Last week, I ran home from work to make some lunch and ended up standing in front of the fridge, struggling to creating a meal from the hodgepodge of leftovers and aging veggies. I had some sad radishes, two romaine hearts that were decidedly past their prime, a handful of meatballs, the end chunk of a seedless cucumber and half of a ciabatta roll that was so hard that it could have been used as a weapon.
Hungry and pressed for time, I started to assemble a salad, although without much enthusiasm. I peeled the outer leaves off the romaine and gave it a rough chop. I crumbled the meatballs into bits and sawed the roll into chunks. Tossing all the everything together, I doused the salad with the homemade balsamic vinaigrette I typically have in the fridge and let it sit for a minute while I made some tea.
When I turned back to the salad, the chunks of bread has softened into tasty bits of balsamic flavor. The meatballs had lost their refrigerator chill and the veggies were surprisingly crisp. What had started out as a meal of obligation (must use up food before it goes bad) had turned into a delightful and tasty lunch.
