Keeley's Kale and Potato Frittata

Keeley's Kale and Potato Frittata

A frittata can be described as an Italian omelette. But, there's no folding involved so it's totally easy to make. Take some eggs, some meat and/or veg and some cheese, and you've got the makings for a frittata. Hey, you may have even made one already without knowing what it was. Frittata is a delicious way to start the day, to feature at brunch, or to make a quick supper when you're really busy and really hungry.

This particular frittata is the creation of my daughter Keeley. Basically, she took what we had on hand to make this. You can easily do the same. You can add some cooked meats (ham or spicy sausage are tasty in frittatas), switch out the kale and potato for some spinach or broccoli or peppers or whatever other veggie bits you might have to use in the refrigerator, and use your favourite cheese in place of the cheddar.

Keeley’s Kale and Potato Frittata

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp garlic, minced

1 medium white onion, chopped

1 cup potatoes, cooked and cubed

1 bunch (about 2-3 cups) kale, washed, dried and chopped

8 eggs, lightly beaten

1 to 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Kale pile-up

In a large frying pan on medium heat, add olive oil, garlic and onion. Sauté until onions are softened.

Add potatoes and fry until they are warmed through. If you are using meat, add it now and cook until it also warmed through.

Add kale and sauté, stirring frequently, until it’s wilted.

Adding the eggs

Pour eggs over the vegetable mixture and stir to combine ingredients. Cover pan and let cook until eggs are almost done. You may want to lift the lid and give the eggs a stir once or twice while they are cooking. It’s not a must do, but will get things cooking a little faster and depending on your pan, it may prevent sticking.

When the eggs are almost cooked through, sprinkle on the cheese. Cover again for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve at once.

Makes 4 hearty servings.

Printable Recipe for Keeley's Kale and Potato Frittata

Keeley's Super Easy Dips

Bob's Mango Avocado Salsa - ready to stir and serve

Keeley's Four-Ingredient Guacamole - scoop and enjoy

You’ve met my daughter Keeley in my kitchen on previous occasions (she made Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Dog Cookies). On a recent visit with the parental unit, she treated us to these quick and simple dips. Both were delicious.

The first she calls Bob’s Mango Avocado Salsa. Bob is a student in the Foods Class at the high school where Keeley teaches. The Foods Class held an Iron Chef competition and Keeley was asked to be one of judges. This salsa was one of Keeley’s favourite entries that day. And when you try it, you’ll know why. It’s so good.

The second dip is a Four-Ingredient Guacamole. Again, very easy to put together. Keeley tells me she didn’t think she liked guacamole or even avocados until tasting some guacamole earlier this year. Now she’s a fan. Just shows how our tastes and appreciation of different foods change over time. Every now and then, it’s good to try a food you’ve previously steered away from; you might be surprised.

Cuban Oregano

Keeley brought most of the ingredients with her and thought she would find the rest in mom’s pantry. Alas, I did not have the sriracha sauce or cilantro she needed. Keeley substituted a Mexican picante chili sauce for the sriracha in the guacamole. In place of the cilantro, she used Cuban oregano, which was handily growing in my kitchen. Not truly an Origanum, Cuban oregano’s Latin name is coleus amboinicus. It is used as a culinary herb in Latin America. I got my first cuttings of it years ago at course put on by Dave Hanson of Sage Garden Herbs. The soft, succulent leaves of the Cuban oregano plant have a sweet, spicy aroma and were just the right addition to the Mango Avocado Salsa. I am so proud of the way my daughters can so easily make substitutions in, tweak and create recipes. (Hey, they're better at it than Mom, but they probably already know that, too.)

Bob’s Mango Avocado Salsa

Mango prep for salsa

3 mangoes, peeled, pitted and diced

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp cilantro or Cuban oregano, minced

Mix all ingredients together.

Serve at once with tortilla chips or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

This salsa can also be served as an accompaniment to grilled fish.

Printable Recipe for Bob's Mango Avocado Salsa

Keeley’s Four-Ingredient Guacamole

Avocado prep for guacamole

2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and mashed

1 tomato, seeded and diced

Juice of ½ lime

3 to 4 tbsp Sriracha sauce or other hot pepper sauce

Mix all ingredients together.

Serve at once with tortilla chips or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Printable Recipe for Keeley's Four-Ingredient Guacamole

Allie: Can I help?

Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies from Keeley in the Kitchen

Up close with Keeley's Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies

I mentioned that my daughter Keeley and I spent a lot of time together in the kitchen during spring break. After making the cookies for the dogs, we made these chocolate pretzel chip cookies for the humans. (To be perfectly honest, Keeley made the cookies and I took photos.)

This recipe is based on a chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Our Favourite Recipes Cookbook put together by St. Mary’s Academy Mother’s Guild in 1984. (St. Mary’s Academy is a Catholic girls school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Both our daughters were students there for a time.) It’s a good basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies (daughter Darcy says it’s the best) and we’ve adapted it here to make room for Keeley’s idea: adding chocolate-covered pretzels. And a good idea it is!

Without further delay, here’s the recipe. FYI – these won’t last long!

Keeley’s Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Lightly grease cookie sheets.

Getting ready to make cookies

1 cup softened butter, unsalted preferred

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

2 ½ cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cutting pretzels into pieces

1 cup chocolate-covered pretzels, cut into pieces

In a large bowl or the bowl of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

Add vanilla and eggs to butter/sugar mixture and beat until combined.

Sift together the flour, salt and soda. Add to the batter and blend all ingredients well.

Fold in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.

Drop by spoonfuls

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. You can strategically place a piece of pretzel on top of each cookie at this point.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Printable Recipe for Keeley's Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies

These disappeared quickly!

Pumpkin Dog Cookies from Keeley in the Kitchen

Stashu enjoys a pumpkin dog cookie

Spring break brought some special visitors to our house: my daughter Keeley, her husband Arthur and their dogs Fletcher and Allie. It’s always a pleasure to welcome them and I enjoyed having Keeley’s company in the kitchen.

Keeley in the kitchen

Among the many things we cooked together were these pumpkin cookies for the dogs. Most dog owners will be familiar with the wonders of pumpkin in remedying canine constipation as well as canine diarrhea. Explaining this apparent paradox is well beyond my knowledge base although I think it’s safe to say that pumpkin is generally a good thing for doggy digestion. (Also, if either of these ailments is a serious or long-term problem for your pet, promise me you’ll get him or her to the vet pronto.)

Making your own pet treats is a great idea, of course, because you get to control what’s in them. It’s not something I do for my dog Stashu on a regular basis, so for him it’s a nice change from a store-bought biscuit. He really enjoyed these pumpkin cookies, as did Fletcher and Allie.

Keeley found this recipe on Pinterest and we tweaked it just a bit: doubling the amount and finding the right measure of canned pumpkin to make the dough stiff but pliable. (If you are not familiar with pinterest.com, consider this your introduction and be warned that you may find it mildly addictive.)

Fletcher likes his pumpkin treat

You can cut the cookies into whatever shape you like, even scoring the dough into squares will work, or dig out those bone-shaped cookie cutters. I don’t seem to have any of those since I purged my cutter collection, so we went with rounds and the dogs didn’t mind a bit.

We hope you will try making this recipe for your furry companions. Send me a photo of your pet enjoying his or her pumpkin cookies and I’ll share it here on the blog.

Keeley’s Pumpkin Dog Cookies

 Preheat oven to 350º F.

 Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.

Ingredients for pumpkin dog cookies

4 eggs

1 ½ cup pumpkin puree

4 tbsp skim milk powder

½ tsp sea salt

2 tsp dried parsley

5 cups rice flour

Mixing in the ingredients

In a large bowl or the bowl of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, beat together eggs and pumpkin.

Stir in the milk powder, salt and parsley until well mixed.

Gradually add rice flour – about a cup at a time – and mix until all the ingredients are well blended. The dough will be quite stiff, but if it is unmixable, add a little more pumpkin puree or water so that everything combines well. It will be like a shortbread dough looking a little dried out and cracking here and there.

Rolling the dough on a sunny afternoon

Roll the dough to about ½-inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before storing (or sharing with your pets).

Makes approximately 4 ½ dozen 1 ½” rounds and 2 ½ dozen 2” rounds.

Printable Recipe for Keeley's Pumpkin Dog Cookies

Who's a good boy?