Housekeeping: Kale Question, Meme & De-lurk Day

I am in the middle of trying to re-create a sesame-kale salad served up at one of my favorite local breakfast/brunch/lunch spots. To start, I really haven’t the faintest idea of the best method for cooking the kale for a recipe like this: steam it over boiling water, or steam it right in a shallow pool of liquid, or saute it in a glug of olive oil? I’ve tried a couple variations and I’m having a hard time getting it just right—the kale comes out too wilted, too strongly flavored, lacking punch, and the list of complaints goes on. To top things off, it seems that kale is exceedingly difficult to photograph once it’s been cooked, if, you know, qualities like “appetizing” are among those you seek in your food shots. Raw kale, however, is a different story; beautiful and photo-friendly:

Given this series of setbacks, I’ve decided it’s time to take a hiatus from trying to recreate this salad and, even better, from trying to photograph it. Instead, I’ll turn to photos past and, in the process, check an item off my blog to-do list (one that’s been languishing for some time). I was tagged by Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake a (very long) while back for the Ten Favorite Food Photos meme, which requests that the person tagged select—you guessed it—her favorite 10 food photos that she has taken. How fun is that meme? Much more fun than soggy kale, I’m quite sure. So here they are, in no particular order, my Ten Favorite Food Photos (after the jump).

(Click “more” for the 10 photos and the rest of the story.)

[Note: click on the photo for the original post/recipe.]

Pesto BLTs:

Roasted Vegetable Panzanella:

Chocolate-Glazed Devilish Angel Food Cake:

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers:

Meyer Lemon Swirled Cheesecake:

Lemon-Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes:

TKOs (Thomas Keller Oreos):

Coq au Vin:

Fresh Ravioli:

Granola:

The meme instructs me to tag five food bloggers whose photos I admire. And I want to stick to bloggers I haven’t tagged for past memes. I’m tagging: Nicole of Cucina Nicolina; Jen of Use Real Butter; Caroline of Whipped; Mia of Red Ramekin; and Amy of Eggs on Sunday.

While we’re on the topic of favorites, and as we all eagerly await these ladies’ collections of food photos, tell me, readers: having you been cooking any recipes from this site? If so, which ones are your favorites? I know there are a lot of you out there, hesitant to comment—so here’s your chance. I’ve run into or heard through the grapevine about a handful of people just this week who were reading and cooking from this site on a regular basis—and I had no idea. It’s such a fun thing to hear about, so please do share!

Also, any tips on the kale salad? I fell in love with chard last winter, but I’m still a bit of a kale newbie. If you’ve got expertise to convey, I’ll gladly take it!