Very beautiful salad

Raw kale salads, who knew? all of the sudden they were everywhere and now I can't eat enough of them. Thanks to my friend Nicholas who turned me on to the brilliant combo of avocado with - yields the perfect mix of soft and creamy and crunchy.
Yesterday that's all I had in the house, and it's one delicious salad.
My favorite so far, though, is to add garbanzo beans and feta, with the kale avocado combo.
But whatever you have in your fridge will be good!
They key is to toss the kale with your vinaigrette and let it sit about 10 minutes - while the coating softens the leaves a bit.

Vinaigrette:
juice of 1/2 lemon (or lemon and lime is nice)
2-3 T white balsamic vinegar
3-4 T olive oil
Kosher salt/ fresh ground pepper (to taste)
whisk til opaque, toss liberally w/your kale salad.

Let sit about 10 minutes b4 consuming. Grind a grind of fresh pepper on top! Et Viola!!

It's a super food. I feel like Popeye when I eat this.

Scaccia Ragusana!

Was invited to Paella party and made this as a "tapa"
fed about 20+ when cooled and cut into squares with serrated knife

Adapted from recipe in the March 2007 Saveur, it is a recipe from Sicily
I added cheese to the amount - and also used a combo of Fontina, Sharp provolone and Parmesean, (they used Pecorino Romano)
They used 12 oz, pretty sure I added a bit more.....
Also I added a bit of sugar to the sauce, just a a tsp., and some red pepper flakes and some oregano.
This is incredibly delicious, and so beautiful......the dough, sans yeast, behaves almost like a homemade filo.

Steps - First, prepare dough, let is sit at room temp for about 30 minutes.
In meantime, prepare the sauce, then grate all cheeses. Then, roll, and fill your tart.
To see recipe more clearly, click on picture to enlarge, for rolling/folding steps. Before baking, I flattened whole thing out a bit. Be sure to bake on parchment paper on top of sheet pan. 500 degree (preheated) oven for 10 minutes, then turn down to 400 for about an hour.

I'm fairly sure one could stick most anything in here, add some cheese,and it'd be quite delicious!

*re the drawing, the dough is rolled out to a rectangle, and the dough itself is 1/16th of an inch think (or, very thin!)
Also, be sure to cover dough with plastic wrap or a towel while it rests, and lightly coat outside with olive oil, so it doesn't dry out...

Soup and Bread @ the Hideout, Mar 2, 2011

A really fun experience, once again, serving soup at the Hideout. After the first soup and bread date was snowed out, I was left with 70+ cheddar brioche rolls I had made, to go with the tomato cream soup. Since this was a few weeks later, and I had frozen them, I cut them into bits, tossed with more herbs and butter and olive oil and cheese and made croutons.
Kitty was serving soup as well, and her fabulous roasted red pepper goat cheese creation was a big hit.