This winter is killing me. Any temperature above 20 degrees feels downright balmy. I can't wait for spring. On the upside, I'm get to be more creative with winter produce (kale! root vegetables!) and I am becoming a serious sprout fiend. I usually make popovers that we enjoy with butter and jam, but the savory popover is so good. I expect to do more experimentation in the future. Roasted Kale Parmesan Popovers 1 bunch kale 1-2 tbs lemon juice 2 tbs olive oil 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups milk 3 large eggs 1 tsp kosher salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 cup parmesan cheese 1/4 cup ricotta cheese Butter or oil for muffin tin Preheat oven to 400 degrees Remove the stem from the kale and roughly chop the leaves. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a cookie sheet for about 10 mins until wilted and softened, but not charred.

Place the kale in a large bowl (if you have an immersion blender) or blender. and turn the oven up to 450 degrees. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the cheeses and butter or oil for the muffin tin) and blend for a good 30 seconds. You really want to chop up the kale and get the batter frothy (one of the secrets to a popped popover). Lastly, stir in the cheeses.

Grease your muffin tin and put it in the preheated oven. Let it preheat for about 5 minutes. The other secret to a good popover is preheating the muffin tin. So, heat it until it is smoking (really). Remove it from the oven and fill each tin with batter. I divided the batter evenly and got each tin about 3/4 full.

Bake for 15 minutes and serve with butter and soup for a cozy winter meal that makes you not even mind the sub-zero temperatures.

This time it's for real

This is fun! I keep promising myself and my zero readers that I will blog and I never do! But seriously, this time I'm going to blog. I think I have something to say and things to explore with the help of others. I think what I want to explore is cooking and loving my home state of Iowa. So let's forage and cook and figure out fun ways to be thrifty and creative (because otherwise I'm going to spend my time online filling up shopping carts and abandoning them).