13 Reasons to Put Kale On Your Grocery List

Ya'll are so much fun, and I savor a light-hearted approach no matter what space I occupy. How my Mom prepared 3 square-from-scratch meals a day (without a dishwasher) for 7 hunger-crazed people-- my family -- I'll never quite grasp. But she did it with ease, she didn't drive and relied on her choices from our weekly A&P haul coupled with the walking distance butcher, never followed a written recipe, and had a repertoire that attracted extended family members to our dinner table as though it were a magnet. Like my Mother, cooking is a ritual for me. Foods marry. Good olive oil typically finds its way into most everything excepting pancakes and the 70+ year old coffee cake recipe we actually followed from the tiny recipe leaflet that came with her trusty Sunbeam mixmaster. We ate well. I absorbed the shock on my girlfriends' faces when after a quick break from kickball or potsy I'd return holding a broccoli stalk that I think now my Mother probably purposely fashioned to mimic an ice cream cone. Carrots. Celery stalks. All her idea of a treat during a time when factories were mass-producing sugary confections with endless shapes and colors. But anyway, thanks Food52 for triggering these happy food-loving memories. -- Joanna