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