Welcome to the weekly recap! A lite Sunday read about my life and food. This email is free and if you are not currently receiving them in your inbox, click that subscribe button.
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This week I spent a lot of time thinking about society’s epically screwed up relationship with food. It started with a little leg of lamb I purchased from Schenker Farms last Saturday at the OP farmers market. On Tuesday I rubbed the leg of lamb all over with garlic, rosemary, Dijon, salt, and pepper and roasted it. A simple preparation. The meat was cut off the bone and served with asparagus and smashed potatoes. This was a nice treat on a regular weekday. On Wednesday I took leftover meat and used it in salads for lunch, also quite tasty. Early that morning I had placed the leg bone in a pot along with two bags of random lamb bones I had been saving in the freezer and made a large batch of lamb broth. Then in the afternoon I strained the broth, froze half, and used the other half to make a pot of Mayocoba beans for dinner. The petite 3.5-pound leg of lamb had many lives in my home. More lives than it would have had in most homes.
I repeated a similar process on Thursday with a pork shoulder from Odd Bird Farms. The bone was removed and frozen to use later in beans or soup, the meat was grilled for dinner and lunch the next day, leftovers were used in two days of breakfast, and the fat was rendered because I’ll find some use for lard in the future. I feel good when I don’t waste any part of the animal but unfortunately, a lot of food gets wasted in our country.
We watched Seaspiracy recently, have you heard of it? It’s getting people talking about our oceans, the fishing industry, globalization, and the seafood we eat. While Marco and I are still trying to figure out or plan to eat seafood sustainably, and not give it up completely, we are making the easy shift to sustainable meat and poultry. It’s something we have always talked about but only sometimes practiced. We are products of America, we want things now with unlimited supply and we want them cheap! Ugh. To make the shift to eating meat and poultry from local farms around us means we have to eat slightly less to stay on budget. Something that isn’t a problem for us but is something I’m aware of while shopping and preparing our meals. So while taking the leg of lamb through multiple cooking processes, I felt like we definitely got our money’s worth but I also felt like I honored that lamb and the farm it came from. The whole process wasn’t pretty. I’m not always thrilled at dealing with juices and cutting flesh from bones but I do feel strongly that if you are not willing to do that…you shouldn’t be eating meat. We disassociate ourselves with where our food comes from in this country. Our grocery stores are filled with rows of processed meat in any boneless skinless cut we desire so we can take it home and do as little work as possible to feed ourselves. Even worse are items like dino nuggets that kids grow up eating. That’s the furthest you can be from an actual chicken. What’s that teaching our kids? Hey, I’m guilty of throwing back a handful of dino nuggets while babysitting too. They are scientifically made to taste good!!
Anyways, I don’t have solutions to these big big problems with our food system but I can tell you our meals this week were better all around. I felt good about our reduced carbon footprint, I felt more connected to the ingredients I was preparing, I honored the animals by using every part, and the obvious is that it tasted better.
*Coincidentally I wrote this intro on Earth day, how fitting. Afterward, I went outside and said hello to the produce growing in my garden. It may be the hippie in me but I swear they can feel the love you give them. 🌎
Two other favorites from the farmers market last week: Yoli Tortilleria’s limited batches are back! We grabbed some Chili Colorado ones and have been eating them all week. How cute is Flatlanders Flower Truck?!
Stuff to Read
You Deserve More Than What ‘Seaspiracy’ Has To Offer *If you watched, read this!
TikTok Is Fueling This Immense Night Market in Lincoln Heights
Recipe Inspo
Listen To This
Places I ate
Funny timing to talk about meat…After two long days of painting our guest bedroom, we treated ourselves to Q39 and had a picnic outside the Nelson. Q39 was the first BBQ place we tried when visiting Kansas City and still our favorite.
We popped into Mike’s to grab something to drink on our picnic. I 100% picked this sour beer from Prairie Artisan Ales because of the design but it did not disappoint.
Thing Everybody Needs
Kitchen Club members get your 8x8 pans ready! I don’t know how I didn’t have a square pan until this past week. Now I have two. Glass isn’t cutting it anymore, you need a metal pan!
Animal Cuteness
Ollie loves plastic.
Big thank you to everyone that signed up for The Kitchen Club! I’m feelin the love and support and I can’t wait!
See you next week, M.