Mish Mash Makes Morning Hash
Aleishall Girard Maxon
Let’s be honest, even for the most inspired culinary genius, trying to come up with new and exciting things to cook day after day gets tiresome. I try to keep my cooking simple and balanced. I believe that it’s important to vary a diet and keep a variety of flavors, colors and ingredients constantly rotating.
But there are those days when you get to the refrigerator, open the door and instead of seeing a wealth of ideas, you see a scattering of random, disjointed ingredients. A jar of half eaten Bread & Butter pickles, a package of spelt tortillas, half a hunk of parmesan cheese and whipped cream left over from dessert the night before. What to do?
It was on a recent Sunday when I had a similar visit to our fridge and declared that we should go out for breakfast instead of cooking because there just wasn’t anything to make. Not convinced my fiancé took a peek and within seconds I saw his eyes light up.
“Do we have any of that sour dough bread left”? he asked with excitement in his voice.
“Yeah, I think so,” I answered hesitantly.
“Then sit back and relax, we’re not going anywhere!” Enticed, I turned on NPR’s weekend edition and waited to see the concoction he would come up with.
A mere forty-five minutes later I was looking at the most beautiful plate I had seen in months. Perched on top of a perfectly toasted slice of sour dough bread was a dropped egg covered in a sweet potato, sun-dried tomato, yellow squash and green chile hash.
The last of a spectacularly mild local goat cheese that we had used in a salad the night before was slowly melting atop the breakfast mound. My mouth was watering and my eyes were ready to jump out of my head.
After just one bite I found the thread that connected the seemingly random ingredients I had perused an hour earlier. Sometimes it’s not what you have to work with, but rather how you make it all come together. For example I kept thinking that we didn’t have enough goat cheese to make omelets but in Matt’s mind, he needed it only for a garnish.
The kitchen is a wonderful canvas on which to work out ideas, but we all have blocks from time to time. See if sharing your proverbial paints and brush with someone else doesn’t re-inspire a whole new composition.