Meatless Monday Twenty One!

Three Cheese Griller with Veggie Salad

This was a surprise Meatless Monday, because I didn’t even know I was doing it until I was almost done.

Dave is out of town, kids are going three different ways. I’m on day four of refinishing my kitchen table in mid ninety degree heat… End of May = crazy times.

Yesterday, inbetween coats of polyurethane, and knowing we were heading out of town for the weekend, I took stock of the “crisper.” Really. What a silly name for a drawer that seems create slime more than it “crisps.” It is always with great trepidation that I dig to the back recess of the “crisper.” You just never know what you’re gonna find.

I was amazed to find some mighty fine looking produce in there!

You see, Dave has been doing a lot of the grocery shopping the last couple months. I’m not sure why. I actually think he might like it. Is that even possible? I quite simply could never walk into another grocery store and be happy. Give me a cow, a garden and a freezer. I’d rather make something from scratch than get in the car and go to the damn grocery store.

But you already knew that about me, didn’t you?

While I love the fact that Dave is doing a lot of the shoppping, it is also very dangerous from a “crisper” perspective. When I shop, I know what’s in there and I try to use it. I don’t like to waste things. Well, except celery which seems to enjoy turning to jelly in my “crisper.” I really enjoy wasting celery.

So it was with shock and awe that I found a beautiful package of haricots verts. You know the ones? They cost like six bucks or something! What the Hell? Doesn’t anyone tell that guy if he’s gonna shop for me he has to act like a MISER?

Actually, he did just say to me the other day, “As long as I’m doing the shopping, you don’t get to complain.” I can’t even remember what it was that he was referring to*, but add the beautiful package of haricots to my list of complaints. Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know!

Beans don’t keep forever, so I thought I better cook ‘em up and use them. Along with a nice little head of broccoli he bought.

And, yes, I also cooked some of that beetle-infested God-forsaken asparagus.

Then I ran out of time and threw it all in the fridge. I forgot about it until tonight. With Dave out of town, two soccer practices and a choir concert, I had to come up with something to eat fast.

So I whipped up some of the salad dressing I made for the Keeping Up with the Beans, last summer:

• ~ 1/4 c balsamic
• ~ 1 t dijon mustard
• ~ 1 t honey
• salt and pepper
• wisk in enough olive oil to make a medium thick emulsion (mine was about 1/8 c)

Then add whatever it is you are trying to get rid of. For me it was wrinkly grape tomatoes…

I also added some garbanzo beans and toasted pine nuts. Wished I had cucumbers. Thought about craisins.

I wanted to call that dinner and be done. But I’m not stupid. I know my kids would faint if that’s what I served them. So I cut up the rest of a loaf of ciabatta that was getting hard:

And grated three kinds of cheese

And cooked it on my new griddle set-up (revamped my Thermador cooktop. Very cool. More on that another time.).

I wished I had some butternut squash that a commenter recommended for adding to grilled cheese a while back, but sadly I did not. Still. The sammies were a hit.

That left approximately four minutes to eat before having to leave for the first of the evening’s activities.

Now, I’m off to eat the rest of the salad. It’s my birthday today, so I’m just sitting here waiting for good things to happen.

* I remember what he said I couldn’t complain about now. It was those stupid boxes from Costco. He’s too lazy to use the big bags I bought for that purpose. So he puts everything in the huge corrugated  boxes they have available, then throws them in the recycle area for me to collapse on recycling day! Which was today! And why I suddenly remembered. Funny how that happens…