Mixed Greens w/ Apples & Smoked Gouda

I know I've been posting a lot of simple salads over the past few months - but I can't help it!  I love lunchin' on salads!

One of my favorite additions to salads are julienned apples - Granny Smiths to be exact.  Raise your hand if you agree!  They just give a welcomed and refreshing sour bite in the midst of some semi-bitter greens.

Happy mid-week to ya guys and just remember - 2 more days and it's a 3 day weekend (for those of us in the US that is!).


Ingredients:

Mixed greens
1/2 cup Smoked gouda, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Granny Smith apple, peeled and julienned
1/4 cup deli turkey, chopped

In a large bowl combine greens, gouda, apple, and turkey.  Serve plain or dressed with your favorite dressing!

Simple right?  Right. 

I promise I'll start posting "harder" recipes soon!  Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of our Danville, KY tasting and a meet-up with other KY Food Bloggers!  Have a great rest of your Wednesday guys!

Sauteed Kale w/ Polenta

We've been getting a lot of kale in our CSA lately.  I love kale and usually end up putting it in a soup (it's stellar in soups!), but with the weather being so hot - I just haven't been in the mood for any kind of soup.  Simple and easy is the route I like to take.

And when I saw this recipe on Eats Well With Others, I just knew I had to make it - especially since I'd never cooked with polenta before either.  It just seemed like the perfect opportunity!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Eats Well With Others' recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 cups kale, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup polenta
1/4 cup smoked gouda, shredded

In a large skillet, heat olive oil under medium high heat.  Add garlic and saute for about a minute or so, until fragrant.

Add the kale, salt, and pepper and saute for about 3-5 minutes, or until kale is slightly wilted, but still green.

Meanwhile, bring about 4 cups of salted water to a boil.  Slowly pour in polenta and stir constantly until thick - about 5 minutes or so.

Spoon some polenta on a plate and top with the kale.  Sprinkle some shredded gouda on top if you want too.

Joanne served this with some braised short ribs (which looks pretty darn awesome too!), but I found this a great dish all by itself.  It's elegant, easy, and super tasty!  And let's just say... this won't be the last time I cook with polenta, either!

Garden Update & My New Favorite Sandwich

The garden is really freakin' green right now!  It's definitely in better shape than last year's garden!  We've got tons of lettuce, that's for sure!  The onions are doing pretty well too, well, besides the fact that I planted the pumpkins right next to them.  Maybe next year, the pumpkins will have their own patch of land - I'm still learning =)

The herbs are growing nicely too - parlsey and cilantro are practically a-plenty... anybody need some?  Hehe.

And my tomatoes!  They're flowering, which is exciting - because they didn't even get to this stage last year.  Looks like I'll be buying plants from now on, as opposed to seeds like I did last year!

Anyway, with all the lettuce we've been having, in our CSA and in the garden - salads seem to be a go-to lunch.  But when we tire of salads, I like to make a nice little sandwich!  And this just happens to be my fave at the moment:

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread, toasted
lettuce
hummus 
smoked gouda slices
cajun turkey

Assemble all ingredients into a sandwich and enjoy!

Hummus is seriously my favorite sandwich condiment... especially since I HATE putting mayo on sandwiches =)

What's your favorite sandwich?  How's your garden (if you have one) shaping up??

Have a great Tuesday guys!