Do you ever look up at the end of the day on a Sunday and go, where the hell did the weekend go? The last week, the month?
That’s how it’s been for me lately, and please note that I AM NOT COMPLAINING I AM SO FILLED WITH GRATITUDE, but merely making an observation, and the point is sometimes you just don’t have time to do anything but make sure you’ve got enough coffee to keep you going. Between the phone calls and the going to the vet and the writing up this and that and trying to not to eat too many carbs (oh who am I kidding?), you look in the fridge and your fingernails are jammed with dirt because you finally got the herbs that you bought two weeks ago into pots and of course your beautiful French spade and other gardening tools are who the hell knows where, so hands, turns out can scoop out dirt just fine. So going even to the grocery store would require an effort that you no longer have.
There, in the too-short fridge, where I must bend down to peek in and see what I’ve got, I find not inspiration and beauty, but what’s left of other recipes that I’ve already made, the unwanted bits and last remains that I completely forgot about until I reach this desperate, I do not want to go to the store point in my day, and then I remember, too, that it is GARBAGE DAY. The day to make everything that’s no longer needed go away. A time to clean up, get rid of what I don’t want or can’t eat anymore. So I can reboot, tidy up, out with the old and in with the new, and get ready for another week. Or month. Or something. What day is it again?
As it happens, I am in luck, dirty nails and all. I am lucky because I had an impulse to buy endive the other day, and on that same day, I bought hearts of palm. I pulled the endive out of the crisper and determined that it was okay to eat. I had a couple of eggs left in the carton. I had a balsamic vinaigrette already made, and then I knew that I could make a rendition of a salad that I first had in Biarritz many years ago, a chunky, crispy salad monster with no green lettuce at all, but everything else — endive, tomatoes, eggs, hearts of palm, plus a sunset over the mad waves of the Atlantic on top of it all.
I chopped up some kalamata olives and threw them in, too, because I always have them on hand and I don’t think there’s much that they don’t go with or improve. I had a tiny and I do mean tiny bit of Gorgonzola left so I put that into the bowl. The eggs took 10 minutes. I decided I would go ahead and heat up a flatbread in the fridge just in case. In case I had no will power, I guess. It half-burned in my hot as a furnace new oven and I ate it, anyway.
The best salad, the best anything I’ve made in awhile.
It is always like this. Every time I get to this point of complete exhaustion, too tired to make anything or go to the store, I figure out something to make with what I’ve got, even if I don’t have much of anything at all, and it turns out, it always turns out, that I make something that I couldn’t have thought of if I hadn’t gotten to this point.
Garbage Day Salad
Serves 1 or 2
2 eggs
3 small endive, cut into 1/2-inch slices
a handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
about 8 Kalamata olives, halved
3 hearts of palm, sliced
chopped fresh herbs (I used basil and mint)
bits of leftover cheese (I used Gorgonzola)
Balsamic vinaigrette, recipe follows
Put the eggs in a saucepan and cover with water. Put on the stove to boil. When it boils, reduce to a simmer, and set your timer for 10 minutes. Rinse the eggs under cold water. Peel and chop them. Put them in a salad bowl.
Add everything else to the eggs in the bowl. If you’ve got some leftover bread, you can make some croutons and throw them in, or if you’d like to add toasted nuts and seeds, that’ll give you some additional crunch and protein. I was far too lazy at this point, so I didn’t add anything more. I spooned a little Balsamic Vinaigrette on top of it all and tossed. It was fine. It was more than fine. I ate it all.
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Makes 1 cup
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped shallot
sea salt and pepper
¾ cup olive oil
Put the balsamic vinegar, mustard, shallot, and a little sea salt and pepper in a jam jar. Give it a good shake, then let it rest for 15 minutes. Add the olive oil, shake again, and taste. Will keep in the fridge for a week.
