My Favorite Kale Dish

Greek-Style Kale and Sausage Stew with Egg-Lemon Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 Small onion, diced
1 pound uncooked Italian hot sausage
6 cups (4 ounces) coarsely chopped kale leaves (trimmed of thick stems)
1 ¼ cups hot chicken broth, divided
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Heat Olive Oil in large pan. Add onion and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender. Break sausage into bite-size pieces and add to pan. Brown sausage on all sides for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently. Add kale and ½ cup chicken broth. Stir. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until kale is tender.Beat eggs with lemon juice in heatproof bowl. Gradually add remaining ¾ cup hot chicken broth to egg mixture while beating consistently so eggs do not scramble. Pour egg mixture into kale and sausage mixture. Simmer over low heat 1 to 2 minutes, or until egg mixture is slightly thickened. (Do not bring mixture to a boil or eggs will scramble). Serve immediately and enjoy!

Local Connection -or- Where to get things
Kale is at the farmers' market right now and I buy eggs from a woman at church. The sausage is a little trickier to find locally. I get it from my uncle's meat market back in Michigan or from the NW Pennsylvania Grower's Co-Op and freeze it for spring and summer. You can probably get it directly from the Bender Family of Fruitful Farms near Cochranton in Crawford County.
Chicken broth or stock is a staple in any chef's kitchen. Moms and average cooks, like me, also ought to have a pretty steady supply. For the healthiest and best-tasting stock, you'll need a chicken carcass to make your own. Making stock isn't that hard and you can freeze it to use later, so I try to make it every week. I get whole chickens from my parent's farm and they make great stock! Happy, healthy chickens make for happy, healthy meals.Olive oil and lemon juice cannot be grown in the Mid-Atlantic. Don't sweat the small stuff. These two ingredients are only a small fraction of the recipe.So, here you go: a recipe you can enjoy in the wintertime and early spring! Thanks to my old neighbor in Frederick, Maryland, Pam, for introducing me to this household favorite.

Summer is for Salads

I'm getting so excited about the Farmers' Market opening soon that I could explode! I'm gathering ingredients to make a million different kinds of salad dressing. Today, I'll be discussing homemade honey mustard dressing. But first, things to put on your amazing, awesome, delicious salad:

all manner of lettuce and greens
herbs such as basil, thyme and oregano (This is actually the secret to an amazing salad.)
frozen peas
slices radishes
olives
shredded carrots
sliced tomatoes
avocado
hard-boiled eggs
sauteed portobello mushrooms

You know you want to eat salads at my house! Yum! Yum!

Back to salad dressing: Honey Mustard. I don't measure anything. It's all by taste. Take these ingredients and mix them together in a small bowl. Taste it, dip a piece of lettuce in it until you get the right proportions. This is so much better than any dressing you'll buy at the store.

Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Mustard (I prefer fancy Dijon mustard to the kind you put on hot dogs.)
Honey (You can get this at the farmers' market!)
Maple Syrup
Pepper to taste

Mix, enjoy.

Caesar Salad

Hello! I am your friendly neighborhood food blogger, Sarah. I'm a mom who loves to cook with local, seasonal ingredients. My belief is that ingredients do not have to be expensive or exotic to make a great meal, they only need to be fresh and of high quality. What is fresher and of more high quality than foods grown by people in our own communities? Besides, the Farmers' Market is a fun place to meet new people, learn about new foods and very often Olde Town sponsors musicians to serenade us while we shop.

Since it is spring and some of the first foods available will be lettuce and salad greens, I thought I'd post an old favorite of mine: real Caesar Salad.

For the dressing you will need:
Olive oil
Anchovies, canned and packed in olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Lemon
Garlic
Pepper
Parmesan Cheese
Egg
Most of these ingredients cannot be purchased at the Farmers' Market, except for the egg, but you can find them at the BiLo! Making your own salad dressing is easy, inexpensive, and healthier than pre-packaged dressing.

How to make it:
First, take a few anchovies packed in oil and plunk them down into the blender. I know this sounds gross, but when you are eating that amazing fresh salad you will be thanking me that you added the anchovies. They are *essential* to the flavor of this dressing.

Secondly, crack open a fresh, local egg into the blender. (I don't use a grocery store egg in this recipe, both for flavor and for health considerations. Salmonella from fresh eggs is extremely rare and I have no problem eating raw eggs. In fact, the raw yoke has enzymes that are very healthy and destroyed by cooking. I get my eggs from a lady at church whose husband raises backyard chickens. Fresh, local eggs are pretty easy to come by if you look.) BLEND.

Add olive oil and red wine vinegar to the mixture. Squeeze a bit a lemon into it as you are mixing. Crush a glove of garlic to taste and add a little black pepper. BLEND until tasty. Make sure you turn off the blender before dipping your finger in for a taste!

(For those of you totally grossed out by the anchovies, you can mix olive oil and balsamic vinegar together with a teeny bit of fresh garlic, black pepper, thyme (grown easily in a pot on your window sill or purchased at the market) and Parmesan cheese. This is a favorite and easy dressing at my house.)

Put chopped lettuce and optional salad greens into a bowl, pour the dressing on top and mix thoroughly. Shred on top some Parmesan cheese and enjoy! If this isn't the best salad you've ever eaten, I'll eat the rest of the anchovies in that little jar!

I usually top my salad with some chicken and serve asparagus on the side (also available in the spring!) For dessert we'll often have fresh fruit with shredded coconut and whipped cream. This meal makes you feel like you are dining at a high end restaurant, but it is actually very inexpensive and simple!