event planning

Steven and I are bad at planning ahead when it comes to figuring out what's for dinner. It's always bugged me because too often we let perfectly good things spoil because we never figured out how to use them- all sorts of things from the rest of the buttermilk I used for a cake, to summer squash that we were just never in the mood to eat- and because we go to the grocery store or fish monger almost every day.

Because of the garden we've been a lot better this summer (I'll be damned if I'm going to let things I worked so hard to grow go to waste) but it's also put us in a pretty bad rut in terms of what we've been cooking. We've been on a steady diet of roasted vegetables and potatoes with fish, frittata, or spaghetti with tomato sauce (all meals include tomato salad-we've still got lots of tomatoes!)

About 2 weeks ago I decided to put us on a schedule, figure out what veggies we had, and would be getting throughout the week and plan what we could cook with them. Steven was initially skeptical because he worried we'd end up eating something gross, but after the other night's corn chowder, he was convinced.

I'm really happy with this new plan because, while we still go to the store a few times a week, we know what we're shopping for and don't wander around in a hunger induced haze and, better yet, we're eating more complex, interesting food because we don't waste time figuring out what to eat.

On tonight's menu: Succotash salad and broiled salmon. (everything in the salad was from the garden, except the watercress.)

Succotash salad:
dressing:
1 small yellow onion
the juice of one lemon
2 ish tablespoons of olive oil

cooked veggies
1 large red onion
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large summer squash
2 cups fresh corn
1 cup Lima beans

raw veggies and herbs
20 or so cherry tomato sized tomatoes
a handful of watercress
a handful of baby arugula
1/2 cup basil
1 tablespoon chives
2 tablespoons parsley
1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley

Chop the yellow onion and put it in a bowl with the lemon juice and olive oil and set aside.
boil the Lima beans until tender (I totally lost track of how long that took.) Meanwhile saute the red onion thyme and summer squash in olive oil until the squash is just done (underdone is better than over done when it comes to summer squash.) When that's done dump it in a bowl and saute the corn in olive oil with a little salt for a few minutes in the same pan and then dump it in the same bowl and allow to cool a bit. Chop and add the tomatoes, basil, parsley, and chives and mix together with half the dressing. Chop and add the watercress and arugula and the rest of the dressing add salt and pepper and serve. Salad should be a little warmer than room temperature and delicious.

recipe taken (with a few small changes) from Sunday Supers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin- one of my most favorite cookbooks.