dark days challenge

Sometimes standing in the kitchen is an aha moment.

I had worked all day and then led a winter Nordic walk with 15 walkers at Centennial Lakes this evening.  I was very hungry when I got home.  I was glad that I had  planned ahead and browned some Thousand Acre Ground beef to make tacos for dinner.

Dan called to say he was going to watch the last Ski Challenge Race night with the Hoigaard’s Team, he couldn’t race this year becuz of his broken hip, but he wanted to have a beer to celebrate the end of the season. I came home to an empty house and an empty stomach.

I put a locally made tortilla shell in the pan, layered some fresh Wisconsin Cheese on it to melt, and heated the local beef already cooked. I took out MN Dairy sour cream, my sister’s homemade salsa, hothouse lettuce and aha I had a local dinner with all the ingredients in the pan. 

(The only exception was the Ortega taco seasoning I used)

I was up in Grand Marais MN the first part of the week.  Coming back I actually had a couple of days off, imagine that. I got so caught up in getting caught up that I almost missed making my local meal. The good news, there was pig in the freezer and still a few brussel sprouts in the frig. I’ve been reading about everyone cooking those little green treats in bacon so had to do it myself. I must admit that it’s a bit over board to do both pork chops and bacon in the same meal but it was delicious.Our local meal: pork chops with fresh garlic on the grill, brussel sprouts with done in the oven with bacon, sliced MN apples and sourdough bread from the local coop. On a side note it’s one of the heaviest sourdough’s in the area, taste’s so much like my mom used to make. She always had starter going on the counter for something. Maybe I’ll have to get one going, I’m getting hungry for sourdough pancakes.  Anyone know where to get a good starter?