before handling.)
1 large bunch chard leaves, steamed and drained. Squeeze excess water before adding to casserole.
1/2 qt. ricotta cheese (or combination of ricotta, sour cream and cottage cheese)
1-2 eggs
1/4 cup pesto sauce (optional but recommended)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-2 cups grated Italian cheeses
1 quart + marinara sauce
1 pound good spicy Italian sauage. ( I use Diestal turkey sausage)

Directions

Cook and crumble sausage and add to marina sauce.
Add an egg or two to the soft cheeses. Add pesto, if using. Mix well.

Ladle sauce to cover bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Not a deep layer, just a thin covering. Add a thin layer of spaghetti squash. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Spread soft cheese mixture over all. Add a layer of steamed chard to cover completely. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Add another thin layer of spaghetti squash. Cover with generous layer of marinara sauce.

Put into pre-heated 350 oven and bake for 45 minute, and check then to see if the casserole is bubbling around the edges. If not, bake another 15 minutes. Turn off oven and remove casserole. Cover with Italian cheeses, including more Parmesan, and return to cooling oven for five - ten minutes to melt cheeses.
Let it rest/cool for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Serve with grated Parmesan and pepper flakes.

Cucumber/onion sour cream salad
As with all my cooking advice, this "recipe" is a rough guide. Use your  instincts.
Ingredients
4-6 medium-sized cucumbers. I use the long burpless type. If the skin is bitter, peel the cukes. I generally use a vegetable peeler and make stripes.
1 small onion, preferably sweet, sliced thin
1/2 cup sour cream
2-4 tbsp. cider vinegar
2 tbsp. olive oil
1-3 tbsp. sugar or Splenda or other sweetener
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Peel, or partially peel, the cukes. Slice thinly and spread in a colander. Sprinkle with salt on both sides. Let rest/drain for at least 10 - 15 minutes. Shake off water and squeeze gently. Put cukes in bowl with onions. Mix the sour cream, vinegar, oil, sweetener and salt and pepper then add to cukes and onions. Taste and adjust seasonings.


Hotszie tozie zukes, onions, peppers
Ingredients
4-5 small to medium zucchini, cut into equal-sized pieces
one large onion, thinly sliced
12-16 peppers, a combination of New Mexico types, bells, jalapenos, poblanos, whatever you have, chopped. Chop the hot peppers into smaller pieces.
olive oil
salt and pepper

Use younger zukes. Nothing with seeds developing. Slice into like-sized pieces. Saute in olive oil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. When pieces are beginning to brown and becoming translucent, remove from heat and set aside in a bowl.
Add a bit more oil to the pan, then dump in the sliced onion. Saute for a few minutes, then add the peppers and saute for a few more minutes. Turn the cooked zukes back in there and mix. Turn off the burner and give the cattle call. Expect a stampede into the kitchen because of the great aromas wafting off the peppers and onions. (Add a little garlic, if you feel the need for more chopping and aroma.)
Serve with sour cream or chipotle sauce or shredded  cheese, or all of the above.

Ultimate low-carb burger for spring

As I think I've mentioned, I got religion again for the low-carb regime, and a cold frame bursting with greens is an indispensable dietary aid. This sandwich is a bit of a challenge to pick up and eat, but here's what's in this "hamburger."

• One slice of Alvardo St. Bakery sprouted whole grain sourdough bread,  toasted: 15 carbs and 2 grams of fiber for a net carb count of 13.
• A small grilled burger made with McKibben Family Ranch ground beef, which is raised in Oregon's Willamette Valley, grass and clover fed, and free of hormones or antibiotics. I buy this at Gooseberries in Grants Pass, our only convenient source for natural foods except for the GP Growers' Market on Saturdays. I break up the grilled meat to make it easier to eat, and also to cut down on the portion size.
• A generous smear of homemade chipotle sauce
• Commercial ketchup
• Sliced cherry tomatoes - the best tomatoes available this time of year
• Sliced dill pickles
• Sliced red onions
• About six large whole fresh lettuce, spinach, or chard leaves

This is super easy and so good! Why eat those fluffy and tasteless carb-inflated burger buns?

Mining Freezer for Summer Goodness

Summer's berries about to star in a cobbler. These are fresh from the freezer, part of the 2012 garden harvest. 

Winter months are pay-off time for all the garden and kitchen grunt work that occurs August thru October. I whine about toiling to harvest and process food. But dang, it is so satisfying to thaw a quart of ratatouille, crack open a pint of salsa, or dump a frozen rectangle of marinara sauce into the spaghetti pot. We have a large pantry in an unheated porch to stash canned sauces and salsas and winter squash,  and the pump house protects potatoes from freezing.

An old refrigerator in the garage holds apples and onions, and its freezer, once loaded with berries, now keeps pork that was raised nearby. A small upright freezer in our back porch stores chard, kale, berries, corn, peppers, eggplant, green beans, tomatillos, whole Roma tomatoes, pesto, chili verde, walnuts, and chipotle cubes. Ditto the kitchen refrigerator/freezer. Whew. It was a lot of work, but winter meals are a breeze.

About to dive into berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Here's one of my favorites—a delectable melange of summer berries in a relatively low-carb cobbler. This recipe evolved from a berry concoction that used yellow cake mix as the topping. My low-carbing sister, Monette Johnson, ditched the cake mix and substituted oatmeal and a bit of flour. I tweaked further to include almond meal and oat flour. As you can tell, there's a lot of leeway with the topping! It always gets rave reviews. I make this when company is coming. In this case, son Chris, is due home today!

Just out of the oven. Looks like I baked it a bit  too long, but it still tasted great.

Mixed Berry Cobbler
For the fruit layer:
Four to five cups of berries, fresh or frozen: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries
One 3-ounce package of sugar-free JELL-O, raspberry
One cup of water

For the topping
3/4 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup almond flour (or 1/2 cup almond flour and omit the oat flour)
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal*
3/4 cup Splenda or equivalent non-sugar sweetner
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

*I've been meaning to eliminate all but a quarter cup of oats and instead mix an equivalent amount of almond and coconut flours with the butter and Splenda for a lower-carb count. If you try that, let me know, please, how it turned out.

Directions
Spread the berries in a 9X13 inch baking dish. Distribute the J-ello powder on the berries, then drizzle with water. Mix the butter, oats, flours, Splenda and walnuts. Sprinkle atop the berries.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cool with ice cream or half and half or unadorned.

Quinoa, Avocado and Nectarine Salad

The cup of red quinoa doubles in volume when cooked, but is still trumped by all the veggies, herbs, fruit and nuts in this delicious salad. Sub mangoes or cantaloup for nectarines. 

As a carb avoider, I try to mitigate starchy stuff, such as brown rice or quinoa, by adding loads of flavorful-vitamin-and-fiber-rich veggies and fruits, the idea being that fiber slows down weight-gain-inducing blood sugar spikes. Quinoa is a tad more virtuous than brown rice, and is much less sticky, hence I've been experimenting with a variety of quinoa salads inspired, in part, by a recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. The quinoa salad recipe below is about one part quinoa to three parts veggies, fruit and nuts. It tastes divine and, with all the veggies, is relatively low carb.

Just two cups of quinoa (one cup uncooked) and piles of veggies and fruit dressed in lime, mint, cumin and olive oil make enough salad to please a potluck crowd.

Quinoa, Avocado, and Nectarine Salad

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa. I like the nuttier flavor of red or black, but white is OK
• 2 cups water
• Pinch of salt

Cooking the quinoa

I've learned that most quinoa sold in the USA is already rinsed, but just in case, I rinse it anyway. Dump it into a fine strainer and swish it around in a bowl of water. Transfer into a pot with a lid, add the 2 cups of water and a dash of salt, heat covered over medium to a gentle boil, turn the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes, or until water has disappeared. (If you start on high heat, the quinoa boils up and sticks to the side of the pan. you won't like it.) Remove lid and fluff with a fork. It works well to cook the quinoa ahead and let it cool before adding all the stuff below.

Warning: This recipe is designed for a crowd—it'll feed up to 12 people. Cut by a half or two-thirds for four servings or less. Most quinoa salads will keep well for a few days, but the avocados and nectarines give this salad a shorter life. 
Don't be scared off by all the ingredients, and do NOT run to the store if you're missing something. (Running to the garden is permitted.) You really can't go wrong. Substitute what you have on hand, or leave things out.  

Ingredients

• 3 medium to large ripe nectarines or peaches, cut into chunks. They should be ripe but not soft. Mangoes are a great alternative in this salad. Add these and the avocados last.
• 2 large red, yellow or orange sweet peppers, or enough small sweet peppers to equal 1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped into medium-sized pieces.
• 1 medium sweet onion or four or five green onions, diced.
• large handful of fresh pea pods, cut into pieces. (I used these only because they're going crazy in the garden. If you don't have them, no worries.) 
• 2-3 medium avocados, cut into chunks and drizzled with lime juice. Set aside and add last. Slice a half of an avocado to decorate the top, if you want a jazzy presentation. Be sure to sluice slices with lime so they don't turn blackish and look like turds.
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 6 or 7 chard leaves, center stem removed. Roll and slice into thin strips, then cut strips in half.
• 
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh spearmint, minced. Cilantro or basil are good substitutes.
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh  flat Italian parsley, minced.

Dressing

• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Going Local on the Road

The low ceilings of Ye Olde Castle and Antique Emporium in Burns, OR,  drip with antique toys, and every wall, nook, and cranny is festooned with items of charm and/or weirdness. Delightful!

It's sooo easy to slide into a Red Lion or a Hyatt or a Motel 6 or whatever motel/hotel clone appears on your travel route. You know what to expect. It'll be clean. You'll have WiFi and probably a big-screen TV. There'll be a predictable "free" breakfast that, if you're lucky, will include a bit of protein to share your styrofoam plate with massive carbs. Ditto the road food. You know what's goin' down at Apple Cellar, Shari's, and if you're in a desperate hurry, MacDonald's. The chains are easy hits along the main thoroughfares, but the local gems are hidden.

Not anymore.  Got a smartphone? That's all it takes. That and a mindset that prefers adventure over all-the-same on the road. Delicious regionalism exists, despite a huge effort at national homogenization and Big Brand blanketing. The little hide-aways and pockets of eccentrics wishing to sell their wares and offer you a bed and a hot shower exist everywhere. All you have to do is want to find them and recognize that the journey can be as fun as the destination. 

On a recent trip to western Wyoming, the skiing diehards, to their credit, decided that we'd have nothing but local food and lodging on our return trip to Southern Oregon. Four of them in one vehicle, equipped with smart phones in search mode, checked out the Yelp! and tripadvisor picks along the way to select our culinary and slumber sites. It was good. Very good.

Consider Ye Olde Castle in Burns, OR, which we've passed maybe 20 times over the years without even considering stopping. It looks like a wreck, a dive, lost in the 1950s without a facelift. It looked so unpromising, as did all the other cafes the Diehards rejected as they searched Burns for breakfast, with PK and I bumping over curbs and through alleys as we followed. The Diehards even touched down in the Apple Cellar parking lot, but after 10 seconds, roared off, back to Ye Olde Castle.

Here it is, in all its un-glory,  on Hwy. 20, the main drag through Burns.

The wooden walkway was frayed and creaky, paint flaked from the walls, and I thought, Ok, here we go! Me of little faith. But the place captured me. A round table near the entry was populated with old guys in bib overalls, a sure sign of local approval. Then there were the toys and bicycles and antiques and paintings converging into the aisles. This decor would never pass muster in a chain restaurant.

Items are artlessly displayed but were collected with love. And dust.

Here's Roxanne, the dishwasher, cook and waitress. She's worked here for 30 years and now
lives in quarters above the restaurant. She told us about the resident ghosts and
the phantom crying baby.  Would she be happy working at Denny's? No way.

Ye Olde Castle's breakfast was OK. Typical fare that you would expect at a chain,  except that one in our party scored a six-egg omelette, and I was thrilled with an Atkins' breakfast of eggs, bacon/sausage and low-carb toast. It wasn't the food that scored the reviews and pledges to return, however, it was the bicycle room dividers and the copper-plated prints en route to the restroom and on and on. Ye Olde Castle is not yet reviewed on Yelp! or tripadvisor. Just go there if passing through Burns.

Burns yielded other discoveries:

The Silver Spur Motel, $42 per night with "cowboy hospitality,"  was clean and featured some cool old timey Western decor and knotty pine walls. If you pulled the curtain back in the bathroom, you could see the "backside" of Burns just one street off the main drag: dilapidated houses, scruffy lots, and junky vehicles. The economy has been particularly hard on rural Oregon. 

But the best thing about the Silver Spur was it's walking-distance proximity to a great surprise gourmet restaurant, Rhojos. My five-star review on tripadvisor:

Wow! Great food and service, reasonable prices. Surprising gourmet quality in rural Oregon. Everything fresh and carefully created. Loved it!

If you're ever passing through Burns, Oregon, don't miss it! Chef Michel Johnson is a culinary wizard working on a four-burner electric stove in a non-gourmet-looking kitchen in full view.  It's all part of the restaurant's charm and local flavor.

Back in Wyoming, we ventured down from the Grand Targhee ski resort into the Teton Valley for dinner at the Knotty Pine Supper Club. The Knotty Pine, as its name suggests, is an old-fashioned restaurant with a dark wooden interior and rich smoky aromas. It also turns out to be a popular venue for traveling big-name bands—Galactic played there in March.  After one meal, it's easy to see why the place draws a crowd. It specializes in house-cured meats and seasonal offerings that include buffalo and elk sausage pasta with garlic, tomatoes, red wine and herbs; and kurobuta pork chops stuffed with chevre and bacon over sweet pea risotto. PK and I shared an excellent warm cabbage salad flavored with pancetta, pecans, garlic, and gorgonzola, a dish that warrants trying to duplicate at home.

My delicious dinner at the Knotty Pine Supper Club in Victor, Idaho. Half a side of house-cured hickory-smoked BBQ ribs, a few veggies, and the biggest serving of the best onion rings ever.
Photo was taken AFTER numerous onion rings were swiped by my companions.

Next up, lunch in Pocatello, Idaho. A Yelp! search yielded the Butterburr, which was not that convenient to the freeway, but then, we weren't in a hurry. Were we? This place is a mom and pop restaurant that serves enormous portions. For a carb-avoider, it wasn't a great choice. I got a Cobb salad that was, to be generous, dismal. But others were pleased with homemade noodle soups, burgers, and scones accompanied by whipped butter with powdered sugar. This is the type of restaurant that contributes mightily to the infamous girth of about two-thirds of the USA population. Yet it gets great Yelp! and tripadvisor reviews and beats the chains. 


I've been back home long enough to enjoy my two local favorites in Rogue River, OR:
The Station and Paisano's Italian Kitchen. There's no place like home. 

Putting Wine in Its Place

Weekdays, wine glasses will be for purposes other than
chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon. *

I know this will come as a terrible shock to my wine-loving friends, and that includes almost all of them, but I'm putting wine in its place. Its place is on weekends and special occasions. It is not for every single day, as it has been for more years than I care to count. Why this sudden loss of sanity? Why the deprivation? The suppression of desire to swill wine while cooking dinner and eating it?

It's about a couple things. Weight is one. I've been seeing the same 3-4-pound-range on the scale for more than 10 years. Ten years ago is when a near-death experience and 9 days in intensive care led to a 15-pound weight loss.  I started to regain the weight (which I was ecstatic to have dumped), because I still believed in the erroneous low-fat-equals-weight-loss theory of dieting. Too many bowls of brown rice, dry baked potatoes, and boxes of fat-free Junior Mints later, I discovered low-carb nutrition. I committed to the lifestyle and yada yada yada. I lost the weight I'd regained and stabilized, with a few minor corrections through the years.

Now, I'd like to drop a jean size or two. But I detest dieting and don't want to give up anything. I already said goodbye to bread, pasta, rice, sugar, potatoes, bananas, wheat and most grains ten years ago. I'm NOT putting aside butter, cream, eggs, meat, berries, olive and coconut oils, mountains of kale, chard, spinach and broccoli, plus a little bit of chocolate at night. What else is there?

Wine.

Let's see. At 3-4 glasses of wine daily, I'm consuming around 15-20 carbs and between 300-600 calories, which adds up to as much as 140 carbs and 4,200 calories a week. Yikes.  I know, I count carbs, not calories. But still. I can't ignore these numbers. PK has suggested several times over the years that we test our shared wine habit with a period of abstinence.  Go ahead, I've always said. I wasn't ready to stare at the stove in the twilight without a glass of wine nearby. What changed my mind?

I'm not sure. Just a gradual dawning that I was indulging a daily habit that, despite claims to wine's health benefits, probably wasn't doing me any good. Plus the fact that the ugly A word kept bobbing  up. After all the years of routine wine-ing, could we really quit?

Yes, it appears, but on our terms. We've decided to drink only on weekends or special occasions, including vacations. So. A couple weeks ago, we put away the corkscrew and Sunday through Thursday did not imbibe. Come Sunday night, we were back on the wagon again for a second week, which included the 3-day MLK weekend, technically a special occasion. Come Monday, though, a return to alcohol-free living. It's been a lot easier than I thought.

The truth is that I needed to push the reset button on everyday drinking. I'm going to stick with it for a year and see what happens. In the meantime, we're spending a week in Mexico soon with a group of friends. It will be a special occasion, indeed, and I will raise a margarita to toast my new relationship with wine.

*Those lovely geraniums are growing in our living room!

Quick and Easy Low-carb Pizza

It makes me hungry to look at this. It required about 10 minutes to assemble and another 15 to bake.

Here's the key: Low-carb wraps or tortillas. These are available at most grocery stores in small-town Oregon, and they, or similar products, are likely  available anywhere in the USA and Canada. If you have a bit more time and an adventurous spirit, try cauliflower pizza crust. Unbelievably good! Zucchini pizza crust is also great, but requires more ingredients and a bit more prep time. Don Pancho ingredients include, in this order: water, whole wheat flour, oat fiber, wheat gluten, safflower oil, wheat bran, oat syrup solids, baking powder, and salts. No trans fat. 8 grams net carbs and 7 grams dietary fiber, 110 calories.

               My ancient pizza pan with holes makes all the difference  

          in producing a crispy crust. You can buy something similar here.
NOTE:DO NOT USE A PERFORATED PAN FOR CAULIFLOWER CRUST!

There is no set recipe for this quick meal. Assemble whatever ingredients you have on hand and get started. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Here's what I usually use:

• marinara sauce, reduced for a thicker spread
• pesto 
• chopped onions
• chopped peppers
• whatever leftover meat is on hand, usually no-nitrates cooked sausage, seasoned cooked hamburger, chicken, turkey
• kale, torn into pieces and microwaved on high until wilted, about 1 minute
• shredded Parmesan and/or other cheeses

Quality marina or pizza sauce is important.  This happens to be homemade from
last summer's tomatoes, but jarred commercial sauces are also good and can be
doctored for more flavor.

Spread pesto first, if using.

Add kale, spinach, or other cooked veggies. If using spinach
be sure to drain it well, squeezing out excess water.

Load it up with raw chopped veggies and meats. This one is topped with chopped raw onions and peppers, cooked kale, a bit of leftover sausage and turkey. I wait until after the pizza has been in the oven for about 10 minutes before applying cheese. Bake with cheese on top for another 5 - 7 minutes. The cheese should be well melted and the crust edges browned. Parmesan is always good, but I also use pre-grated cheeses straight out of the bag.

One pizza serves two along with a big green salad. Give it a try!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza (gotta try to believe. BUT do not use a perforated pan.)
Zucchini Crust for Pizza

Tomatoes are finally here! But, like youth, will fade fast.

A beautiful sight to behold. Our FIRST ripe tomato—a brandywine! We've been staring at it for days. And finally, last night, we devoured it in a Caprese salad.  Two more came off the vines today and now it begins. Tomato season!

Every mid-August I think this: Youth and beauty are fleeting. So pathetically brief. The garden demonstrates this in fast-forward. (By contrast, humans take much longer to decline, although it seems just a season or two since I was young and pulsing with hormonal power and developing into a sturdy adult who would require decades to fully fade. I am making steady progress, by the way—an unavoidable fate, which I regard without humor but with interest.)

A month ago, the garden was in its glory with nary a hint of decline. Every day it got bigger, better, more robust. No more. In the short term, it's good because the peppers, eggplants, onions and even the tomatoes have initiated their death dance by pumping sugar into the fruits of the their vines, branches, and bulbs. But alas, fall approaches in stealth form, hiding in August's heat and haze. Yellow leaves are present. Hollow green beans. Hideous numbers of squash bugs. Brittle things.

 

This sunflower tells the tale. Its leaves have been ravaged by finches  and birds are starting to peck at the seeds. In a couple weeks, the yellow fuzz will be gone, the seeds exposed, and bird havoc will ensue full force. But, of course, we cultivate flowers for the birds and the bees and our enjoyment. So what do we expect? 

Here too is evidence of decline. The leek flowers are turning into seed heads, their lovely lavender is gone. I'm going to have to replace my blog cover photo.

However! As the most robust growth subsides, the serious high-summer harvest begins. Last night's dinner:
The first Caprese salad, simple cuke and onion salad, roasted ratatouille, a fantastic  potato/cabbage casserole, and corn on the cob.  

PK ate corn for dessert!

The first ratatouille of 2012. OMG, as the texters say. This is roasted, not fried, and here's a recipe from  a  couple summers ago. Roasting is way easier and superior in taste to laborious sauteing. 

We finally have enough corn to put some away. This is destined for the freezer.

Part of the potato harvest. It's been 100 degrees or so here for a few days with more oppressive heat forecasted These spuds need to get into "cold storage", which means our pump house. But it isn't really that cold in there right now.
By the way, if you have landed on this site because of my previous low-carb posts and preaching, please forgive my lapses. PK insists on growing potatoes and corn, and it is difficult to resist this garden candy. I do have ways to abate potatoes' blood-sugar spiking effect, mostly by using with lots of low-carb veggies. But mostly by eating small quantities. Small potatoes, as the saying goes. Happy harvest!