Kale Tacos with Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, and Balsamic Glaze

I love it. You can make anything into a taco.
I was listening to some Joy the Baker, and she inspired me to "Taco-fy" my dinner. 
I made some Kale Tacos when I got home yesterday, and they were delicious and filled with all my favorite things...cooked onions, tomatoes, and of course, kale. I did add a small amount of feta cheese to this, but you can totally enjoy the tacos without it. 
Speaking of cheese, did I tell you of my cheese binge as I was cooking? Yeah, I went to Mariano's, and I needed basil for a different recipe. All they had in the store was a huge bunch of basil. SO instead of going someplace else, I ended up purchasing a tub of fresh mozzarella balls, and I filled up on mini capreses the whole night. 


So let's talk tacos...

Kale Tacos with Caramelized Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, and Feta Cheese with a Balsamic Glaze
makes 4 tacos
Ingredients:
1 bunch of Kale, deribbed 
1/2 of a sweet/yellow onion
8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Any tortilla of your liking ( I used small white corn tortillas)
1 ounce of chopped feta cheese (I used a goat milk style)
Balsamic glaze of your choosing (Isola Classic cream)
Salt/pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat olive oil to a medium size sauce pan. Toss in your onions and garlic and keep the heat low. When onions are looking tender, add in tomatoes and kale. Cover pot so the kale will steam. Give mixture a good 10-15 mins to cook everything down.

In a separate skillet, lightly oil and toss in tortillas to warm them up. You only need about a minute on each side.
Assembly: 
Add a small amount of mixture onto open faced tortilla. Top with some feta cheese and drizzle balsamic glaze on top. Enjoy!

Champagne Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

Look. Maggie Innis is my sister in law. She is my daughter's aunt and she's my friend. It was her birthday this week and she turned 17. She has done so much for me. She watches Li so I can work, shower,  and try out for American Idol. I'm broke as a joke but I still wanted to do something special for her birthday to show her that I love and appreciate her.
Maggie's love language is food. She is someone who can really appreciate a well planned meal and then also really appreciate a bacon sunday from burger king. She's a special gal. Anyway, I figured the perfect gift for her would be a fancy cake. A real butter, white flour, white sugar, fatty, fatty, bingey pants cake.  One problem: I've never made a cake. They intimidate me. But, anything for Maggie!
To be honest, my first attempt at this cake was a nightmare. I did so many things wrong and it was awful. I was going to the store yesterday morning to just buy a box-cake-mix-of-defeat when I decided to give it one more try.
I stuck Lila in her high chair with her breakfast and got to work. I creamed butter and sugar. I peaked egg whites. I buttered pans. I fed the baby. My kitchen was a disaster and the cake was a success!

Before I even give you the recipe, please learn from my mistakes.
1. know your ingredients. I used flour from a canister that I just assumed was white flour. Later, I remembered it was a wheat blend.
2. Know your recipe. The recipe called for one 9 inch round pan. So, I thought I needed to double it. False.
3. This didn't end up applying, but if you double it, double it all. I didn't double the butter. smooth move Dar.
4. If you pathetically put the cake back in the oven because it just wouldn't cook, don't fall asleep. Jordan came home 2 hours later to a burned cake, desperate housewives on, and me, asleep on the couch saying, "I just can't. I'm sorry"

Ok, are you ready? Are you awake and smart? ok good.

For the Cake You'll need:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup champagne (pick something light and sweet)
6 egg whites

For the Icing you'll need:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted room temp butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup strawberry preserves
1/4 cup mashed strawberries at room temp
4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare to 9 inch round cake pans. I trace the bottom of mine on parchment paper and cut out two circles. butter your pan and then put in the paper and flip it once. the butter will hold the paper in place and flipping it will grease the other side.

Cream together your butter and sugar for a few minutes or until it's light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift together your flour, salt, baking powder. Alternately blend the dry mixture and champagne into your creamed sugar mix. After this step, you'll end up with a dense mixture. Don't freak out. This is gonna be great.

In a separate, clean bowl, whip your egg whites until peaks form. fold a third of your egg whites into your batter just to lighten it and then fold in the rest, careful not to over mix it. Take your time here, the batter is heavy to fold but it will smooth out if you slowly stir/mix it.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a tooth pick entered in the middle comes out clean.
allow them to cool before frosting.

While your cake is baking, you can prepare your icing. Beat the butter for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute. Add your preserves and fresh berries and beat for 2 more minutes. Then, add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and then cream it all together for another 2-3 minutes. Lick the beaters.

I leveled off the top of one of my cakes to give my second layer a flat surface then I rounded out the second layer.
I iced the bottom layer first and topped it with a layer of fresh strawberry slices. Then I took the top layer and iced the bottom of it before placing it on top. I finished icing and decorated it with pearly sprinkles!!  Enjoy!

24 hour cold pickles

Last summer I competed in my first triathlon. It was so amazing for so many reasons. However, when I look back at the event, the first thing I think about are pickles.
You see, I stayed at Lisa's house the night before the race so that they could bring Lila later. Part of my race morning ritual is drinking a black cup of coffee. So at 4 in the morning I went to turn on Lisa's keurig machine. It was flashing that it needed water and I was feeling disparate. I just happened to notice a mason jar of water sitting next to it so I dumped it in and made a cup of coffee. I hadn't turned a light on yet so I just saw the blue light shining in the water I just added. Then, I saw something floating in the water. Oh no. It was dill. Lisa had extra brine from pickles she had made sitting next to the keurig and I dumped it right on in there. It took me over ten rinses to clean the thing out. My goodness salty vinegar coffee is NOT very good :) but it's salty vinegary pickles are delicious!
My mother in law, Lisa, has been making these pickles for a long time. They're always a hit. It was one of the things that I was most excited about making from our garden. Well, here they are! They are the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and sour. They are ridiculously easy too!

All you need is:

Cucumber slices

2 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup canning salt (you could just use 1/3)

1/2 cup sugar

1 qt cold water

a bunch of dill

6 cloves of garlic sliced 

Garden Fresh Cuccs!

This is all you'll Need!

Mix all your ingredients in a big bowl. (I think next time I'll use less salt because I ended up watering down my brine.) Then fill two large mason jars with slices of cucumber, garlic and dill. Layer it all in there and stuff it as much as you can. Then pour the brine over until the jar is full. Cover and leave at room temp for one day or overnight and then refrigerate to chill. My brine filled two large mason jars and I had a medium sized jar of brine left over. we ate our jar of pickles about half way down and I just added more cucumber slices and topped it off with leftover brine. You can keep doing this until you want to make new brine. It's a nice gift to bring to a barbecue and totally worth the minimal effort. 

Nectarine Quick Bread

This Sunday morning, I was volunteering at a new Wildlife Center. This is exactly the kind of stuff I love to do. However, I couldn't do it. I couldn't stay more than four hours. Reason you ask. Well, the animals who lived there were awesome and adorable. The people even were kind of nice. Honestly, I felt like I was on an episode of Hoarders, and I needed to leave...immediately. 

So, I spent the rest of the day napping and making this Nectarine Quick Bread.

Last night, my nectarines that were all recently purchased went extremely ripe...and lets face it, they are just messy to eat, and I'm not going to be the girl with dribbles on her shirt. Instead, I decided to make this sweet and tangy quick bread. 

Nectarine Quick Bread

yields 1 loaf

recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

You will need:

• 3-4 ripe nectarines, smashed
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350˙F.

Take a wooden spoon and mix coconut oil into the mashed nectarines. Then add the egg, sugar, and vanilla.

 

Sprinkle in the baking soda an salt. Lastly, add the flour and mix well. 

Pour into a oiled 4x8 loaf pan and put in the oven for about 45-50 minutes. Cool on rack and enjoy a nice slice.

Apricot Energy Bars

Happy belated birthday America! 

Today, like every other day this week, has been record breaking hot. Like you can fry an egg on the ground hot. Like my skin melts when I get out of my car hot. Today, I found my coconut oil completely liquified. That in itself is an event. Here's the thing... Butter and I do not mix well. I will modify pretty much every recipe that I look at to make it not have butter. Instead, I use coconut oil...a lot of coconut oil.

With that said, I made these amazingly delicious raw vegan Apricot Coconut Energy Bars before work today. This recipe is a Shutterbean original, and they are just filled with goodness and not some processed crap that grocery stores sell to you. #sorryforthrowingyouunderthebus

Apricot Coconut Energy Bars

First you need to gather all the ingredients and pull out your food processor.

Start by pulsing the cashews by themselves. Then set these aside until the very end.

Now add the apricots and pulse them until they are chopped up a bit. When the apricots start forming a ball, add the rest of the ingredients.

 After a few minutes, your mixture should look a little like this.

 Finally, add your cashews and mix everything together.

When everything is mixed together, take your mixture and pour it onto a small baking pan lined with parchment paper. 

Now press the mixture so that it is compact. You can use a measuring cup to do this, or in my case, I just used my hands. 

Cover them and put in the freezer. Wait about 30 mins to an hour. I usually can't wait that long.

Take them out of the pan and cut them into nice rectangles and eat the sides. And then eat the bars. Just don't eat them all at once. 

Apricot Coconut Energy Bars

makes 8

• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1 cup dries apricots (I have used dried pears too and they were delicious)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2 tbsp agave syrup
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 3 tbsp hemp seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

ENJOY!!

Chicks Rule

        What do you want from me? 'Cause I can just say it. I can just come out and say the truth real hard. I'm watching America's Got Talent. I'm into it. I'm eating Ramen Noodles. Not even the cup with pretend veggies. Don't look at me like you've never caved. I'm just guiltying the crap out of these pleasures.
But I have been up to things. I swear.
When we decided to start Mom friend, we wanted it to be more than recipes. We want to share our daily lives and all of our crazy phases that we go through. We cycle through all sorts of interests and hobbies. There is never a dull moment with these girls. I love it. I could call Heika any day and say, "Hey, lets try kayaking." She wouldn't skip a beat with her response, "I'm about it." Next thing you know, she's at my door with a cooler kayak than me. Truth.
Anyways, I've been into some new things. They have feathers and beaks but they are not the all-too-trendy- owls. They are strange, nervous, silly and sweet chickens.

 

Look at these Birds. Here is me with baby Regina, Peach, Gretchen, Penny, Paula Dean, and Cinnamon. Look at Heik with Gretchen. Love it.

My Dad was so great about building the Coop.
I showed him what I wanted from pictures online and
He just made it happen.

Oh Regina. Getting so big. 

The girls were finally big enough to go outside into their new home!

Here they are today. Big girls with big personalities. 

Miss Peach

Cinnamon

Penny and Peach together. These were our two additional Girls

Paula Dean

Dumb Gretchen. She's a little slow. 

My Girls. Left to Right: Lilliana (my daughter), Regina (Special  Black),  Penny (Brown),  Peach (Brown),  Gretchen (Barred Rock), Paula Dean (white leghorn), and Cinnamon (Cinnamon Queen). 

Quick background: My cousin, Angela, needed a new home for her 7 hens and my awesome in-laws took them, gave them an amazing home, and spoiled them rotten. Spring came and chicks were everywhere. They talked about getting some and my husband wanted some too. We lived at my parents' lake house at the time and my dad agreed to let us have some there. I agreed to 2 chicks. Jordan raised me to 3 and then we decided on four, so each would have a friend. A day later, my dad was up and saw them and made a comment, "You know, I really like eggs." And with that, Penny and Peach joined our flock, giving us 6. We raised them from day old chicks and played with them everyday to make them friendly. They showed their personalities right away. My dad and I made them a home that is perfect for them and they have been such a sweet pleasure to watch. Since then, we moved into town, but I'm still there 1 to 2 times a day to see them and give them treats.

These girls are so my "thing" lately. I love seeing them walk around. They make me smile. So there it is. I said it. I ate a crappy dinner and missed my pet chickens. Deal.
Can't wait to hear what you've been up to this week!

Bowl of Lunch: Squash

We lunch often, right Heik? I mean, sometimes we go to Simple, but mostly we put stuff in a bowl. It doesn't sound fancy, but it is. 
This particular bowl is a squashy, tomatoey, oniony bowl. So good. So, so good. 
You know how you can have just a crazy week? You know, like you move out of the lake house into an apartment and try to settle in all the while still heading back and forth to care for your lovely chickens and garden? Oh and then you get sick and its about 200 degrees out? Yeah, me neither. 
I've been going crazy! I just want to play outside and read books and sew things! My time will come. Meanwhile, I owe you a recipe. So since my kitchen is still up in arms, I just wanted to remember some good old days. The days when we'd get home from spin class and fix ourselves a bowl of lunch and just bask in it. So, here's to it!

Bowl of Lunch: Squash

You'll need:
A buttercup squash, pealed and sliced
A thing of grape or cherry tomatoes halved
A white or yellow onion sliced in to rings (or strips if you can't handle it) 


3 tsp oregano
olive oil (wing it) 
S&P
Cooked brown rice or Quinoa (pasta works too) 


Set your oven to 375
Start with tossing your squash with a splash of olive oil and some salt. Lay each piece evenly on a greased and lined pan and roast for about 50 min until it's soft through and starting to get a nice golden crisp. 
In a medium mixing bowl, toss tomatoes olive oil and oregano together and coat evenly. Give it a little salt and pepper and spread it evenly on a lined and greased baking sheet. Roast them for 20 minutes, stirring them half way through. 
Once those two things are in the oven, sauté your onions until translucent. 


When all of your timers go off, assemble your bowl over some rice and add a bit of S&P to taste. The tomatoes should give it enough moisture to feel like a sauce. Happy Bowling!