Of Kale and Baguettes {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

I cooked with kale for the 1st time this week. But don't go thinking I was all health-nutty about it. I cooked it right along with 4 cups of half and half. And some whole milk. And some sausage. But no butter (can you believe it?).

Yes, obviously I had some help from the Pioneer Woman.  She seems to make her way into the menu plan every week, and we are never disappointed. But this meal was of company-impressing caliber.

The delightful soup, somewhere in the simmering process.

Sausage, Potato, and Kale soup...a copy-cat of sorts of The Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup (I think the homemade version is even better!). It's loaded with red potatoes, fresh kale, and Italian sausage in a rich, creamy broth. It's worth eating salad every night for the rest of the week if the fat content makes you feel guilty. My conscience, however, felt quite clean (maybe I'm crazy).

I've found an easy and quick recipe for homemade baguettes, and I've been tweaking it to our liking. So far, for this recipe I've found that you actually need around 5 cups of flour (not 3-4...the dough is way too wet with only that amount) and this time I did a ratio of 3 1/2 cups white flour and 1 1/2 cups wheat flour. It's fabulous to be able to make a yummy yeast bread without having to wait for it to rise. It's healthier than biscuits, but just as fast.

A deceitfully humble-looking meal that will actually knock your socks off.

I'm looking forward to the day when I can grind my own wheat and slowly move my family away from refined white flour. In the meantime, I'd like to try some white whole wheat flour in some of my recipes and see how they turn out. Have you ever used it? What ratio of white to whole wheat flour to you usually use in your recipes?

Also, do you have any yummy kale recipes to share? I know many of you put it in smoothies, but I'd love to hear what else you do with it.

That's all the adventuring I've been up to this week (besides a few things that are in the works). I think it's time to brainstorm some fun adventures for the future and see what I come up with. For now, it's your turn. Link up your blog post below, link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and then leave some sweet comments on some other people's adventuresome posts.

Of Kale and Baguettes {Try New Adventures Thursday!}