Baked Kale and mushrooms in Balsamic Glaze

My kale obsession continues.

This recipe was inspired by a lovely group of "dharma potluckers" I hung out with a few nights ago. I made them baked kale spiced with whatever I could find in my friends kitchen.They gobbled it up so quickly, that I couldn't help but wonder what other awesome variations on this standard recipe I could come up with.

Baked Kale and Mushrooms in Balsamic Glaze
Musical Accompaniment:  Trampled By Turtles, Duluth (love them).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Mix together 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a splash of olive oil, garlic salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Set aside.

Wash, dry and coarsely chop kale (I just pull it directly off the stem in little handfulls)
Toss in olive oil until evenly coated
Put in oven for 5 minutes

As the kale is baking, chop some baby bella mushrooms
Sautee them in a pan on medium heat with olive oil, garlic salt, balsamic vinegar and sugar for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked.

Combine kale and mushrooms by carefully picking the mushrooms out of the balsamic vinegar glaze and placing them on the baking dish.  Try to avoid putting any liquid from the mushrooms onto the kale (it will take longer to get crispy). Keep the glaze for later

Put kale and mushrooms back in oven for another 8 minutes, or until the kale is bright green and crispy around the edges.

Drizzle the remaining amount of balsamic vinegar over the kale and mushrooms and serve.

This makes a light and crispy side dish, or serve over pasta for a yummy summer pasta entree.