Thanks for the many sweet comments yesterday. I love that I can put a thought out there and you read it and then – like magic – a few of your write back. So cool.

My kitchen was wildly busy yesterday. I had a box of produce from a friend, my CSA share, and some harvests of my own.

Here's what happened around my cutting board in just a few short hours:

Kale chips. One word: Yum.They don't photograph well, and we ate half of the bowl before I thought to pick up my camera, but yum, yum, yum. Recipes abound online. I used a ton of kale, a splash of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt. Toss well, spread out in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and bake at 300 for 20 minutes or so. Watch them. My stainless steel trays were great but the batch I put on an aluminum tray (in an effort to bake them all in one round) burned.

Zukes: grated and frozen for future baked goods and soups.

(More) kale plus chard: Stemmed, blanched, chopped, and frozen. Winter greens for skillet dinner, soups, and baked dishes.

Live fermented dilly beans and cukes: I can hardly wait to dip into these in the coming days. I posted a recipe for the dilly beans here. You an use it for any vegetable worth fermenting. Beets, cukes, garlic, cabbage, carrots… you get the idea.

Pesto: Lots and lots of pesto. I freeze it in ice cube trays, pop out the cubes, and store in a jar or zip bag. There is something so delightful about pesto in January.

And of course, peanut butter cookies: (This was Lupine's addition to our day.) Not exactly seasonal fare, but it doesn't take much to convince me to make these.

And today in the kitchen? We'll be making another batch of toothpaste and some homemade deodorant. Not edible, but definitely on the necessary list around here.