Greens and Garbage Disposals

I recently had some great friends over to the condo for a Saturday brunch.  We had so much fun and I will have to post some pictures later.  Well ... I just absolutely love cooking and hosting and take much pleasure in creating fun delicious dishes.  One such dish was going to be homemade roasted garlic hummus with kale chips.  Kale is a lovely leafy green that is packed full of nutrients.  I found a recipe for the kale chips online and after Stuart and I picked out a ginormous bunch of Kale at Winn-Dixie (Publix didn't have any ... I don't want to talk about it!) I started baking.  I soon discovered that baking a kale leaf turns it into a microscropically thin crunchy thing.  So thin, in fact, that just picking it up off the baking sheet made it crack.  So since the kale chips didn't work out, we resorted to pita chips and I decided to cook the kale another day.

Last night when I got home from work I decided to saute the kale to have alongside some leftover fish.  Now, while kale is nutritious and I would love to eat it on a regular basis, I haven't had much luck with it in the past.  No matter what I add in when I cook it it is always way too bitter.  I decided to try it again with a bit longer cooking time to hopefully cook out some of that flavor.  I also added in some apple cider vinegar because I thought that would brighten up the flavor a bit.

Well, 15 minutes later I put some kale on the plates and we chow down.  Well, we try at least... the kale is SO TOUGH that it is impossible to chew!  And on top of that, it was even more bitter than before.  Stuart wouldn't even eat it, and if you know Stuart that says a lot!  He hates it when things go to waste and has been known to cut mold off bread and still eat the loaf (yuck)!  Anyway, he politely and gently encouraged me to put the greens down the garbage disposal where something with sharper teeth than we have could digest it.

Grudgingly I made my way to the sink, turned the water on and put the kale down the drain.  A flip of the disposal switch and all of a sudden we hear horrifying noises, and water starts backing up in the sink.  My greens were even too tough for the garbage disposal's steel blades!  How embarrassing!!  20 minutes and a toilet plunger later, the kale and water made it safely down the drain.  My pride went with it ...