Feeding Local Artists, Breakfast Edition

Thursday, August 14, 2014

People tell me breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so last weekend I prepared Garnish & Gather’s Stewed Okra & Tomatoes with Creamy Cheddar Grits for a hungry band of Living Walls artists, staff, and volunteers.

Many of the artists are in Atlanta from out of town—as in, WAY out of town, from as far away as Spain, Lithuania, and Australia—so I was excited to introduce everyone to that hallowed Southern breakfast tradition, grits. (And what better source than Ranger, Ga.’s own Riverview Farms?)

The recipe started from whole okra and Lionheart Gardens tomatoes. Since I knew I’d be preparing this in the early morning, and since I also knew how coordinated I am that at that hour, regardless of coffee, I opted to chop them up the night before. (And they fit my tupperware PERFECTLY! There should be a German word for this very specific victory.)

The next morning, my alarm clock went off much earlier than I preferred, and I rolled out of bed, grabbed by Garnish & Gather bag, and headed to the Goat Farm. Living Walls’ home base there also has a kitchen, so I put a pot of water on for the grits, then got the onion and garlic sauteeing as artists, staff, and volunteers trickled in.

My favorite part of Garnish & Gather meals is that the spices come pre-measured. The joy of not having to dig into a drawer trying to find the right measuring spoon is so real. (Life is too busy to bother measuring things! Which is why my baking failures are myriad but mostly edible!)

Okra is a staple in lots of cuisines beyond Southern—they figure prominently in African and Indian foodways—so they weren’t new to any of the international visitors. I’d never had okra for breakfast, but guess what, turns out it’s just as delicious when eaten before noon. Oregano and okra need to be friends in more dishes. (Unrelated sidenote: OKRA WINFREY!)

The Table Topic for this meal was “If you had to describe Atlanta in three words, what would they be?” (My take? “On the rise.”) Artist Caroline Caldwell, whose awesome pink hair matched her awesome pink wall last week, is painting a wall off of Edgewood Avenue, near the King Center and the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born. Caldwell used four words to describe Atlanta: “Connected to its roots.”