Clean-Out-the-Crisper, Full-Circle Salad

Tired mushrooms, softening pepper, yellow carrots and
 half a beet found this spring over-wintered in the garden,
broccoli stalks, arugula gleaned  when one of the garden beds
was cleaned up  and fresh eggs from the girls.   Left over chicken (not shown)

I'm not a cook.  But I do cook. Most of the time it's fun.  And it's always part of the Things I get to do today, so I look for ways to be creative--most of the time. Sometimes I just look for ways to get my husband and myself fed. Not to be overlooked are those moments when the great cycles of life all converge:  "no food" in the house, meal time, fridge needs cleaning out.  Ever happen at your house?

Full-Meal Deal

This galactic converging slammed into my kitchen the other night.  We had Clean-Out-the-Crisper, Full-Circle Salad.  You immediately get emptying the fridge drawer onto the kitchen counter.  The salad also included bits of chicken and hard-boiled eggs. Not knowing which came first, I included the full circle.

Bolt Salad

I eat some pretty strange things.  My family can tell you that's true.  They tend to be more than a little suspicious of things I collect from the yard to eat.

Creamy blossom and bronze buds of bolted arugula

I love most greens, especially the spring, tender ones. Experimenting with new plants and eating different parts of the plant are Things I get to do today before dinner.  In the past I've been known to make salad entirely from weeds from between the rows, not lettuces in the rows.

Arugula is a hardy green by most standards. It sprouts up fast even in wet, cold weather. It refuses to die back in the fall when frost flattens most of the rest of the garden. And now (it's a biennial), it has bolted, getting ready to make seeds for the next time around. The blossoms have four, leggy petals in creamy yellow. I'm sure they are good to eat.

Tossed with rosemary olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

So I collected flowers and leaves for our salad. Romaine, chard and sorrel were the other players.  It was delicious.  FYI: the flowers are sweet and fragrant tasting, not peppery like the leaves.