On a Mission

On a mission recently to clean out all the little odds and ends in the fridge, I made this cool salad for dinner on one of those truly rare, delightfully hot days in Northern California. I had a shepherd's pie in the fridge all set to warm and eat, but just couldn't face it in the 85 degree heat.

So, instead, I rounded up all this stuff that had been lurking in the fridge and put it to work for dinner. The only ingredients I bought on purpose were the Mission figs with goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto; Tea had made my mouth water with that description earlier in the week so I knew I had to try those!

The rest was just the contents of the fridge, arranged to look as if I had planned it. I picked the bones of our Sunday roast chicken, mixed it with some celery that was crying out to be eaten, added some herbs and a little mayo thinned with lemonade (I didn't have a lemon - worked fine!), plopped on a couple of marbles fresh mozzarella, sliced up the last of the homegrown tomatoes that Patty brought me from her garden and added slices of a ripe avocado that was taking up space on the counter, cut up a few florets of raw broccoli and arranged it all on lettuce that was starting to look a little the worse for wear.

Mission accomplished - no more little dabs of stuff in the fridge and late summer dinner to boot!