Baked Feta with Kale, Baked Apples, Purple & Green, Composting Success

I'm putting dessert first,  It's my blog!

Baked Apples
This is really a technique more than a recipe.  I made these for Sally's Holiday Luncheon with her girlfriends.   

4 Sweet Apples -- I used Fuji -- not uber sweet, but not those Granny Smiths
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground Cloves
1/4 cup Chopped Walnuts
1/4 cup  chopped Raisins, Sultanas, or dried Currants
1 Tbsp Butter
3/4 cup boiling Water

Preheat oven to 375F.

Core the apples from the stem end, but leave 1/2" closed at the bottom.  There was a time I would have done that with a thin-bladed knife.  These days I actually own a corer -- useful for apples, pears and assorted other produce.

Combine the sugar, nuts and fruit.  Stand them up in a 9x9 baking dish.  Pack the cleaned cores with the sugar-fruit mix, and top with a dab of butter.

Pour the boiling water around the apples and bake for 30-45 minutes until the apples are tender but not mushy.  

Baste the plated apples with the baking juice, and serve.

Baked Feta With Kale
This was the starter/salad course for Sally's Holiday Brunch dish.  The main course was a whole Buttercup squash stuffed with the Nut Loaf recipe from a couple weeks back.  I also made a pitcher of chilled NoEgg Nog from last week's post.  

15 oz Chickpeas, canned or cooked from dry
3 cups packed Kale, stemmed and torn
3 Tbsp EVOO
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
¼ tsp Cayenne
2 (4-oz.) blocks Feta, halved horizontally to make 4 thick slices
¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds

Dressing
1 Tbsp Tahini
3 Tbsp EVOO
Juice of 3 lemons

Preheat the oven to 400ºF with a sheet pan inside.

Slightly wilt the kale in a skillet or the microwave.  Toss the chickpeas and kale with the EVOO, salt, pepper, and spices.

When the oven is ready, remove the baking tray and carefully lay the feta slices on the sheet and surround with the chickpea blend. Top with pumpkin seeds.

Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until feta has softened, the kale has browned in spots, and the chickpeas browned and crisp —15-20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, in a small serving bowl, whisk together the tahini, extra-virgin olive oil, juice of 2 lemons, salt and pepper to taste.   Reserve.

Remove the tray and squeeze the rest of the lemon juice on the greens and chickpeas. Divide between plates and serve with the dressing on the side.

Purple & Green

Here's a simple vegetarian meal idea.  Roasted purple potatoes, steamed broccoli, and (you can just make it out on the right) a dish of curry spiced lentils for protein.  I made a simple Hollandaise sauce to dress up the potatoes and broccoli.

Composting
For the past 4 months or so we've been running a kitchen waste composting experiment, which has been very successful, and has cut down our landfill contribution significantly!  Where previously we would have 2-3 28 gallon trash bags going out every week, we are now down to just one.  Doing our part to help the environment!

We bought this EJWOX brand kitchen waste composter drum from Ebay.  It took me about an hour to assemble the heavy gauge recycled plastic panels into the drum and hang it from its stand.  The drum hold 43 gallons between two compartments.  

The idea being that you fill up one side while the other is undergoing the composting process.  As you can see, we set it up in a mostly shady spot on the side of the house under the mango tree.  NO decomposition aroma!!  Very happy about that.

To collect the scraps, peelings, leftovers, etc.  we bought the one gallon countertop bucket which you see -- with its replaceable filters, there is absolutely no aroma.  I'm emptying this at least every other day into the composter drum.   To the scraps we add a percentage of  'brown' materials -- leaves (lots of those under the mango) and similar organic waste.   No cat poop or litterbox material though, that stuff is too acidic.

So I got one side about half full to start, then let it begin compositing while I've been adding scraps to the other side.  After about a month or so we got a good bucket of useable garden compost from the side A.  Now that side B is almost full I've emptied the compost from side A and have now started adding to it again, while side B composts over the next few weeks. 

The degree of decomposition is really very good.  Some sticks that should never have been added are still sticks; and one or two eggshells that for some reason didn't break down yet.  The brown round things in my scoop in the photo below are actually a nice large mushrooms.