A week of small firsts

I made two new (and SUPER easy!) things to taste this week. 

1. Kale Salad (I hear so much about this lately!)
2. Cranberry Sauce (It's almost Thanksgiving!)

I love cranberry sauce in a can (it's pretty much cranberry-juice jello), but I don't have many fond memories of real cranberry sauce.  And the few times I've tried to use Kale haven't exactly been successful either... but for some reason I put both of these things in my grocery basket this week.  A little bit of internet research later, and voila - 2 unbelievably easy creations that taste great!

Cranberry Orange Sauce
This sauce came out sweet and tangy, with a strong orange flavor.

Ingredients:

• Pint of fresh cranberries
• cup or 2 of orange juice
• cup or so of water

Rinse cranberries, and check for stems.  Place cranberries in a saucepan, and add enough orange juice to cover the berries.  Cover, and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  The cranberries will start "popping", and turn into a mushy fruit.  Continue cooking, adding water to get the consistency to your liking.  Stir occasionally, to avoid burning bottom.  Mash with a potato masher or puree with a blender or immersion blender, and voila!   I served as a sauce for turkey meatballs and mashed turnips, and then mixed into the baby's yogurt at breakfast - it was a hit both ways.  This could definitely work as a dessert component... maybe over ice cream or some apple pie... Mmm... pie...

PS- I tried eating a raw cranberry for fun - they taste exactly like great cranberry juice, with the texture of an apple.  Really strange, and sooooo sour!


Kale & Chicken Pasta Salad
You can play with the ratios of the ingredients, these are just suggestions

Ingredients:

• Bunch of Kale, rinsed and torn into smallish pieces - kale is very difficult to measure... I'd wager I used about 10 big leaves of curly kale - filled half of a large mixing bowl while still fluffed up.
• Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Ample Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• Roughly chopped chicken - I used about 2 cups of leftover chicken breast
• cooked pasta - I used a bag and a half of gluten free shells (I was trying to feed a crowd)
• diced granny smith apple
• Carrots or Celery - I parboiled some carrots so the baby could eat the salad too
• 1/2 to 1 cup of mayonaise
• Salt and Pepper
• (grapes would have been good to add - but I didn't have any)

Clean the kale, and place in giant mixing bowl with the salt, lemon, zest, and some olive oil.  Use your hands to "massage" the kale, working the salt, lemon and oil into the leaves. I did this for probably about 60 seconds, until the kale was slightly relaxed and shiny green (and then I let it sit while I finished preparing the other ingredients).  Mix in all of the remaining ingredients, add more oil, salt & pepper to taste, and eat! You're done!