Kale is by far one of the best super foods, its dark leafy greens are packed with antioxidants and an excellent source of vitamins such as A, K and C. It is full of chlorophyll and packed with fiber. It is absolutely one of my favorite greens. I was never really fond of cabbage, it has taken me a long time to acquire a taste for it. But I knew that it was on the top of the list of super foods and that at some point I would need to learn to love it. On the other hand, I have always loved collard greens and when I discovered lacinata kale it was love at first bite. I crave it. I have to have it at least once a week. I feel the same love for broccoli and beets.

I started growing kale about two years ago and it has become the shining star of my small garden. I have both lacinata kale and red Russian kale growing in raised beds. It grows so well I can hardly eat it fast enough. This year we had kale at Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New Year’s day and I have used it here in the test kitchen several times and yet I still have more in the garden. It is thriving!

The great thing about kale is that it is so versatile. It can be eaten raw in salads and slaws, it can be used in soups and stews, (I always add it to my gumbo). I often just quickly saute it with garlic and onions. I also add it to my morning smoothies and juices.

I am a big fan of Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine and website and there are quite a few “green smoothies” which use kale. The  key is to blend, blend, blend. If you have children this may be a great way to sneak in some veggies. Combined with blueberries and bananas you cannot even taste the kale and your kids will never know. Personally, I love knowing that I can pack in the greens.

This is a recipe for one of my favorite morning smoothies.

Blue Green Breakfast Smoothie

1 cup coconut water or distilled water

1 banana, frozen and chopped

1 cup chopped kale, washed and stems removed

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen blackberries or raspberries

2 teaspoons agave syrup or honey

2 teaspoons flax seed meal (optional)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little water to thin if necessary.

Yield: 2 smoothies

You also might enjoy

Kale and Chickpea Stew 

Quinoa Mix with Sauteed Kale

Green Machine Smoothie

Sesame-Kale Crisps 

Our Edible Alley is making steady progress. Every day our lettuces get a little bigger and our beets are actually going beyond the leafy greens stage. We have a few radishes, some baby kale and some of the herbs are carrying on. We have had such a mild winter so far which can be good and bad for the garden. Kale and Swiss chard prefer the cooler temperatures, as do the beets on the other hand the lettuces seem to be quite content with the mild weather. We are growing several varieties of heirloom lettuces Brune d’Hiver, Cracoviensus, and Petite Rouge, they are particularly tender, delicate and beautiful, I might add. I bought the seeds from one of my favorite seed companies, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

For the past few days I have been thinking about doing a little harvesting. I fear we are going to have a big freeze and lose our luscious lettuces without having had the pleasure of tasting them.  I love the fact that I can walk outside and trim a few delicate leaves for lunch. It just doesn’t get any fresher. I have several pots of the same lettuces growing on my balcony at home and I love to impress my friends by whipping a quick salad out of nowhere. This is the beauty of growing lettuces, they will grow just about anywhere. I have several varieties growing at home. It takes a little longer to start lettuces from seed but given time and the right temperatures they will thrive.

I’m on my way into the kitchen to scout out a few items to add to my greens, perhaps some toasted walnuts and dried cranberries or maybe shaved Parmesan and a poached egg, I can’t go wrong either way.

The holidays bring friends and family together. It is both a wonderful and hectic time of year for me. Between decorating the tree and the house, cooking holiday meals and entertaining friends and family, I am not left with a lot of time for shopping for gifts. I dislike going to the mall and don’t trust that online purchases will arrive in enough time. This is why I usually make gifts for friends, family and coworkers.

Homemade gifts always seem just a tad more personal. It says to me that someone spent that extra moment creating something just for me. For the past three or four years I have made homemade lemoncello. This year I made both lemoncello and orangecello.

Lemoncello and orangecello are made using the rind of lemons and oranges respectively. The rind is full of essential oils which are extracted using a high octane alcohol such as vodka or Everclear.  The process for making the liquor is simple but you must be meticulous. I zest the rind of the citrus using a fine grater, such as a Microplane.You must be very careful not to zest any of the pith which can make your liquor bitter. I place the zest and any residual oils in a one quart ball jar and then top it off with alcohol. I use a whole liter and close the lid tightly. The jar is then placed in a cool dark place for at least five days and up to two weeks. Slowly but surely all of the essential oils will be released and the zest will turn almost white. Then I make a simple syrup which I set aside to cool for at least a day. The zest is strained from the alcohol and the alcohol is combined with the simple syrup. At this point, I usually bottle the liquor and set it aside for the next one or two months. Voila! Christmas arrives and all I need to do  is make gift tags for my liquor and hand them out.

This is such a simple gift yet everyone, including me, loves it. People start asking me around October if I am making a new batch. The great thing is that people will often return the original bottle for a refill, making my job that much easier.   I gave out about 20 bottles this year and unfortunately didn’t save any for myself so I may just have to make another batch or two.

When it comes to little girls, or at least little girls like mine, you can never have anything too pink, too tiny, or too precious. Anything falling into one of those categories seems to elicit a smile. So when the December issue of Bon Appetit came out a few weeks back and I got a quick glimpse of the cover, I just knew that I had to make their Candy-Striped Peppermint Meringues for my daughter’s 7th birthday party. They’re pink, they’re tiny, and they’re oh, so precious. As a matter of fact, they are so precious that even this very full grown little girl (me) couldn’t resist them herself…

As a food professional who is responsible for coming up with new and fresh ideas daily, it’s not all that often that something jumps out at me with such gusto. Sure, we often find inspiration within the pages of magazines and on the menus of our favorite new haunts, but it’s rare that I see a recipe that I feel compelled to duplicate exactly as written, but such was the case with this one. And so, when preparing the food for Lily’s party, I pulled out my Bon Appetit and tried my hand at these little meringue cookies.

Of course the beauty of meringue is its pure simplicity. Sugar and egg whites. Period. The only things added to this basic formula for these are a pinch of salt, a smidgeon of peppermint extract, and a few drops of red food coloring. The instructions were foolproof, (I’m really not a baker at heart), and after just a few minutes of bonding with my mixer, this is what my baking sheet looked like going into the oven:

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I pulled these out a couple of hours later. It’s completely passive cooktime (put in oven, set timer, and forget about them. Really!) and even my husband, who is very much a guy’s guy and very much not into pink, was impressed. As a matter of fact he started rattling off a list of names of friends who he thought would enjoy some of these little gems for Christmas!

And speaking of Christmas, we’ve even made a batch of these for our Homebase Christmas party today…so the whole office will get to try them.

 Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!

Only in New Orleans or France!

Reveillon comes from the French word reveiller which means to wake up.  Here in New Orleans it roughly translates to a holiday celebration. Reveillon dinners are held on Christmas Eve after midnight mass or New Years Eve and have been a tradition in New Orleans since the French first came and settled here. In true New Orleans style reveillon dinners are held during the entire month of December. Whether it be in people’s homes or at a restaurant the dinners tend to be lavish. Usually several courses of rich, luxurious dishes followed by several courses of dessert and a bouche de noel. It was said that back in New Orleans’ heyday these dinners would last into the wee hours of the morning and sometimes until dawn.

The reveillon tradition had waned somewhat. That is when The French Quarter Festivals Inc organization decided to bring the tradition back. They are hoping to lure locals and tourists alike to the French Quarter to celebrate the holidays. There are over a dozen restaurants participating this year, including Emeril’s and Emeril’s Delmonico. I have included the menu for both restaurants.

I will be attending a reveillon dinner this Friday evening. I am celebrating not only the holidays but also a birthday.

Emeril’s

FIRST COURSE

Turtle Soup “en Croute”

SECOND COURSE

Fricassee of Crawfish with Veal Sweetbreads, Artichokes, and Truffle

THIRD COURSE

Foie Gras-stuffed Mississippi Quail with Warm Lobster Salad and Kumquat Vinaigrette

FOURTH COURSE

Apple Butter Calas with Walnut and Eggnog Anglaise

Emeril’s Delmonico

FIRST COURSE (Choice of)

Creole Charcuterie: Beef Daube Glacé with Andouille Sausage, Housemade Mustard, and Pickled Okra

Or

Winter Green Salad with Savory Rice Calas, Fennel, and Satsuma Vinaigrette

SECOND COURSE (Choice of)

Crab and Mirliton Bisque

Or

Sautéed Frog Legs with Almonds, Capers, and Lemon

THIRD COURSE (Choice of)

Rabbit Fricassee with Caramelized Root Vegetables, Leeks, and Sherry Reduction

Or

Pan Roasted Quail with Oyster Dressing and Mushroom Gravy

FOURTH COURSE

Café Brulot - Crème Brûlée with Chocolate Praline

 Look at this!  You have got to see this Thanksgiving Leftover wonder that Chef Emeril made for Good Morning America, Friday………  Cook this for your family the day after and it might upstage the Thanksgiving meal itself.  Will you just look at it.  Stacey Meyer really outdid herself with this one.  And do you know what this idea this was born from?  I’ll tell you…”how about a leftover stuffing cake with egg….”  And look what Chef Emeril bangs out.

This is a griddled stuffing cake topped with sauteed spinach (you can use leftover greens if you want), warmed sliced turkey, a poached egg (improvise with fried or scrambled), and right over the top is turkey gravy and fresh herbs.  Ummmm, Ummmm, Ummm.  And if you really want to go crazy as some of the tasters here at Homebase suggested, spoon a little cranberry sauce somewhere in there.  Wow!

This is how it looks while testing… She’s really got all the pots going.

Eggs go in the empty pot…. Opps, Sorry.

Here is Chef Chris’ excited apporach to “tasting”.  Well, it was his lunchtime…. (and this is still after he ate a whole one…) and there is Chef Stacey.  You go girl!

So the trickiest part is how dry or wet your stuffing is.   You want to make a mold of it in a greased ramekin.  Really press it down in there.  Then flip over to unmold.  And of course, pat it lovingly with your hands so it behaves.  Then, griddle it. Don’t worry about it cracking.  Once you get all the other goodness on top, it’ll still be a showstopper.

Happy Cooking!  and check out Chef Emeril on Friday, November 25st, in the 8:30am half hour on ABC’s Good Morning America.

After sampling the delicious pig at the Delmonico’s tent I headed over to some of the other tables. My first stop was at Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. where I had Bart Bell’s Chaurice with Homemade Mustard and Pickles. Bart is masterful at his craft of sausage making. When he talks to you about making sausage his eyes are literally gleaming with pride. Rightfully so. Chaurice is a traditional Creole sausage probably brought to Louisiana by the Spanish. It is slightly spicy and incorporates traditional Louisiana ingredients such as garlic, cayenne, bay leaf and thyme. It is a smoked sausage similar to both the Spanish chorizo and traditional Louisiana andouille. Generally chaurice is used a seasoning meat but Bart’s is so delicious it stands on its own, although the pickles and mustard are a nice touch.

I had to go check out Sue Zemanick from Gautreau’s (my alma mater). She prepared Fried Boudin Balls with Pimento Cheese and Cane Syrup Glaze. This sounded a little odd to me at first. I think it may have been the cane syrup but I have to say this was an out of this world pairing that worked incredibly well. Fried boudin is my favorite by far. I like the crispy outside with the boudin stuffing in the center. I am not sure why salty pork goes so well with sweet syrup but it just does. Think bacon with maple syrup. Boudin and cane syrup are a match made in heaven.

My last stop on this boudin adventure was at John Currance’s table. John, a native New Orleanian, is the chef at City Grocery in Oxford, MS. John is an avid hunter and fisherman and it seems appropriate to me that he served Boudin Stuffed Quail with Creole Mustard Cream. I felt a little like a stuffed quail at this point but it didn’t stop me from eating. It was delightful. Quails are such delicious little birds but have a tendency to be dry. The boudin alleviated this problem entirely and the dish was tender and moist.

I am looking forward to next year’s event. Boudin and Beer is now on the top of my list as far as New Orleans festivals. You just can’t beat it.

You may have seen Stacey’s blog from a couple of months back showing some of the behind-the-scene moments from our photo shoot with Chef Emeril for his upcoming sandwich cookbook…but what you may not realize is how much remains to be done even after a photo shoot is technically “over”. Our very talented photographer, Steven Freeman, took over 2800 images during the 4 day photo shoot (do the math…we were very busy!) The hard part comes in trying to select only the best of the best so that we end up with around 80 beautiful, mouthwatering images for the book. Everyone weighs in on their favorite images: Emeril, our Culinary Team and Marketing department…by the time we make our final selections, the photos have become old friends. Behold my office wall, which currently holds just a few (!) of our latest round of selects:

After all the final selections have been made, photos are edited if necessary and are then ready for submission to the publisher. Recipes and other frontmatter (frontmatter is just a fancy word for introduction, table of contents, acknowledgment, dedication, and anything else that goes up front in a book) will accompany the photos and, looking ahead, after about 5 rounds of editing and almost an entire year later, the book should be out in bookstores for everyone to enjoy.

October 24th is national Food Day and I hope everyone can participate in some way. Perhaps an urban chicken workshop is just what you are looking for.

This weekend there is an urban chicken workshop hosted by Johnny Blancher of Ye Ole College Inn in conjunction with the New Orleans Food and Farm Network through their Grow Mo’Betta series.  It is from 10am to 12pm this Saturday at Ye Ole College Inn. I had the pleasure of meeting Johnny last weekend at the Fall Garden Festival at the Botanical Gardens. He was kind enough to volunteer to bring a few of his chickens out to the fest.

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I have attended a few workshops on raising chickens but I always learn something new with each workshop. Johnny is so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his chickens I am sure the workshop will be fun and informative.

Hope to see you there!

 The Chefs Collaborative National Summit is being held here in New Orleans beginning this Sunday, October 23 and ends on Tuesday, October 25th. I am so looking forward to attending this conference.

What is Chefs Collaborative?

Chefs Collaborative is a nonprofit organization of chefs and culinary professionals working toward a more sustainable food supply. Read more »