Chicken Cacciatore and Roasted Kale

It would be great if, at some point, I started forming a repertoire of my attempted meals. Culinary adventures take much longer to complete than an old standby. (It seems that I can multiply any given cooking time by at least 1.5 for the first attempt.) My first chicken cacciatore was no exception.

It was very much worth the effort - I loved it. I used Giada's recipe, but was torn between that an another that involved roasting red peppers myself. I chose the simpler recipe, of course. I will make this meal again, but need to find a way to cut the fat while keeping the wonderful flavor.


My friend, Meira, recently came across a recipe for oven-roasted kale. "Kale?" I said, "As in the frilly annoying garnish that ends up on your plate at, say, Friendly's?" It was, indeed, this same kale and she was raving about its deliciousness. I had to find out for myself.

The most time-consuming part of using kale (for non-garnish purposes) is the washing and drying - there are lots of places for dirt and water to hide! With that out of the way, I chopped it up and tossed it in some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and freshly ground nutmeg - just as I was instructed. It roasted at 375 for 10 minutes, tossed, and then a final 10 minutes. It was chewy yet crispy, and all-round wonderful.