Not for the Faint of Heart

Or stomach, for that matter.

At the corner of Elizabeth and Lake Streets in the West Loop, you'll find Peoria Packing, my newest love. We originally found it back in February when we were showing a friend around the city. And after that one trip...I was hooked.

If you know anything about Chicago- or Upton Sinclair- you know of the city's (in)famous love of, well, meat (and casseroles. It is the midwest, after all). Lake Street is Exhibit A. Meat packing store after meat packing store, which really means giant walk-in refrigerators with literally EVERY PART OF THE ANIMAL that you can imagine. Need a pig head? It's here (you can thank me for not posting that picture). How about an ox tail? Yep. And the most ridiculously large rack of ribs? It's here, too.

And here's the best part. The meat is CHEAP. For instance, I got a huge pot roast, 3 full chicken breasts (which is equal to six separate chicken breasts-that I broke down myself, thank you very much) four thick-cut pork chops and a bunch of ground beef, all for $32. THIRTY TWO DOLLARS. Now, I'm thinkin' this meat ain't organic (which I really would prefer if, say, we had more disposable income) but for what you get, it can't be beat.

So I spent my Saturday afternoon doing a little meat packing of myself, breaking down my chickens, packing and freezing the meat and then making half of the huge pot roast, just as so many midwesterners have done before me. Now I just need to find a good ground beef casserole recipe...