Cruciferous haul

Just an average cruciferous haul – not too much, not too little.  It will probably last a week (ish), which is perfect because I just signed up for imperfect produce!!  I’m so excited that this company is finally delivering to Davis!  Not only do they reduce food waste by giving a home to less attractive fruit and veggies, but they don’t do any other packaging, so it’s truly minimalist farm to doorstep.  I get to login to the website later to customize my order (add more of things I want and remove things I don’t).  Since I didn’t know what to expect, I got the medium organic box.  I’ll let you know how it goes when I get my first box next week.  I chose the “every other week” option, so I didn’t get bogged down in produce from the get go (especially over the holidays with our less predictable schedule), but I’ve been wanting to do a CSA forever to force me to try new things.  FYI this is not a sponsored collaboration or anything.  I’m just super excited for my imperfect produce! 🙂 

This was the yield from the stalk of Brussels by the way.  I roasted it for my lunches…but the kids are already begging for some, so I doubt I’ll be able to hoard it all for myself.  

Here’s the first course of my lunch…I had more of everything but the salmon (I finished the whole piece shown with extra kite hill “cream cheese” and crackers).  I love those TJs gluten free crispbread crackers.  Ever since my food poisoning incident in October I hadn’t been back to Trader Joe’s and I only just now got around to returning.  I was low on the essentials – the items that you can only get at TJs – like liquid stevia, pecorino romano, vegetarian chili and the aforementioned crispbread.  What are your TJs faves?  

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Both kids requested a kale salad with bacon wrapped dates, so I was more than happy to oblige such a hippie friendly request. 

I made lots of extra bacon wrapped dates for later in the week. 

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I massaged the kale in the extra bacon fat, as well as a simple vinaigrette. 

• 1 tsp garlic infused olive oil
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup champagne vinegar
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 2 T maple syrup
• 2 T dijon mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

And then I assembled the Winter kale salad of our dreams…

Kale salad with persimmon and bacon wrapped dates

Ingredients:

• 1 head curly kale, destemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 persimmon, diced
• 12 bacon wrapped dates
• 1/2 cup pecorino romano or parmesan cheese
• vinaigrette (see above)

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400.

Slice the slabs of bacon in half so you have 24 pieces.  Remove the pits from the dates and slice them in half.  Then wrap each date halve with bacon and rest it on a baking sheet with the seam down (so it stays wrapped up).  Bake for 15 minutes.

Once the bacon wrapped dates are done and cool enough to touch, set them on a plate and pour off the grease into a large salad bowl with the kale.  Massage until the kale is wilted.  Add the vinaigrette and continue to massage.

Finally add the chopped persimmons, bacon wrapped dates, and cheese.  

If you like this salad, definitely try this one, upon which it was based.  Who doesn’t love bacon wrapped dates in a salad???

Sorry about the blurry photo of dessert…apparently I was in too much of a rush to check if it was in focus. 😛