Weekend update III

Perhaps inspired by recent reading and viewing, I've refined the focus of my kitchen. Recently I'm interested in incorporating more vegetables - organic preferably or from the farmers' market, less meat, and trying to enjoy the meal with my family and others.

Here's a pizza from Friday night, a recipe that I've made before.
It had mozzarella, goat, and parmigiano cheeses on a Boboli-type crust. The asparagus (organic from Trader Joes) was peeled at the tough end and cooked beforehand.


I think I prefer peeled thick asparagus stalks to unpeeled slender ones.

On Sunday I made tuna melt sandwiches, but instead of the celery that I usually dice and put in the tuna fish, I added kohlrabi, a new vegetable for me. It has a very faint radish taste and not much else, however it also has a satisfying crispy crunch. My son protests that he doesn't like it, but I don't think that will last.

Sunday night I made colcannon. Recipes abound on the web, but it's little more than mashed potatoes with some greens mixed in. Usually cabbage is used, but I'd bet you could find a recipe for every green under the sun. I used kale from the farmers' market from which I cut the tough part of the rib, then chopped and steamed in a pan in which I'd earlier sauteed some diced onion in olive oil. The kale went right on top of the onion. The mashed potatoes were Yukon Gold with the skins on. A dab of leftover cream, some milk, a knob of butter, salt, and pepper were the other ingredients. After the potatoes were mashed, I stirred in the onions and kale.

I wrote in the previous paragraph colcannon is "little more than mashed potatoes with some greens mixed in" but although that's true, its also great disservice to colcannon. In the case of the kale that I added, it was transformative - juicy, crunchy, and a whole 'nother dimension of mashed potatoes. I'll be making this again.

I served the colcannon with half a smoked sausage from Valley Hungarian which I picked up on the way back from Wrightwood last weekend. Delicious!