On Saturdays I have time to make whatever I want to eat after the Market. When putting away stuff in the refrigerator, old stuff has to be juggled or taken out so the new stuff fits. This taking out can be an opportunity for what to eat for brunch. (I do this alone, as C will already have eaten a big breakfast while I’m at the Market.) And there’s also the possibility of throwing stuff out, but I hate to do that.

So today, I threw out some leftover garlic mashed potatoes, about half a cup in a way too large container, taking up way too much space, which weren’t very good in the first place.

Oh, but look what I found:

A small piece of leftover salmon, seven days old;
two halves of grilled baby artichokes along with two slices of leftover steak, five days old;
a handful of arugula, who knows how old;
Belgian endive from last week’s market;
English cucumbers from last week’s market (I bought more today);
French breakfast radishes and baby carrots bought today.

Looks like a salad to me.

So I chopped up five of the little carrots and threw them in a bowl. Not just any bowl, but a bowl the right size for a meal-salad for one. Too big a bowl, too big a salad, and I certainly don’t want more leftovers. Too small a bowl, and stuff spills over when tossed.

Two sliced endive went into the bowl. I picked over the arugula, only keeping the good tender, green leaves. The dried or yellow leaves and the stems went in the garbage. Trimmed and halved six radishes. Quartered lengthwise and sliced crosswise one English cucumber. (Actually, I only used two-thirds of it, the rest I ate on the spot.)

I tossed and lightly dressed the vegetables with T. Marzetti’s Asiago Peppercorn Salad Dressing. Not much, just enough to barely coat the leaves.

Now for the protein. I heated my fabulous eight-inch Le Creuset skillet and put a dab of butter in. When it melted I broke up the salmon slightly, put that in the skillet, tossed it just long enough to warm, and arranged it on the salad.

A little more butter in the same skillet, chopped the steak, quartered the baby artichokes and tossed them in for just long enough to heat through. I poured this in the middle of the salad — warm cooking juices and all.

That’s ready.

And folks, that was really good eatin’.