By Monday evening, I had already managed to get sunburned. It's a
really unfortunate sunburn on the back of my thighs and my upper back, so it
makes sitting and laying down very uncomfortable. By some miracle, I'm not sunburned
down the middle of my back. My sides? Yes. Center of the back where I can't
actually reach? Nope. The thing I really don't understand is how I always get
sunburned despite reapplying sunscreen repeatedly. I also want to know how my
parents are so much tanner than I am. I mean, I am the product of them, so
shouldn't my skin tone be at least the same as one of theirs, if not somewhere
in between? Ah, genetics... how I don't fully understand you. Yes, I spend a
significant amount of time hiding from the sun at work, whereas my mom takes the
puppies for walks and plays tennis on the weekends. But even during winter she
seems to have more color to her. And my dad? He's just naturally more tan. He's
like me and spends an exorbitant amount of daylight hours locked inside an
office building and yet, if you take a photo of him and me, you see my white skin
boldly declaring my paleness!
Monday night dinner was burgers that my mom had brought. My dad chose
to have his with bread, but my mom and I stuck with the Paleo version. I served mine
on a bed of romaine hearts and is topped (from bottom up) with tomato,
cucumbers, roasted onions, orange bell peppers, mushrooms, and Spicy Kale
Chips (recipe below). These kale chips gave the burger a real kick. I also topped the burger
with some spicy Dijon mustard just because.
Spicy Kale Chips
1 bunch kale chips
2 tbls olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Rip the kale into small one-inch
pieces. Place into a gallon size Ziploc bag with the other ingredients and toss
to coat evenly. Spread onto greased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes,
stirring halfway through to make sure that the kale chips don't stick to the
baking sheet.
