Stump the Cook

   

        “Are you playing Stump the Cook?” Mark asked as I stared into the fridge this afternoon. We had come home from a weekend camping trip to southern Oregon. When we left on Friday, cheerfully abandoning a huge pile of laundry, I felt like we were playing hooky. Now, I was facing the consequences. In the refrigerator:  a scrap of cabbage, the heart of an old head of lettuce, some beets with wilted greens, some ancient chard, hummus and yogurt from the weekend, and a cup of extra rice. In the garden—sprouting broccoli, which we had just eaten the night before. It was ugly. And we had eaten breakfast out, so the old Breakfast for Dinner stand-by of eggs and beans or perhaps French toast or pancakes was out.

            I took out the cabbage, trimmed off the brown edges, and cut it finely into the purple bowl. The lettuce was next. I now had a bowl of “salad” sitting on the counter. It’s a start, I thought. After digging in the Tassahara cookbook, I discovered a recipe for beets and chard—the author must have had a similar combination in his walk-in one afternoon. Sautee an onion, add beets, salt and pepper, followed by the greens and some lemon juice…no lemon. But, there was some apple cider vinegar….We had a hot vegetable. We still needed protein, especially as I had skipped lunch because of the large breakfast. Mark brought up a jar of Sweet Creek tuna from our basement stores and I added it to the “salad” with a bit of vinaigrette. “Is it time to eat?” Mark asked as he passed through the kitchen to hang up the third load of laundry. And it was. Rounded off with a bit of chocolate and a slice of new bread, and we were pretty happy.

            Now, I just have to order vegetables for the week, because there is NOTHING left in the fridge.