Kale Chips

Kale - easy to grow, tolerant, long-living, strong flavored and good for us. I love it in salads, in quiche, in soup. And yet we have so much of it growing (and get it from the CSA), we can hardly eat it all. I've just discovered a way to gobble up every last leaf. Kale chips! This recipe for kale chips is so yummy, the first time I made it, I ate two sheets of it myself! (It bakes up to nearly nothing.) Try these soon, and make sure you have enough for two batches!

Before

After

Here's the recipe I used. I didn't have apple cider vinegar, so I used white vinegar and it worked out fine. I think balsamic would add interest, too. I'm also thinking of sprinkling the leaves with chili powder, curry or other spices. Also, the more you can keep the leaves to a single layer, the more evenly they will cook. Use a couple of baking sheets, if necessary.

Wouldn't these make a great fall party food? When they come out of the oven, they look like dried leaves.

I was inspired to try this when I saw it mentioned on someone's blog. I can't recall which one, so apologies if it was yours. Let me know!

Penny Farthings and Such

I spent last weekend in the company of 12 other women at a writing retreat. It was wonderful for my writing and for me personally, too. We shared the grounds of St. Mary of the Woods with the Wheelmen, a group that collects and rides vintage bicycles. Being a fan of cycling, this was a delight for me!

This was the earliest bike represented. It doesn't have pedals. You lean forward and push with your feet.

An ordinary as they were called in the day. The name penny farthing didn't come into use until after the height of this bike's popularity.

Getting on and off is a daring feat!

One of the first pneumatics - air in the tires.
I loved her outfit, tho I'd hate to have to wear it on a muggy July day (like it was!).

A very interesting tricycle

I ride a leather saddle, not too different from this one

Busy Day Cake

Here's a cake that goes really well with tea! It's a whole wheat/flax seed cake with blueberry topping. It's very delicious and so pretty! I don't have the recipe. The DH made alterations to a recipe for a "busy day" cake, but didn't write it down. Next time!

Isn't that a great name? Busy day cake - love it!

Enjoy a virtual slice.

Kiss the Flowers!

Have you ever kissed a flower? I highly recommend it, especially ones with soft petals. It's particularly nice when the dew is fresh. Some flowers, like the one above, are made to be kissed!

Summertime Pleasures

The pleasures of summer. Some things, like making blueberry jam from berries picked with friends, make me smile even when I don't feel like it.

Blueberry jam

A fragrant and cheery day lily

Rainbow chard

Bicycle Adventure: Hermann and Augusta

This is the last bike trip post (for this trip, at least!).

We pulled into Hermann, MO after a beautiful early-morning, 50-mile ride. The view coming into Hermann was one of my favorites. White church steeples peek out of the hillside of green. (I don't have a photo of that.)

Here's a typical campsite, minus the other tents around us. In Hermann, we managed to find a campsite to ourselves. The rest of the time, we were setting up camp snugly with the neighbors nearby. The semi in the background is the shower truck. It traveled along with us, providing hot showers to the 300-plus cyclists.

We had lunch at the Stone Hill Winery restaurant. A yummy German-style onion tart, salad with German hot dressing and a side of spatzle. Here's the view from the winery. Hermann was founded as a German community, and still holds onto that culture. After lunch, we toured the winery, including the amazing limestone cellars that took 22 years to carve, by hand! There is a very active wine scene going on here. The Stone Hill Winery, if I recall correctly, was once the 2nd-largest in the US. Prohibition came and knocked it flat. They grew mushrooms in the cellars to get by.

The next day, we camped in Augusta, MO. Augusta is a town of 200. The Katy Trail is flat getting to it, but you have to ride up a very steep hill to get into town. (That was fun! I was missing the hills by this time in the ride.) We ate supper at this church.

And here's the sunrise as we ride the final day, back into St. Charles, MO. It was definitely a trip of sunrises (and hot tents!). Lots of good memories. In another week, I'll minimize the hot tent part and be ready to do it again.

Brewing Tea on the Bike

I made a wonderful discovery on the Katy Trail bike ride. I can cold-brew a thermos of tea while I'm riding, and it's a wonderfully refreshing treat. Plus, caffeine provides a boost to my athletic performance. :-) I chose Mighty Leaf sachets because they are biodegradable. When I'm ready to depart, I pop in a tea sachet, screw on the lid, and take off. A few hours later, I have a wonderful drink. And the water stays cool, compliments of the thermos.

Thanks to a fellow bicycling family, I am set up with stainless steel bike water bottles. (I prefer them over plastic.) The front one is from Greenfeet and has a bike-friendly top. The second is a Lance Armstrong-branded thermos. (I don't care about the branding, but it is designed for use on the bike.) I use it as a holder for extra water. And, in this case, to brew my tea!

To my cycling friends, note the photo below. We've discovered that plastic water bottle cages work much better with the metal water bottles. They slide in and out without metal-on-metal resistance. The Girl Power sock helps keep the thermos from rattling. Plus, I think it's cute.