Got Dinner? Rotisserie Chicken. Take One

You know the drill.  It's 4 or 5 o'clock.   Got Dinner?  Pick up a still-hot-from-the-oven rotisserie chicken and some baby spinach on the way home.  Once home put the chicken and any juices and bits you can scrape off the bottom of the container into a covered stove top casserole dish.   A Le Creuset if you are lucky enough to have one.  On a low flame -- just enough to keep the chicken warm and moist.  Saute some onions in another large pot that has a cover. This is much faster if you have some onions cut up and frozen.  Add a little garlic.  Add washed spinach. Baby spinach has the double advantage of tasting better and you don't have the tedious and time consuming task of removing the stems.  Cover the pot. Within minutes the incredible-shrinking-spinach is revealed.  Ready to taste with the addition of vinegar, butter, lemon zest or just salt and pepper.

Rotisserie Chicken Take Two.  Caesar salad with left over chicken

Rotisserie Chicken Take Three.  Minestra Maritata  aka Wedding Soup with chicken broth

 

Krispy Kale or how to fall in love with a nutritional superstar

This was a big surprise...how good it is!  And ridiculously easy.  Julia loves it -- I can credit this to her love of anything with salt and copious amounts of olive oil :-) 

Otherwise it can be hard to fall in love wit kale.  Sure it's a reputed nutritional superstar..full of antioxidants, immunity building properties, even anti-cancer factors. But it's funny looking, has a weird texture and a unappealing name.  #1 it needs to be cooked to change the texture and make it more digestible.  Like spinach cooking helps to neutralize the oxalic acid inside.  It also helps to mix it in other foods like you would spinach--eggs, soups and stir fry.  

If you can find kale at a farmers market you will benefit even more.  According to my traditional foods guru, Sally Fallon, conventionally grown kale concentrates the nitrates from the soil and this isn't good!

Head of Kale

celtic sea sale

olive oil

Give kale a good bath before you use--especially if organic.  Tear leaves into bite size pieces then toss with olive oil and sea salt so that the kale is lightly coated.  Cook at 350 for about 15 minutes until crispy.  Any more and it still tastes ok but shrivels up.  That's it!