A key ingredient when I do food demos of my recipes is to generously sprinkle in many fun facts. Offering these tasty tidbits feeds us new information, insight and inspiration that often ripple out to nourish others. We love little “did you know” delights! I have many for you today.
Below is a new recipe I created that feels like a fun end-of-summer harvest celebration. This party-in-a-bowl combines fresh corn, tomatoes, black beans, peppers, onion and garlic that I am picking now in my garden.
Fun facts: Each individual strand of silk on an ear of corn is attached to a single kernel on the cob. Black beans are actually a really deep dark purple. Green peppers, like green tomatoes, are immature fruit picked before they ripen to colors like orange, red or yellow. That’s why they are cheaper, since they can be picked sooner.
The fun facts I offer can be tangential to the actual recipe, which I view as an expansive edible story. Pull on a fun fact thread and find it tied to everything! Isn’t that the way in God’s interconnected kin-dom of relationships? So a-tangenting we shall go, just as one recipe is often bound up with others in a book.
This time of year my many cookbooks get a workout as I look for ways to use the produce piling up on my counters and fridge. Fun fact about book releases, including cookbooks: They always happen on a Tuesday. When the 50th anniversary edition of More-with-Less comes out soon, it’ll be Tuesday, October 6th, I believe. Fun fact: This also happens to be a full moon.
Fun fact about full moons: The one closest to the autumnal equinox is known as the Harvest Moon. My own cookbook, Sustainable Kitchen: Recipes and inspiration for plant-based, planet-conscious meals, celebrates its sixth anniversary this week. Sustainable Kitchen was published by MennoMedia’s Herald Press, on Tuesday, September 22, 2020. Fun fact: That’s also my mom’s birthday. It was the autumnal equinox that year, as it is this year. Fun fact: September 22 is the most common date for the Northern Hemisphere’s autumnal equinox.
Our word equinox comes from two Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). Fun fact: The autumnal equinox is not actually a full 24-hour day of equal light and dark, but rather a single, specific moment in time when the sun crosses the celestial equator. That will be exactly 8:04 p.m. EST (my time). This is a global moment where we all share the same sky. Fun fact: If you wish to recalibrate a sundial, this is the ideal day because the sun rises due east and sets due west with the sun traveling a perfectly straight line across the sky, no matter where you are in the world.
This moment of equal night and day, of balanced darkness and light, feels like an invitation to pause and rest in the tension of these forces and to recalibrate ourselves within. This year the equinox will again fall on a Tuesday (fun fact: The last time that happened was in 2020, on Sustainable Kitchen’s book release date). I will celebrate that day with contemplation and cooking, two interrelated spiritual practices of mine which feed my curiosity, foster creativity and make me feel connected within God’s story.
Final fun fact: I plan to make the Three Sisters Enchiladas from Sustainable Kitchen for dinner on the 22nd, which is hands down my family’s favorite recipe this time of year and another fantastic way to use the same ingredients you’ll find below in the salsa.
RECIPE: Corn-fetti Salsa
This feels festive with many colors and fresh flavors that celebrate the transitional season from summer into autumn.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups fresh raw corn kernels (cut from about 3 cobs). Alternatives: You can grill the corn first for a smoky flavor. Thawed from frozen or canned corn that has been drained could also be used, but it won’t have the same crisp crunch as raw.
- 1 cup black beans
- 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
- ¾ cup chopped red onion
- ¾ cup chopped red bell pepper
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon salt, to taste
Instructions:
- Mix all ingredients into a bowl.
- Refrigerate and allow to marinate for at least an hour, as flavors will meld with time.
- Serve with chips as a dip, with tacos/burritos/quesadillas or alongside a grilled main protein.
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