MexiSoul

Once again I found myself with the challenge of satisfying my discriminating palate while simultaneously being limited not the lack of abundance in my cupboard. I'd love to point to the rough economy as the reason why there is no surplus at my house, but it would be like this anyway. The only difference is that where I might ordinarily splurge for the $3 or $4 item at the corner store that might make a meal complete, now I quickly move on to deal with what I do have.

I haven't traveled lately so I have had to be a little more diligent about going grocery shopping each time that I get paid. It would be nice if that bi-weekly trip to the grocery store would get me by until the next one was in sight, but it rarely does. I did make a nice investment at Costco about a month ago that has allowed me to stretch a little further. Usually, I'm completely out of everything early in the 2nd week, but this time I had meat all the way through. Being that this was the last day before pay-day, there wasn't much else to go with it so I had to be creative and look a little further back on the shelves.

Way in the back, I found a ham-hock and a bag of frozen, chopped collard greens. It was early afternoon when I started this search so I didn't rule out the preparation of said greens as I usually might have due to time constraints. Besides, I was really desiring something green. I ran out of vegetables last week sometime. There were also a couple random pieces of frozen chicken in the freezer as well.

I've had baked chicken almost every night this week so I was really wishing that I could add some variety somehow. The collard greens begged for some fried chicken, but not only had I already had my quota of that this month, I was out of oil so frying wasn't an option. I did, however, have this package of mole poblano from a recent trip to Mi Pueblo (the latino grocery store).

I know what you're thinking: Mole and ham hocks. Collard Greens and chocolate sauce. Look...when your financial straits are as dire as mine are these days, you expand the horizons of your tastebuds in a hurry. It sure smelled good. Sitting at the counter, my daughter was doing her homework and was becoming more and more curious as the aromas began to dance through the air from the stove top. In fact, after I took her to soccer practice, she was so interested in tasting what I had concocted that she insisted on eating before I took her home.

"That's some good chicken!" she said.

She even wanted seconds. I would've preferred that the greens be the big leafy variety, but the chopped ones weren't bad. My palate did not get the least bit confused by these cross cultural culinary choices. It was merely another exercise in getting a suitable caloric intake so that I can sleep through the night and be able to work out first thing in the morning. I'm always happy when the meals taste slightly better than army rations, so by that standard, this evening was a resounding success.