At the Taste: back for seconds

I had the opportunity to get a second helping at the Taste of Chicago, and this time Sister Hortencia (of our Spanish outreach team) came with me. Our tickets came courtesy of some book center visitors who gave us their leftovers. So I introduced Sr Hortencia to the marvels of deep dish, spinach stuffed crust pizza, while I myself counted out ten precious tickets at the "Chef du Jour" booth, where Chicago star chef Stephanie Izzard had created the gourmet specialty: grilled broccoli with smoked blue cheese sauce and "spiced crispies" (rice cereal toasted with spice).

Seriously: broccoli? At a street festival? No wonder the staff at the extra-large gourmet booth were twiddling their thumbs.

And yet...It was fabulous. Just a little hard to eat while walking around. I tried balancing the paper plate while I speared a jumbo broccoli stalk and nibbled it like those kids in the ranch dressing commercial. Easier said than done. And not too many other people were walking around taking big bites of broc. (They didn't know what they were missing.)

In other news:
Today is the last-ever feast of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Mohawk-Algonquin maiden who wanted to found her own convent so she could be a nun, but had to settle for a simple vow of chastity, the only consecrated woman among all the native peoples of North America when she died at 23. This October, Kateri will be canonized, and we'll have the first Native American saint!

Monday I will be hosting a local Catholic radio show for the noon broadcast. When I accepted the task, I thought I would be co-hosting, sharing the mic and bantering with someone more experienced than I. Nope. It will be yours truly on the air for an hour. I am happy to be having Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie (and my fellow New Orleanian) as a call in guest for a segment of the show on Food and Faith (which happens to be the focus of Jeff's podcast), and will be bringing some music along, too, to showcase the Daughters of St. Paul choir. Prayers needed! Listen in live, or check later for the archived show.