mess o' goodness

my boyfriend has a green thumb. electric, neon green. his garden always kicks ass and the bags of goodies he sends home with me totally rock. this summer he tried his hands at growing collard greens (one of my all-time favorite foods on the planet) and no surprise - they've been a total success.

look at these babies!



i cut the thick stems off and then stacked the leaf halves on top of each other and roughly chopped them into big squares.

i set those aside and started frying up a couple of strips of bacon in a big pot. i browned the bacon and then took it out of the pot and crumbled it up. i chopped up half of an onion, threw it into the bacon grease and cooked it until soft and brown. then i put the bacon back in the pan and tossed in the greens. i wilted these for about 5-7 minutes.



then i poured in a can of chicken broth.


(no product placement here!)

i put a lid on the pot and simmered the greens over medium heat for about 45 minutes or so. these are pretty bitter if you don't really cook 'em down and they are so awesome at the end that they are totally worth the time.

once the greens were done i topped them off with my boyfriend's dad's homemade hot vinegar (he also has an electric green thumb and a lot of time on his hands.)



to compliment the greens i just boiled up some perogies. usually i'll boil them and then fry 'em for a minute or two in a pan with some butter and caramelized onions. this night i was too hungry and after spending an hour on greens i just wanted to eat.