Kale and Poached Eggs

This was a super easy, throw-together-10-minutes-before-dinner, fridge left-overs kind of meal.  Reid was out-of-town, and it was difficult for me to put in the effort to make a usual dinner so I peaked in the fridge and found kale, eggs, and chicken broth.  Yay! A meal! I did a little googling and found a similar recipe on http://www.yumsugar.com/Spicy-Garlic-Kale-Poached-Eggs-30574463.  Most recipes poached the eggs separately, but why dirty another pot? I just poached the eggs over the kale.  It was a tasty, healthy and simple dinner!  Serve with some toast so you can sop up all that yummy egg yolk!

Kale and Poached Eggs
Ingredients:

• 2 cups kale, ribs removed and cut into 1/2" strips
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. chicken broth
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tbs. butter
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp. paprika, smoked if you have it
• salt
• 2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Bring a large, straight-sided pan to medium-high heat; add olive oil and butter.
2. Saute garlic and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 min.
3. Add kale and cook until just wilted
4. Pour in chicken broth and add salt to taste.  Simmer over medium until all but about 1/4 c. of liquid remaining and kale soft, 8-10 minutes.
5. Add egg and cover pan until eggs cooked, about 2-3 minutes
6. Sprinkle paprika over eggs.  Enjoy!

Pretzels

One of Reid and my indulgences is Auntie Anne's pretzels.  That buttery crust with flecks of salt is the perfect companion to our outlet shopping days or traveling through the airport.  Last week when we were coming back from Cancun, we literally followed the smell of the pretzels to grab a quick 'sninner' (snack-dinner) during our layover.  It's always fun to watch the workers twirl the pretzel into the pretzel shapes, too!  Since pretzels are basically fat covered carbs, I thought I'd try to make it at home and see if I could re-create the deliciousness without quite as much caloric guilt.  I had the intention using water to get the salt to stick but-Surprise! Butter does make everything better! At least we didn't accompany these with the 360 calorie lemonades we usually get at Auntie Anne's...

Copy-cat Pretzels

Ingredients

• 1 c. bread flour
• 3 c. all purpose flour (can substitute whole wheat flour), , plus more for kneading
• 1 pkg (1 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
• 2 tbs. brown sugar
• 1 1/2c. plus 2 c. water
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tbs. baking soda
• optional toppings: melted butter and sea salt; melted butter and cinnamon and sugar; water and salt

Directions

1. Proof the yeast by combining 1&1/2 c. lukewarm water and yeast according to package directions.  Add brown sugar.  Let set until foamy, then add salt and flour.
2. Knead on floured surface until nice and elastic.  Dough should be smooth but slightly tacky.
3. Let rest for 1 hour (or about doubled in size) in a bowl covered with a dishtowel
4. Prepare a water bath by mixing baking soda and 2 c. water into a shallow bowl
5. Punch the dough down and divide into 6 equal pieces
6. Roll and stretch out a piece into a long rope, about 30" in length
7. Shape into a pretzel by forming a loop, twisting ends, then bringing ends back over the loop.  This is where watching the Auntie Anne's workers do this and lots of pictures help!
8. Dip the pretzel in the water bath and place on parchment-lined baking sheet
9. Repeat with all 6 pieces.  Allow to rise again for about 5 minutes
10. Bake at 450*C for 10 minutes or until golden
11. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle on course salt

I actually made a double batch and froze a few pretzels without butter and sugar.  They've rewarmed beautifully in the toaster oven (then I add the butter and salt).  Yummmmmmmmmm!

Recipe inspired by Food.com and Food Network

The best chocolate chip cookies ever.

I bake these cookies fairly often, but hadn't posted the recipe here because I just didn't think about something this simple, but my mom told me I should post it because it's such a yummy chocolate chip recipe.  The recipe originally came from my friend, Laura.  I think she got it from a children's cooking recipe book.  I've also made these playing around with adding walnuts or heath bar chunks (which was really tasty!)

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients

• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 a 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Directions

1. Melt butter in a medium bowl and mix in both white and brown sugar.
2. In a separate small bowl, beat together egg and vanilla.  Combine into sugar mixture.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the butter mixture to flour and stir together.
5. Stir in chocolate chips (and/or walnuts or heath bar chunks or whatever else delicious things you can add to these cookies)
6. Bake in 375*F oven for 8-10 minutes

Optional: Make a chocolate ganache (recipe on post from macaroon recipe coming soon!).  Sandwhich the cookies for an extra decadent treat!