Cook: Kale Salad Bowls

Last night a neighbor threw an impromptu birthday party for a couple who celebrate both their birthdays in consecutive weekends, and I decided to use up the rest of the glass noodles to make another Vietnamese bowl but with the addition of Asian pork meatballs. While walking Sadie, I cut mint and basil and remembered to pickle more daikon radish and carrots.                    

For the meatballs, I ground garlic with lemongrass and ginger and white pepper.

I had also added a teaspoon of cornstarch and baking powder to give the meatballs a soft texture, but I needed to have ground the pork finely in my Vitamix blender before frying. Oh well I’ll try again some other time, but there are only 3 meatballs left and so at least they were delicious. I still had the components for a Vietnamese dish to feed a crowd of five with some leftover to add shrimp and lettuce for lunch.         

And it had been a gorgeous California day for harvesting from the garden and then putting together a birthday bouquet and a floral arrangement for my living room.        

I’m wondering if I should pickle these jalapeños.

My birthday present to the couple. And a trio of dahlias for the kitchen or living room. I took a bunch of basil from Jen’s plot. And early that Saturday morning I put together kale salads.                      

While surveying and cleaning out the fridge I found the remains of a balsamic vinaigrette and jars of red cabbage Curtido. That’s one salad to which I can add beets, walnuts and goat cheese.              

I had also found the remains of pickled daikon radish and carrots from all my banh mi making as well as a little bit of miso dressing for the rest of the kale greens. I will probably add leftover Vietnamese glass noodles and shrimp or teriyaki tofu to this lunch bowl. Oh and I also used up the rest of three flour tortillas to make carnitas and cheese burritos. Lunch done!