ruhlman.com: Lunch: Peanut Butter and Cabbage Sandwich.

Peanut butter and cabbage sounded weird to me at first, but I think I will try it tomorrow.  (At the very least, I could probably bust through one or two of the heads of cabbage I have around the house in a week or two.)

Ruhlman’s post got me thinking, though – I don’t have any kind of lunch traditions.  In fact, most days I don’t put any thought into it at all.  Leftover something or other, a slice of bread with something on it, the classic standby bagel with cream cheese and tomato.  One day recently I made tuna salad with yogurt, fresh pepper and a little paprika.  Nothing groundbreaking.

I’d like to make lunch a little more special.  Even just once or twice a week.  I pledge to find something to bring a little charm to an otherwise utterly perfunctory part of my midday.

Anyone out there have a lunch tradition they’d like to share – a special food or a special personal ritual they like to do that surrounds or relates to lunch?  I would love to hear it!

This weekend was a good weekend for food. On Thursday I baked onion rye bread, about which Ben said that if I’d told him I bought it at Bread and Cie (a San Diego bakery) he would have believed me. Win! I also made a chard and beet greens gratin, my first gratin, and it turned out thoroughly edible – even to my non-veggie-eating husband and progeny. I made everything in it on my own, down to the toasted bread crumbs. I was so exhausted after the gratin that I just reheated some of the (bazillion pounds of…) leftover turkey.

One successful dinner down, one weekend to go. On Friday I baked challah according to Sami’s preschool’s pre-K class recipe, and it turned out as I had expected it to, and as it had when I tasted the pre-K class’s yield – heavy, doughy, but completely tasty. It’s not so much challah-like, per se, but it is good bread, and I bet we’ll like the sandwiches, French toast and bread pudding that eventually come from it.

For Friday dinner I made a dish I will heretofore lovingly refer to as “how to kill a lot of the week’s vegetables in one pot before the next vegetable delivery needs to be refrigerated.” I sliced thin potatoes, onions, mushrooms and bell peppers, layered them in a Dutch oven with some parmesan and cayenne seasoned béchamel sauce, and baked the whole thing within an inch of its life at about 350* for 30 minutes. It burned a little along the bottom, but not enough to impact the scrumptiousness.

If there’s a name for that dish, I don’t know what it is, and I don’t really care. It was onion/potato/veggie heaven.

Saturday I made pizza and had friends Laura and Josef for dinner. My first pizza dough turned out lovely except that it was yeast free. I set that aside and made another ball of dough, from which two veggie pizzas emerged – topped with – you guessed it – red-pepper seasoned béchamel, tomato sauce and parmigiano – fantastic. Dessert was angel food cake (I didn’t bake it – sadly, no springform pan) with strawberries and crème fraîche. Simple and delicious.

Today I pondered what to do with my yeastless dough, and came up with proofing yeast in a separate container of water, then kneading it in and letting it sit. Come dinner time, I pushed it flat and round, brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled salt, oregano and basil on it. Homemade focaccia, along with the leftover Kill the Veggies in a Pot – killer filler leftover meal.

I’m getting prouder of myself every day for all the stuff I make at home. Also, eventually it will be exceptional. Right now it is all pretty ordinary. I think.

Tuna and tilapia ceviche
Fried plantains and bananas
Cancha (Andean toasted corn)
Potatoes
Rice
Hearts of Palm salad

It doesn’t sound like much, but it recreated several meals we had while traveling around Perú, and while simple, is also simply good food.

Yay leftovers for dinner!