I think it was the word “kale” in the title that grabbed my attention. I’d recently added 101 Cookbooks to my Google Reader and while browsing along found Pan-fried Corona Beans and Kale. And suddenly I knew what Tuesday’s dinner would be. We are, after all, still trying to eat the kale in the backyard before the seed potatoes arrive.

Ok, so it wasn’t the recipe from 101 Cookbooks, but the similar one in Heidi’s book, Super Natural Cooking (which I bought on the recommendation of an old school friend and which I’ve admired regularly but hadn’t gotten around to actually using). I used cannellini beans from the pantry and kale from the garden and totally forgot about the recommendations to not forget the nutmeg or the lemon.

I seem to have also forgotten that Caitlyn is currently in a no-bean phase. “I’m just not that in to them,” she says, completely serious. Ian tried to encourage her by talking about how he didn’t like beans as a kid but now thinks they’re great, an anecdote that didn’t impress her and made me worry that this no-bean phase is going to become a no-bean epoch. The adults, on the other hand, thought dinner was wonderful (if unphotographed), a reminder that sometimes great food is made from the simplest preparation of quality ingredients.