A feast for humans and vermin!

Today was a most special impromptu lunch. Jeff was working from home and Douwe was on an overnight visit at Grandma and Grandpa's, and I mentioned at breakfast that I didn't really have anything in the house and I had to make sure to eat a healthy lunch before giving blood this afternoon, so we planned to run somewhere at get food.

At 8:30 I went to the gym to try an aerobics class that I'd never tried before called Latin Impact. I called to ask and they said it was an aerobics class that used Latin dance steps. I've been missing out, because this was the best class I've tried yet. It was proof that humans would healthier and better off if they danced regularly. I have never had such a fun or sweaty workout and the hour was up too soon. I was down with the foot work, but getting my shoulders, arms, and pelvis in sync like the other ladies will take quite a few more Friday mornings. So when I got home I set the tv music station to some Latin music so I could clean the kitchen, cha cha cha, scrub the sink, cha cha cha. As I was cleaning, I realized I did have several items of produce left over from a few Mexican meals we did last week.

By 11:00 I was on a roll, told our friend Bill to come over with his leftover condiments from our burger bar the other night, and at noon we sat down to the best lunch ever. I decided to photodocument this one to show off a bit and celebrate what has come from 7 years of habit and practice and enjoyment of chopping at this kitchen window.


Our garden is slow growing with all the rain, except for the red chard and rainbow chard which loves the cool weather and moisture I guess. This photo is after the second harvest of these two plants, I get about 20-30 good sized leaves each time, enough for a taco meal.


I found this taco recipe in our Rick Bayless cookbook after looking in the index under chard. We tried it last week for a few friends and I had just enough leftover potatoes, cheese, tortillas and onion to do it again with a little variation.



I also had leftover ingredients to throw together my favorite salsa: mango/red pepper salsa.



Bill had leftover tomatoes and avacadoes, so hello guacamole.


The tortillas get soft and hot in the veggie basket of my rice steamer.



Opened a can of refried beans and tomatillo salsa, and we had our feast.



Look at that taco! No meat but you wouldn't miss it.



And we aren't the only ones who get to feast from this meal. When I am prepping produce it all gets scraped to the side like this.



In my little closet area in the kitchen is a scrap pail that keeps food scraps and odors in.




When that pail gets full, it gets dumped in my little worm compost bin that is called a worm condo. It has three levels and hosts special worms that turn food scraps into a soil amendment that is worth its weight in gold. The green bucket is called worm tea and the plants get to drink it.


Rick Bayless would be proud!

There's an article in today's Chicago Tribune and July's Chicago magazine about "food deserts". Consumers who cook with fresh ingredients and minimally processed foods will help stop the further spread of these deserts by keeping up a market for fresh produce (no store wants to stock perishables if the customers aren't loading up their carts in the produce section, it cuts into the profit margins to throw it all away!):

This meal gave us nutrition from the following fresh ingredients:
3 mangos
1 red pepper
1 shallot
1 bunch cilantro
1 white onion
2 red potatoes
20 chard leaves
3 avacadoes
2 tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
3 limes

other: can beans, can salsa, block of queso fresco, regionally made corn tortillas and chips, salt,

Most of the ingredients came from our local Supermercado: Pete's Fresh foods by the South Shore Station on Hohman, and since they have a clientele that purchases mostly fresh produce and meat, the prices and quality for this kind of meal provides a better value than our supermarkets around here. (Although the supermarkets do give us a choice among 30 flavors of non-fat non-dairy coffee creamer.)

Some Illiana alumni are on a speaking tour on this topic, to help CRC church members think about their kitchens and yards as intentional places to practice Christianity.

I also get excited about Chef's Collaborative (chefscollaborative.org), who helps us get to the restaurants where chefs are doing what we just don't have time to do on a normal day with jobs, kids, and e-mail: get the fresh local food and make a menu that uses it. A few of my favorite Chicago restaurants are members of this: North Pond Cafe and Frontera Grill

Annunciation

My household growing up was not very tapped into the world of sports, as my parents weren't ardent fans of any sports teams, and it is hard to enjoy professional ballgames when there is no tv in the house. I did become a bit of a Cubs fan though at a young age, maybe 8 or 9?, when my dad took me to a Cubs game one summer. My mom packed snacks and she froze some orange juice in a juice concentrate can with a replaceable lid so that I could drink it as it melted on the hot day. I'm sure we did buy a hot-dog or something at the park, we weren't that cheap! I remember the crowd chanting "Jody, Jody," when he came up to bat and so I decided Jody Davis was my favorite player, partly because he was the only player whose name I remember learning that day. I think Ryne Sandberg was also playing for the Cubs at that time, and I know I liked some other player because he was left-handed like me. Was it Leon Durham?

I did know who Harry Caray was, mainly because in the summer when we'd drive anywhere or if I was playing outside at someone's house, there would most likely be the noise of WGN radio in the background with Caray announcing a game for the Cubs. I didn't realize at the time that Harry Caray was famous for his style of announcing, I just thought that is how announcers all were. He'd get really excited about home runs, always throw in a few promotional comments for Budweiser, tell many side stories (here's a funny impersonation of him by John Campanera)sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in his own way and say Holy Cow a lot.

I just found a quote that is attributed to Caray: "My whole philosophy is to broadcast the way a fan would broadcast." From the little that I just read about his biography, it seems that that philosophy was not always welcome at other jobs he had announcing baseball games, but that his style of announcing went over well with Chicago baseball fans, first White Sox, then Cubs.

One of his most famous lines was when he was calling a home run: "It Might Be, It could be, it is! Holy Cow, a home run!" How could you not get excited when hearing that kind of announcing, even if you were only listening by radio while sweeping out the garage?

Here's part of the Merriam-Webster definition for the word broadcast:

Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): broadcast also broad·cast·ed; broad·cast·ing
Date: 1813
transitive verb
1 : to scatter or sow (as seed) over a broad area
2 : to make widely known
3 : to transmit or make public by means of radio or television

I never really thought of the gardening meaning of broadcast until I read the directions of one of the seed packets (peas) I purchased this year for my vegetable garden. It said: "broadcast the seed in a 1-3' wide bed."

Here's another merriam-webster.com definition that is relevant to where I'm going with all these middle of the night ruminations:

an·nounce
transitive verb
1: to make known publicly : proclaim
2 a: to give notice of the arrival, presence, or readiness of b: to indicate beforehand : foretell
3: to serve as an announcer of

I am sensing so much anxiety among people I "do church" with. How do we save souls, how do we help the broken communities, how do we balance the budget, how do we keep the visitors coming back, how do we interest the kids? I think if we lift our eyes up to the bleachers we will find our help. What if we could learn from Harry Caray how to do our job as announcers of the good news of the resurrection? We don't have to be the professional athletes and win the game for the world. We don't have to be selling the hot dogs and beer, we don't have to be the managers worrying about how this franchise will keep afloat or how we'll keep our jobs after yet another losing season. We just have to call the home-runs with the anticipation, exuberance and confidence of an announcer who broadcasts the way a fan would broadcast.

One of the reasons I appreciate The Message paraphrase of the Bible that is written by Eugene Peterson is because the language style carries the exuberance of someone who is noticing, enjoying and proclaiming what God is doing in this world. It is similar to the language style of an announcer who is working hardest and doing his job best when enjoying a few cold beers, telling some stories, singing the same ol' song every 7th inning, and broadcasting with a contagious confidence that even during the apparent losing streaks, the fans will keep showing up, and they'll never stop loving this game, and never get sick of hearing him remark "Holy Cow!" with delight at what he can see happening on the field.

Close your eyes and envision a hot summer day at Wrigley Field in 1984, the crowd, the noises, the singing, and way up there is Harry Caray up in his booth announcing the game for everyone who can't see the action with their own eyes. When you have that picture vivid in your head, read this:

Isaiah 52:7-10 (The Message)

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all's well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
"God has comforted his people!
He's redeemed Jerusalem!"
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.

"It Might Be, It Could Be, It Is! Holy Cow!"

Week of the Groens

This week we are having a visit from Jeff's sister Kim and her two kids so Douwe has been getting a lot of time with his older cousins and the whole Groen family. We also have picked up Steve to join us for a few days and Douwe has been thrilled with all the attention from these older kids. Mike and Jackie came in from Milwaukee to spend a few days here also, and we'll all go up for a short visit to Milwaukee for the final days of Kim's visit.


Douwe looks for the frog in Grandpa's pond, so he can show his cousins.


Steve, Charlie and Chloe at the cirque Shanghai


Riding the Thomas tank engine train on Navy Pier


Firing up the grill for our patio dinner for the Groens


Getting ready to enjoy a delicious meal.


Lounging after breakfast in Mom and Dad Groen's back yard.

Asparagus

So last August for my birthday my husband bought me the book Home Grown Indiana, which calls itself the must-have guide to the foremost local food sources in the state.

After reading Animal Vegetable Miracle a few years ago and being inspired to pay more attention to when particular crops are in season, I knew that someday I would have a binge on asparagus in late May. I don't have my own asparagus patch, but my Home Grown Indiana book had an entry for Kohlagen Asparagus Farm, which is very close to the new somewhat local attraction called Fair Oaks Farm.

Last Saturday, Douwe and I, along with Grandpa Groen hopped in the car to drive the 40 miles to visit the farm. It was an adventure. I got to walk out to the field and see the asparagus "patch" pick a few stalks and learn a few fascinating tidbits like on hot days, the stalks grow so fast they do two pickings a day.

I bought a 20 pound bag. (Handed out most of it to some friends and neighbors.)

These asparagus were nothing like you buy in the store, except for looks. No woody stringy parts that you have to cook for 30 minutes to make it edible.

The best way to eat these are: Drizzle with olive oil and throw on the grill (perpendicular to the grate) for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with some kosher or sea salt. No need for cheese sauce or anything, the vegetables stand alone just fine.

I ate them that way on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday I put them in a Asian Chicken Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce.

And on Wednesday I made a double batch of Cream of Asparagus soup. Mmmm. It looks a bit strange in its soft green hues, but delicious!

(Someone told me in the past few weeks I can't remember who, that eating asparagus makes you sting when you urinate. I didn't notice that, but there is definitely a noticeable smell of grass to the urine for a few days.)

Backyard: Before and After

Well it is only the end of May and our remodeled backyard is pretty much ready for enjoyment! All of the credit goes to Brian of Forest landscaping who did the patio and shrubs and trees, and Jeff's dad who helped clear away the former vegetation and built the window box for the garage and the series of raised garden beds. He also repainted our garage last summer. Our yard seems so much bigger now.