Saturday, September 29, 2012

Having What You Need

Whenever we get home from far-away travels I crave healthy, homemade food. Green things, in particular. So, last night for dinner, I made a sesame edamame salad.


I hadn't planned to make it. I was inspired to make it after seeing it on The Forest Feast, a website that Jack sent me because he thought I might like it. I do. The site features beautiful photographic recipe illustrations that are laid out visually. So, of course, I like it!

It was fun to make because I hadn't planned to make it and I had (almost) all the ingredients on hand. When we lived in town, I kept very little food stocked at home and shopped for fresh ingredients every day at Doll's Market. Now, my pantry is well stocked, my freezer full, and the fresh stuff comes from my garden.

I thought about Grandmommy as I put together this salad. I written about her before, here, here, and here. When the children were little, Mary B. Rinehart lived just around the corner from us and whenever I needed something out of the ordinary, I'd call her to see if she had it. And she ALWAYS did. It didn't matter what I asked for, she had it – or could make it from a scrap of something she had. It got to be a game between us to see if I could stump her.

  • Grandmommy, do you have any pimentos? How about a can of diced tomatoes?
  • Do you have a japanese kimono? 
  • Do you have anything that would work for elf shoes for one of the children's costumes?

She always had what I needed and was always happy to share it with me. So last night, when I decided to make this salad, I went down the ingredient list and realized I had edamame in the freezer, one perfectly ripe avocado, the last few mozzarella balls from a Cosco container, sunflower seeds left over from my granola recipe, some cilantro from my garden, and the three ingredients for the dressing in my pantry.

 In honor of Grandmommy and her ability to always have what I needed, I placed two edible nasturtium blossoms on the plate and used her serving pieces to scoop it up. She would approve.



No comments:

Post a Comment