Adventures in cooking?

I've been off the cooking wagon for quite some time, so I decided to ease myself back by making something super simple: a salad. I know, does that even count as cooking? Not necessarily, but when you see the army of ingredients you might think differently. Lettuce begin, shall we?

So I've been following this new food blog and have seen a lot of recipes I'd like to try. Everything from salmon to crockpot meals to pork tenderloin to kale salad. Yeah, kale. It's the sexy new "superfood" I say "new" because it's just started receiving high praise but in a few years they'll probably tell us how bad kale is for us. Anyways, the blog said that the salad and dressing kept well and I thought that I'd give it a try and it wouldn't hurt to have some greenery in my life. Plus, I needed more items in my fridge other than a bottle of red wine and a 5 pound bag of gummy bears.

Now the recipe calls for "curly kale" (not black or tuscan), green cabbage, cilantro leaves, mint chiffonade. I find organic kale but not curly. Can't find cabbage. No idea what mint chiffonade is (just fancy mint?) Panic attack starts. Settle for pre-bagged kale salad. Crisis averted.

Check recipe for additional ingredients I need which include: peanut oil, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, dry mustard, honey, garlic powder, worsch sauce and on and on. Scour grocery store in search of ingredients. Too proud to ask where certain ones are (I consider this my cardio). Settle for 9 of 10 ingredients and pray that substitutions work at home.

So, when all is said and done, I give you...the ingredients!

Even though the kale is already pre-washed and pre-cut, I chop it up a bit more. My thought process is that this will be better if it's "chopped salad" style. Peanuts and parmesan cheese are added. Halfway done!

Dressing gets started. I have to pull out the big boy blender for this one, folks. I don't take any pictures in fear of losing a limb. BUT! This is the final product.

Why yes, Pringles ARE in fact part of a well-balanced meal!

 I sit back, proud of my accomplishment. I have homemade dressing that can feed me and 12 of my closest friends for at least 2 dinner parties. I spend 30 minutes cleaning the kitchen, only to discover that the pre-bagged kale included a similar dressing, already prepped, bagged and ready to go.

DOH.