Kale Chips

Before:

After:

Whoops!  I ate the kale chips so fast, I forgot to take a picture!  But they taste better than they look anyway.

Kale is trendy.  I have seen bumper stickers that say Eat More Kale.

Of course, that's actually a T-shirt company.  From the website:  Eat More Kale is a movement, a t-shirt revolution.  If nothing else, Eat More Kale is Vermont's One-At-A-Time Original Design T-Shirts.  They do have some kale recipes on the site, though.

But let's get back to the kale chips.  These are extremely easy to make, but be prepared that a huge bunch of kale will be reduced to a handful of chips.

All you have to do is pick a bunch of kale from your garden.  (Or buy a bunch of kale from a farmer's market.)  Sit at the table on your front porch and start ripping the kale into chip-size pieces, making sure to remove the woody stems as you do.  I think curly kale is the best, but my current crop of kale doesn't have as much curliness as a previous crop.  (Word to the wise:  do not purchase seeds for something called Dinosaur Kale.  I found out last year that the bugs love that kale more than the standard kale; I got nothing out of last year's crop.)

Run your kale through a salad spinner, place it in a large bowl, drizzle some olive oil on it, and get your hands in there to spread the love around.  Add some seasoned salt and some smoked paprika (or anything else you like) and then spread the pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Sprinkle on a little more of the salt and spice, then bake in a 350-degree oven for about 12 minutes.  (Keep an eye on it; you don't want the chips to burn.)

And there you have it:  kale chips!  Love should be this easy, right?

I will be enjoying kale chips for quite some time, because look:

Baby Kale

 Keep the love coming, Kale!