Garden-Variety Dinner

With the cooler temperatures and the rain over the past week or so, it's felt a lot more like late fall than the calendar claims. That meant dinner tonight could blend summer and fall food items, and still feel right.

In the summer, hot stick-to-your-ribs substantial food just doesn't feel right. In the fall, salads and raw vegetables lose their appeal. Tonight, we had meatloaf--a fall favorite at my house--along with an improvised salad from the garden. I picked a few green beans, pulled a carrot, and decided to pull a beet as well. The beet greens were the base of the salad. The carrots (thin-sliced) and beans went on top. On a whim, I cut the beet into chunks (about the size of canned bamboo shoot chunks) and threw that on top.

As it turned out, the beet plus the beet greens was a little too earthy. Now that I think about it, everything in the salad except for the green beans had an earthy quality. I guess that's what I get for improvising without thinking. And I even forgot the salad dressing, which may have helped. Oh well. My wife suffered through it, probably because she had meatloaf to distract her.

Dessert will also have a dash of gardeny goodness. We're going to try adding some garden mint leaves to our chocolate milkshakes. Mmmm....