We got some Swiss chard from Canticle Farm this past week. Since I didn’t know how to cook it, I looked it up. Some things I didn’t know: it’s in the beet family (sea beets. No, really), and it’s popular in Mediterranean cooking (all right!). I tapped “swiss chard” into yummly, and got a quick recipe from Epicurious, that I modified through memory (I read how to do it, then didn’t look at the recipe again). I knifed the stems out of the leafy part, and then coarsely chopped the greens. I cut the stem parts in half. Then I boiled up the stems like they were pasta. They started out red and orange and ended up pinky and whitey. I might have boiled them too long — no clue. Then, I heated up some olive oil and minced garlic (I use the kind that comes in a little jar), and when it was hopping (read: I burned the garlic, which makes it taste bitter, and the chard is supposed to be pretty bitter…), I turned the heat way down, and added the fresh greens and the boiled stems, mashed a lid on top and waited. It turned out totally fine. It was a nice side, and it was neither bitter nor sour. It tasted like a cross between spinach and asparagus. Kind of. I liked it and Bob liked it, and I suspect we’ll have it again.