It's Bolted but it's not Fabric!!! Kale Chips

SO...... the weather here has been really strange this year - again!  We go from hot hot to very cool in a matter of hours and the rain we have had has not been enough to make a dent in the amount of rain that we need!  So some of the cooler crops like the Broccoli and the Kale have started to bolt.  

There are a lot of things you can do with bolted broccoli and kale though!  Stir fry recipes, veggie tray with dip if they aren't flowered too far, and pickling to name a few!  My favorite way to use bolted kale though, is kale chips!  They are super simple and healthy too!

You  can see above where the long tops of the kale in the bottom of the picture are just opening to flower.  Cut that part and save for something else.

I pull the whole plant when I am making kale chips since there wont be any need to leave it in the ground.  There won't be much left!

Strip off all of the good leaves - leave any that are dried out or very discolored. Wash and pat them dry. If the leaves are big remove the heavy center stem.  Place the leaves in a glass bowl or a gallon ziplock bag.  For this batch I used 3 plants worth.  It's about 4 loose cups.

For my chips I like to use the following as a marinade:

1/4 C. light olive oil

1/4 C. Balsamic Vinegar

2 tsp. Garlic and Herb blend (this is a Spice Island blend that we use for a lot of things here).

Blend well in a glass bowl and pour over your kale leaves.  Let marinate for at least one hour up to 4 hours.  

There are lots of chip recipes available if these flavors aren't to your liking - garlic, onion, olive oil and lemon too - even just Italian dressing will work, or a bit of oil and ranch dressing mix!  Use what you like!

After they have been in the marinade, place the leaves on a cooling rack inside a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  The parchment helps keep the pan from needing to soak - trust me on this one!  Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.  I used the convection feature for this recipe.

You can also use a dehydrator if you have one.  I have one but I didn't want to use it this time since I wanted to use the oven method.

Place the oven racks so there is about 3-4" between them and place the kale chips on the top two racks.  Bake for 1&1/2 hours.  Check the doneness at an hour and again at and hour and 15 minutes just in case.  Thinner leaves will crisp up faster and they stick to the rack if they are over done.  They can also taste scorched as well.

Let them cool for about 5 minutes and then start taking them off the racks.  If you let them cool on the rack for too long they will stick and break badly.

The best way to loosen them is to put your hand underneath the rack and push lightly through the holes from the bottom.

They may look shiny and oily still but that is ok - if they are crispy when you bite into one - they are done.

Yum!  Crispy kale chip!  Kale contains potassium, B vitamin, magnesium and fiber, to name a few of the healthful benefits!

Store in an airtight container and eat whenever you please!  Ziplock bag works ok as well, but they have a tendency to break up and you end up with salad toppings instead of chips!  They become just crumbs.

They are delicious either way!

Enjoy!  Blessed Be!

Spilled Stars - out of the Heavens, the stars spilled down and a child was born

I have been often amazed recently by the resilience of babies.  Friends of Rye and Reeds are starting to begin their own families now and every time I hear about one of their little ones being born, I always feel as though a million stars have been spilled out of the heavens to create such a perfect being.  Weather they are months early or on time and have some issues or begin the journey in fine shape, they all seem to start out as a spark of brilliant light, a great lightness of being that brings joy to even the heaviest heart.  

I create quilts - as you all know by now - and it has been a lifesaving outlet for me since Rye passed.  It allows me to create something that is both comforting and visible. Tangible.  Real.

So began the Spilled Stars quilt. 

I started this quilt when friends of Rye's messaged me that they were expecting.  They were getting a boy.  It just sort of came to me with that feeling that stars were spilling out of the heavens to bless them with a child.  I also have the connection that "there among the stars" is Rye. 

For you quilters out there - it is all half square triangles making the stars and then filling in with squares and rectangles to make up the rest.  Easy peasy!  The blocks range from 4" to 12" and all in between.  Just like the stars in the sky.

The fabric I used was all snowflakes.  It just sort of made sense to have the snowflakes falling with the stars.  

The stars were easy to make, but then when it came to putting them together I struggled with the "randomness" that was required to make it look like the stars were "spilling", sort of, down the quilt.  I usually like everything to be even, square and not random.  I have been working on that skill, especially during this lock down, when things require a little more flexibility and "randomness"!  

Here is the finished quilt.  I am really happy with the way it turned out, and I know the baby's parents liked it too!  I always worry that the parents won't use the quilts.  It has to be used or all of the work and love put into it is just wasted time.  A useless item.   I have a friend that I made a baby quilt for and she never used it for the baby.  They will give it to her for her babies - its 23 years old now.  Its like the things you save for a special occasion and they never get used.  Ever.  

When the stars spill out of the heavens - you gotta use that stuff!  That is LOVE!  Wrap up in it and soak it in - or wrap the baby in it so they can soak it up!

Be well and blessed everyone - and look there among the stars!

Funny thing about that FitBit...

I got a FitBit last year through a program that my insurance offers for us called Go365.  Its an activity program that helps keep track of the physical fitness (or lack thereof), and encourages us to earn points by being active that we can use to get prizes.  We can compete with each other or form teams with friends to earn points and have fun being active.  It can be done as a "socially distancing" event too, which is a good thing.  Fun with friends from a distance!

It was hard at first during the quarantine lock down, to get my steps in - I wasn't going daily to a building that lends itself to walking around and we had 4 feet of snow on the yard.  Now that it is summer and there is lots of yard work to be done on the 4.5 acres, the steps are getting done!

I have been trying to get my "steps" in every day - for the most part.  Supposedly it is very healthy to take at least 10,000 steps per day!  Of course, I found out after getting a FitBit and starting to do the 10K steps a day that it was advised by a Japanese company that developed pedometers!  Of course!

My FitBit and my liver spotted hand!  I got the magenta one!

But since I have been doing the steps I have lost some weight, and I feel better and am able to do more most of the time.  Unless I step 20,000 steps per day and then I am done in and useless the next day!  I have not worked up to the 20K realm yet - one of my friends does 50K a day!  She is a freak and a rock star!  I have also found that if I sit too much that I get stiff and my joints don't work as well - so I keep on steppin'!

The FitBit has and App (of course) that it syncs to on the I-phone and that app connects to the GO365 App on the Iphone along with a bunch of other health stuff.  It is what keeps track of the points and the prizes. I like the prizes!  I also like knowing how I'm doing with the activity levels!

So the other day I was working in the yard, pulling weeds and re-doing a rock area around the side of the house.  It was very repetitive work, satisfying, but repetitive.  Pull the rocks out, pull some weeds, put the rocks back, pull some rocks out, pull the weeds, put the rocks back.

Here is the before area - can't see any rocks right?

Ta Dah!  Here is the after - that is from left to right, Mona Lisa Lilly, Carl Rosenfeld Peony, Blue star Clematis, and Sttar of India Clematis with a Peony Vetchii on the end.

Why do you need to know all this when I'm talking about the FitBit?  Because not only did I get steps for that project, I got three hours of swimming workout!!!!  FitBit even said I was an "Over Achiever" that day!  It was a great workout, but it wasn't swimming!  I got a good laugh out of that one though!

Then last night - I was just short of my step count and I was in the sewing room working on some projects - I just figured that I would just miss the 10K for the day.  So I set the phone to sync with the FitBit and kept sewing.  Then I noticed something.....the FitBit was adding steps as I sewed- sitting in my rolly chair "riding the Viking" as we say these days!  

Seems as though the way I hold my hand on the table of the Viking imitates the motion of a step!  What a deal!  I made my steps after all that day - just had to quilt a little longer!

Whether you have a FitBit or not, I hope that you can get out and get some steps in every day, and if not maybe just move some rocks, or quilt a bit!

Be well, be blessed, and keep steppin'!