Hoot! This one was a real corker! Aside from discovering that you CAN most definitely cook the stems of kale and chard, I added some minced ginger to swiss chard, kale, yellow squash, cremini mushrooms, onions and a goodly sum of garlic. Mincing the ginger, as opposed to grating it,w as a great idea, there were chunks of pure gingery delight amidst the savory and salt. I shall definitely be using minced ginger in my cooking from now on.

And of course brown rice. Thank god I have eaten the last bowl of that comically over-sized bag of white rice that my friend gave me. Brown rice has such a distinct and pleasurable flavor to it, I can’t imagine what the Japanese shogunate were thinking when they switched over to only eating white.