Day 19: Everybody Loves Kale Chips

I'm not really sure that everybody loves kale chips.  My awesome brother-in-law wasn't a fan of them, thinking they had kind of a funky after taste to them.  However, a whole lot of people like kale chips. What, you don't believe me?  OK, I know exactly seven people who like kale chips, including me. Fine!  Just consider that kale chips are now being sold in the grocery stores, so in all likelihood, more than seven people like kale chips. There.  Are you satisfied?  Now I've gotten completely off track.  Where was I??

So, I made some kale chips today to have with our carrot-ginger-cashew soup for lunch.  I started with some kale leaves, then cut the leafy part away from the stemmy part. I tore each of the remaining pieces into 2 inch squares, tossed them in olive oil, then lay them flat on a cookie sheet.  I placed the cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven for 15 minutes, pulled the pans out and turned the soggy looking kale pieces over, placing them back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  I let them cool for a couple of minutes, then emptied the contents (kale chips) into a container, where I sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and voila! They were ready to eat.

It turns out that my mother in law really likes kale chips.  Had I known, I'd have made them a long time ago.  We always have kale in the fridge for soups, stir fries, etc., so it is easy to just pop them in the oven for chips. Which I did again after lunch so we'll have more for future meals.

Dinner was amazing.  We had some fabulous Indian food at a local chain called Swagath.  We had lunch there a few weeks ago, but I wanted to go back for dinner and try some of my favorite foods.  Oh, I'm so glad we did.  The whole idea was to get some good samosas, but when we got there, I thought pakora sounded better.  We had some when we went for lunch and they were great.  At dinner, instead of being individually dipped slices of veggies in garbanzo bean batter, they were made into a single, crispy, delicious pakora patty.  Man, oh man, it was excellent.  I also had a shrimp saag.  I could have skipped the shrimp, but the beautifully spiced, creamy spinach dish was to die for! It came with a side of naan (flat bread), which was so freshly made it was still steaming. Brian had a very tasty vegetable biryani, which is a rice dish filled with loads of vegetables, served with a side dish of curry sauce, filled with even more vegetables.  YUM.  Marty, who has been a great sport with being something close to vegan with us, decided to get off the bandwagon for the meal and had tandoori lamb.  It was beautiful  I have to admit, I had a very small taste and it was terrific.  I am not really missing meat, but this stuff was terrific, I must say.

All in all, it was a fabulous food day!