My grandmother lost her eyesight early in life due to a combination of Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma. My mom has had Glaucoma for several years, and was just diagnosed with Macular Degeneration. So I’m on a mission to do whatever I can to prevent the same thing from happening to me. I did some research and found that other than not smoking, diet is one of the best ways to help prevent MD. I have a pretty good diet. I eat a lot of vegetables and greens, but the really healthy DARK leafy greens that have been recommended to prevent Macular Degeneration, like Kale, have been harder to fit in my diet. I don’t really like the bitter taste of raw Kale. But a couple of weeks ago, we ordered a flatbread at Table 3 restaurant. It was topped with “Kale Chips”, which were to DIE for, but of course, they were fried. I’m a southern girl, so I love fried vegetables, but I wanted to try to replicate them without all the fat.

I found a recipe for baked Kale chips, which involved tossing them with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. The problem with that method was that I ended up with half of the leaves covered with oil and the other half had little or no oil on it. I tried putting it in a ziploc bag and shaking it up, but it still didn’t come out even. So I pulled out my trusty can of PAM Olive oil spray. Voila! It was so easy to put a light coating on all the pieces on a baking sheet, then sprinkle with a little kosher salt and bake slowly for about 20 minutes or so. The only caveat is that, depending on your oven, you really have to watch them the last couple of minutes. If you cook them too long, they get a little bit burned, so the taste isn’t quite as good. If you don’t cook them long enough, they’re still limp, and not crispy.

This is how I did it. First, after rinsing the kale and COMPLETELY DRYING IT (I rinse and then lay out on layers of paper towels while I cook dinner), I take each piece of kale and fold it over so that I can easily cut off the stem.

I preheat the oven to 300 degrees, then tear the pieces into approximately equal size and lay out on a large baking sheet pan that I prepare by spraying with Olive Oil. I spray the tops of the leaves lightly but evenly with Olive Oil, then sprinkle with Kosher Salt.

You could use any kind of seasoning you like. The leaves will shrink, so be careful with the amount of salt, but in my opinion, the salty crunchiness makes it really good! For the first pan of chips, I set the timer for 18 minutes. Then I taste a chip to see if it’s crunchy.

Finished chips…this batch needed a lot of taste testing before they were done!

Usually I need to let them cook at least two more minutes, but I have learned that I need to watch very carefully during this time. Once they start to get crunchy they can very quickly burn. Some days they cook faster than others. I don’t know what that’s about…maybe some days I don’t get them as dry as I should. If, after 20-22 minutes they are still not crunchy, I turn off the oven and let me stay for a little while. But they can still burn so I have to continue to check on them.

After you make these a few times it becomes much easier…I usually cook them while I’m chopping other things, or piddling around in the kitchen, so it goes very quickly. I leave them uncovered in a bowl or platter for several days so I can grab a handful throughout the day. Don’t wrap them or put them in plastic, or they’ll lose their crunch.

We’re starting the fifth week at our lake house…the first time we’ve been able to get away for this long. Thankfully, J can work from anywhere, with internet, cell phones and faxes. It’s gone by really fast…I can’t believe it’s been this long. Our days are spent hiking, running, swimming, boating, golfing, playing tennis, reading, and SLEEPING! Both of us are starting to really catch up on last year’s no sleeping.

My BHRT is kicking in…that, plus the melatonin that I’m taking every night is enabling me to finally sleep through the night-for the first time in years! When I wake up around 6:30 to go to the bathroom, I’m even able to lay back down and sleep for another hour. Unbelievable, when you think that for the last couple of years I couldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time!

One of our favorite things up here is the “Music on the Mountain“, which is held at the top of Toxaway Mountain (Meadow Ridge), every 3rd Saturday throughout the season. It’s a potluck, everyone brings food, and coolers with their beverage of choice. Having a glass of wine at the top of a mountain and listening to music is so much fun. We’re even beginning to meet other people who have homes here. A majority of them only spend the summers here, like us, and drive in from places like Atlanta, Greenville, SC, Florida, etc. We started coming last year, and brought our own food and never ventured over to the “potluck table”, but we’ve realized we need to be more social. So even though my family likes to pack our own dinner, I always bring something for the potluck table to share. Gives us a reason to mingle a little bit.

The BEST recipe I’ve found since I’ve been here is so easy and so delicious. We planted a small herb garden when we got here in June, that has just thrived in this weather, and the basil is big and thick and healthy, so I needed to make some pesto. J and H love sun dried tomatoes, so this is a quick variation on plain pesto that is beautiful and delicious. I added the chicken sausage because J always has to have some kind of protein.

Penne with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Chicken Sausage

* 12 ounces penne pasta
* 1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
* 2 garlic cloves
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
*3 links chicken sausage, cooked and crumbled (**If you want to make this vegetarian, substitute a can of black beans, rinsed, or vegetarian sausage)

1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

2. Meanwhile, blend the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste, and basil in a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are finely chopped. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Mix with cooked sausage (or black beans)  and place in bottom of large bowl.

3. Add the pasta to the pesto mixture and toss to coat, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta, to taste, with salt and pepper and serve. Top with finely chopped Italian Parsley, if desired.

Since the closest grocery store is half an hour away, I’ve had to get creative with things to bring for the potluck. Instead of picking up a tray at the store, I have to make things myself. Luckily, I had a can of chickpeas and some Tahini, so I made a quick batch of hummus and homemade Pita chips. I think the homemade is so much better than what you buy at the store, anyway (less greasy), and it only takes a minute…

Easy Classic Hummus
* 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
* 1/4 cup tahini
* 1 TBSP lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cloves garlic, halved
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 pinch paprika
* 1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley

1. Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic in a
blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to a
serving bowl.
2. Drizzle olive oil over the garbanzo bean mixture. Sprinkle with
paprika and parsley.

J was out of town earlier this week so H and I had our favorite dinner. It’s not really a recipe, per se, but anytime we serve these everyone wants to know how to make it so I thought I’d post it. When I was growing up in the south, we only had vegetables slow cooked with butter or bacon fat, or fried, so this whole concept of roasting fresh vegetables is new to me. I think using this method you can roast anything and it tastes good. We usually do butternut squash, onions, asparagus, and ,maybe potatoes or sweet potatoes. I’ve done it with carrots, sweet peppers, green beans, and just about any vegetable in the pantry. I use a convection oven so that I can roast multiple pans (they shrink up when cooking, but take up a lot of space at first). If you don’t have a convection oven you can just put in multiple pans and rotate them periodically. When I set my oven to 425 degrees in the convection mode it actually cooks at 400 degrees, so adjust accordingly.

Also, the butternut squash, potatoes, and carrots take the longest time so I put them in the oven first, then cut up the rest and put them in a few minutes later.

H and I aren’t really vegetarians, but this is a wonderful, filling, healthy meal.

Roasted Vegetables

*Any variety of vegetables, but the following are my favorites:

Butternut Squash
Sweet onions
Asparagus
Potatoes
Carrots
Sweet Peppers (Red, Green or Yellow)
Sweet Potatoes
Olive oil
dried basil
kosher salt

Wash, peel (if necessary), and cut into 1″ chunks the squash, onions, potatoes or sweet potatoes. Trim root end of asparagus, and cut carrots and peppers into thick strips.

(Butternut squash is very labor intensive to peel. The easiest way I’ve found is to use very sharp chef’s knife and cut ends off, then cut bottom (seed end) off and peel that, scoop out the seeds, then peel the long end and slice and cut into chunks. Some people just cut in half and cook, but I like exposing the cut ends while roasting to give it a little crispness)

Place vegetables in large bowl and sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Use hands to toss with the oil so it’s distributed evenly. You don’t have to use much. Spray large roasting pans (I use those large flat pans with about 1/2-1″ sides) with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Spread vegetables so that they’re separated, sprinkle with kosher salt and a little dried basil. Roast in convection oven set at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes or until cooked and a little crispy on the edges.
The different veggies cook at different speeds. The onions and asparagus cook pretty quickly, should only take 20 minutes or so. Squash and potatoes take the longest. Roasting brings out the sweetness and the kosher salt just makes it delicious!