::every day in February:: day 1: 'the 2011 addition... '

Originally uploaded by iMagiNe cReAtiVe nAme hERe

Yep, well, after my unintended (ahem) January hiatus I am going to try to get back into the swing of blogging (ha, I know I have said that before but just play along...). I posted before about helping out with the 3rd grade knitting club at my kiddos' school. Here are the latest baby hats I made for the Caps for Good initiative. Our group has made close to 100 hats so far! We only have a couple more weeks before they have to be shipped off.

In January I did a lot of cooking and baking (frigid temps seem to do that to me). Last week when we were snowed in I made some delicious chicken thighs in my trusty old ( and I mean old with missing handle even-hint hint, for someone's dear husband that may or may not be reading this) slow cooker. I served the chicken over white Jasmine rice along with a mixed green salad and roasted sweet potato fries (from the cookbook Mad Hungry that I got for Christmas-love this cookbook!). Yesterday I finally made it to Trader Joe's and picked up a couple bags of their brown Jasmine rice (after searching everywhere locally I had to drive a bit further). I have heard it's quite good and want to give it a try this week. While I enjoy short brown rice and mixed rice blends, my children aren't as thrilled so I am hoping to find a happy medium. We've been eating a lot of kale lately too which I really want to grow in our garden this summer. I can get a beautiful red kale at a local grocery that I really love. One of our favorite kale dinners was first posted here and with a photo here. I usually double the recipe for my kale-hungry family and use any type of white bean I have on hand.

Pasta with kale and sausage

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 lb turkey sausage, casings discarded and sausage crumbled (regular Italian sausage is great too)
1/2 lb kale, tough stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 lb pasta
2/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 oz finely grated Pecorino Romano or parmesan(1/2 cup) plus additional for serving
*optional: one cup of white beans

1 Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook sausage, breaking up any lumps with a spoon, until browned, 5 to 7 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, blanch kale in a 6-quart pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove kale with a large sieve and drain. Return cooking water in pot to a boil, then cook pasta in boiling water, uncovered, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain pasta in a colander.
3 While pasta cooks, add kale and garlic to sausage in skillet and sauté, stirring frequently, until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add broth, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet, then add pasta and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water to skillet, tossing until combined. Stir in cheese and thin with additional cooking water if desired.
4 Serve immediately, with additional cheese on the side.

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Lukas ate this last week and keeps telling me that he likes kale - can I get a woot woot?!!

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