GardenSpotlight

one of our hand-made wreaths We've been so busy making wreaths and kissing balls for the Christmas Season. It's been very cold and a bit snowy of late.  A couple days ago, I surprised my husband with a crock pot of minestrone for lunch down at the farm.   He said it really hit the spot with this cold weather and has requested more crock pot goodness!  Today I made Kale and Tomato Soup for him as I wanted to use up some left over kale, which is very sweet and tender this time of year due to the cold weather.  We've been growing kale in the greenhouses all year along with other greens.  This recipe is super easy and really only takes about 15 minutes on the stove, but I elected to saute and then add to the crock pot for obvious reasons already stated.  Of course...it's always great to come home to an already cooked meal in the evening, so our crock pot is always working.  As a matter of fact, I have two of them! Kale growing in our greenhouse ...

Our daughter Jennifer cooked dinner last night. Wow!  It was wonderful!  She made steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe.  OK, sounds pretty average right?  Well, I had always cooked broccoli rabe just by sautéing with garlic and olive oil.  With Jennifer's simple addition of onions, it was amazing...very flavorful and sweet!  Greens are so easy to prepare, yet we have a fair number of customers at the farmers' markets that don't know what to do with them.  They can all pretty much be sautéed with garlic and oil....we're Italian, so we cook most things with those two ingredients ;-). First, you'll want to rinse the dirt off the greens and drain them or pat dry with a paper towel.  Remove the heavier stems.  Jennifer chopped the leaves of the broccoli rabe (or rapini, as some call it) before cooking, but you can leave them whole too.  Some greens like collards and kale can easily be stripped from the stems by r...