Kale

Makes 6 servings 1 tablespoon fresh    lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspooon sugar 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground    pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 4 cups torn kale leaves 2 cups torn Swiss chard leaves 4 teaspoons unsalted pumpkin       seed kernels 1/4 cup sliced green onions 1 ounce shaved fresh pecorino    Romano cheese    (about 1/4 cup) 1. Combine first five ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, collards and kale are excellent sources of carotenoids. These antioxidants are believed to have anti-cancer properties and to reduce the accumulation of arterial plaque. Kale contains an incredible amount of beta-carotene (the best known of the various carotenoids), with almost twice the daily recommended allowance. Cultivated for more than 2,000 years, kale is very low in calories, rich in Vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium and iron.

1 cup fresh bread crumbs 2 cloves garlic, split in half lengthwise 1 teaspoon lemon zest Olive oil Salt 1 pound kale 4 teaspoons lemon juice 1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, ? grated or shaved with a vegetable peeler   1. To toast the bread crumbs, combine them in a small saucepan with the garlic, lemon zest, and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Stir to coat well. There should be only a light trace of oil in the bottom of the pan. Season with a pinch of salt and place over medium-high heat.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it's not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

TECHNICALLY, kale is not a "superfood. " This cabbage-like leaf, rich in cancer-busting antioxidants and crunchy goodness, is in a class by itself, of "Super-Duper-food. " And now a super-duper-fun way to enjoy it is catching on: kale chips. I noticed the kale-chip trend (Ooh, a food trend! Must credit "V for Veg!") when Appetite for Profit author Michele Simon tweeted about making them and got a crush of replies from people, including me, who either had also just done so or wanted to. By the time I'd made my first batch, it seemed everybody was on the kale-chip bandwagon.

Like the once-maligned red beet (currently starring in stylish carpaccios) and, to some extent, the long-neglected parsnip, kale has trudged back from food Siberia - a tough guy, unafraid of the cold, a lion well-suited for winter. It has something of the persona, in fact, of the root vegetable, but upended, its leaves tending toward a certain leathery look (if not chew), in certain varieties as crinkled as a bad perm; in others, as dark and tall as donkey ears. You may have noted in passing that it has also been employed - or appears to have been - as a defensive shield.

If you've been avoiding dark winter greens, assuming them too bitter, too tough, and too hard to digest, you are missing out on some delicious and highly nutritious foods. An old-fashioned, peasant image, and long cooking times, may have shadowed these dark leafy greens in the past, but they are now gracing menus at upscale restaurants all over town. And with good reason - they are among the most nutritious and popular vegetables worldwide. "Greens are not considered an elegant, rich food," said Althea Zanecosky, registered dietitian and regional spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Jack McDavid's Down Home Diner in the Reading Terminal Market serves some of the unfanciest food in town. And some of the best. Things like meatloaf and crabcakes and fried chicken, with such extras as hush puppies, homemade biscuits and red-eye gravy. Those are fairly familiar to most of his customers. But McDavid has been known to persuade a customer to try something even more humble and a lot less mainstream. Like lamb breast, for goodness' sake. And fried kale. McDavid's cooking is so simple it demands fresh ingredients, so he shops daily, sometimes hourly, for what he needs, as he needs it. The lamb breasts, like most of the meats he uses in the diner, are from Martin's Meats, a Terminal Market neighbor.

Mum's definitely the word as Jaime Galaton, 5, and her mom, Eileen, of Mantua, dig up chrysanthemums at Zimmerman Farms in Hurffville. The farm's open for mum and kale diggers until Dec. 1.

Mariah Bey's mom had one concern: Is there a fire extinguisher in that kitchen? I was making minestrone soup with 11-year-old Mariah and four other girls who had signed up for after-school cooking lessons at St. Martin de Porres at 23d and Lehigh in North Philadelphia. I had been doing this with my own daughter, Sally - teaching her to cook as we blogged about it - until she started medical school last fall and abandoned me. Now I needed new students if I was to continue my mission: convincing non-cooks that it's easy to prepare tasty, healthy, inexpensive meals.

Makes 6 servings 1 tablespoon fresh    lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspooon sugar 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground    pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 4 cups torn kale leaves 2 cups torn Swiss chard leaves 4 teaspoons unsalted pumpkin       seed kernels 1/4 cup sliced green onions 1 ounce shaved fresh pecorino    Romano cheese    (about 1/4 cup) 1. Combine first five ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves.

DID YOU know you could save anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a year by growing your own vegetables? They will be fresher and tastier than store-bought, too. And you don't need a huge plot of land; many varieties can be grown in containers. My lovely mother-in-law, who has a green thumb and a wonderful vegetable garden of her own, has agreed to school me on the fine art of home-growing fruits and vegetables. Here are the five I plan to start with: 1. CUCUMBERS A good source of B vitamins.

Mariah Bey's mom had one concern: Is there a fire extinguisher in that kitchen? I was making minestrone soup with 11-year-old Mariah and four other girls who had signed up for after-school cooking lessons at St. Martin de Porres at 23d and Lehigh in North Philadelphia. I had been doing this with my own daughter, Sally - teaching her to cook as we blogged about it - until she started medical school last fall and abandoned me. Now I needed new students if I was to continue my mission: convincing non-cooks that it's easy to prepare tasty, healthy, inexpensive meals.

I was gleefully naughty this holiday season - like Santa, I assumed any unattended Christmas cookie was meant for me, and ate them all. But now it's 2013 and I am full of good intentions. You remember what they say about good intentions. My girlfriend and I wanted to start off on the right foot, so on New Year's Day, before we went to a movie, we decided to get dinner at a popular vegetarian restaurant in the East Village. We took a seat at a tree-stump tabletop and opened a menu with as many folds as a road map, including a back page labeled "glossary.

Hail kale, the super veggie, full of nutrients and brimming with celebrity endorsements Kale is getting hyped by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Seacrest. Turns out there's quite a bit of science behind this leafy green: The cruciferous veggie - which is in the Brassica family, along with broccoli - is a potent source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, fiber, and carotenoids, says registered dietitian and nutritionist Cheryl Harris, of Harris Whole Health in Fairfax, Va. Research has also shown that kale has 45 different flavonoids with a variety of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

HOW'RE THOSE New Year's resolutions going? Back in January, I challenged myself, and you, to double our fruit and vegetable intake by the end of 2012. And as of this month, I pretty much already have. OK, partly that's because my total for fresh fruit has historically been pitiful. But I also had a powerful ally that gave me confidence: a Vitamix high-speed blender. In just a few months, I've had so many fruit and vegetable smoothies that I've already passed my 2011 total.

1 cup fresh bread crumbs 2 cloves garlic, split in half lengthwise 1 teaspoon lemon zest Olive oil Salt 1 pound kale 4 teaspoons lemon juice 1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, ? grated or shaved with a vegetable peeler   1. To toast the bread crumbs, combine them in a small saucepan with the garlic, lemon zest, and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Stir to coat well. There should be only a light trace of oil in the bottom of the pan. Season with a pinch of salt and place over medium-high heat.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it's not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

Growing up in a meat-and-potatoes Midwestern family, my familiarity with greens was limited mainly to lettuce, spinach, and brussels sprouts, and those tiny cabbages became fodder for long-running dinner feuds with my father. Many a night, he'd order me to sit and finish the bitter, mushy, boiled knobs that I despised. Usually, my mother would rescue me by stealthily swiping most of the sprouts off my plate and making me eat only the remaining few. That was before I (or my mother)

Harry Kale, a retired architect, died of Alzheimer's disease at Rydal Park retirement community Monday, Nov. 7, three days before his 91st birthday. After serving in the Army, Mr. Kale earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating magna cum laude in 1950, he was an associate with the architectural firm of Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson in Philadelphia. In 1953, he became a partner with the firm of Eshbach, Glass & Kale in Philadelphia.