Discovering New Vegetables: Kale!

Kale is like the "hip" vegetable lately.  I'm not sure if it's because I suddenly have a new appreciation for it so that I notice, but it's everywhere!  I first encountered this vegetable due to the juice cleanse I did last year.  One of the two green juices I drank everyday for 3 days had kale in it.  Soon after the cleanse, we purchased a Vitamix in order to make healthy smoothies.  Oh man, the Vitamix blender is the most amazing thing and may be my second most favorite tool in the kitchen!  For green smoothies, I sought out different vegetables to use and a lot of the recipes I found used kale.  I initially ate a lot of kale in a blended fashion, but after finding this salad recipe and still having lots of it in the fridge, I decided to give solid kale a chance.  What a great salad.

Fully-Loaded Kale Salad
adapted from Healthy. Happy. Life.

A few variations...
...I used marinated artichokes, pears, romaine lettuce, persian cucumbers, plum tomatoes, and avocados.

A surprisingly nutty and tangy dressing.

Refreshing!

Hmm Hmm Dulce de Leche

This cookie was started with the dulce de leche recipe I found online.  When I saw what was used to make the dulce de leche, I was immediately hooked.  Can you guess what tool was used??  Well, of course, a crockpot!!!  THE easiest recipe I've seen thus far, all you do is take a can of condensed milk (label off), drop it into a pool of water inside the crockpot, and turn it to low for 8 hours.  Ahh-maaa-zing!

Ginger Thumbprint Cookies with Dulce de Leche

From Chocswirl (ginger thumbprint cookies):

Just one variation...
...substituted molasses with maple syrup

Roll cookie dough into balls and gently push down the center.

And from The Culinary Chronicles (dulce de leche):

Simply exquisite dulce de leche

I know, the presentation of these cookies are not the best.  I may have used my thumb a bit too aggressively, and I blame it on the fact that I do not have piping materials yet!  Regardless, it was quite delicious.  Even my husband's coworkers agreed.