Tonight was a rare night that I found myself home alone for dinner at the last minute. I had planned to serve a pasta with prosciutto to my family, with some pan-fried yellow squash. But when Andrew had to work late and Celia got a last minute invitation to a friend’s house for dinner (Solomon’s still at camp in Maine) I was all alone for the 6:00 Scramble! I didn’t want to make pasta just for myself, so I threw all the leftovers in a salad, including lettuce that was starting to turn brown, corn kernels I had cooked and scraped off the cob last night, a hot pepper that didn’t have much life left, and some shredded Cheddar cheese. I tossed it all with fresh lime juice and some of my favorite olive oil–voila, a healthy and pretty tasty salad for one (it’s not worth sharing the recipe, but it was a decent meal).

How does this experience relate to your life, you might ask? Whether it’s for one person or for the whole family, making a salad with all the leftover vegetables, meats, and cheeses at the end of the week is a great way to stretch your groceries, so you can waste less food and money. If it turns out to be Scramblicious, even better!

This week in The Six O’Clock Scramble newsletter, I wrote about ways my family has been able to reduce our environmental impact. I hope you will post additional suggestions for preserving the environment here for me and other Scramblers to see. Every bag, plastic container and foil wrapper that doesn’t get manufactured or thrown in landfills because of our efforts, helps preserve the health of our planet.

To job your memory, here are the suggestions I made in this week’s newsletter:

Recycle it: Though we try not to use it very often, when we do, we rinse and recycle aluminum foil.

Reuse it: When we send the kids off to school or camp, we pack their lunches and snacks in reusable containers—we even wash and reuse their plastic utensils and baggies.

Unplug it: We recently realized that we can live without the extra refrigerator in the basement. We still have it down there just in case, but it’s unplugged so it’s no longer draining energy. We’ve also started unplugging our laptops at night to conserve energy.

Say no to plastic or paper: I have now converted to bringing my own bags to the grocery store, farmer’s market, and other errands nearly 100% of the time. I keep the bags in the car at all times so I don’t have to challenge my faulty memory by remembering to bring them when I shop.

Bundle errands to save on gas and reduce traffic and pollution: When we have an errand to do, we try to think of every other routine errand that’s in the same direction so we can make them all in one trip.

I don’t know about you, but my family very rarely sits down to a hot lunch together. Usually we’re at school or our jobs, or we’re grabbing some yogurt and berries or leftovers from the ‘fridge if we are home for lunch.

Today we turned our usual practices on their head and had grilled flank steak and a tomato and basil salad for lunch, with some fresh blackberries. We’ve been running around lately, and I knew that if I didn’t cook this steak soon it wasn’t going to be edible anymore, so I fired up the grill on this 93 degree day and marinated the steak in some lime juice, ground cumin, Dijon mustard, vegetable oil and salt and black pepper for about 15 minutes. Half an hour later, we sat down to juicy grilled steak and sides and bubbly lemonade for a summer time treat. Solomon’s away at camp, but Celia and Andrew were tickled to have such a deluxe lunch for a change.

Once in a while it reminds us that we’re alive and free to make new choices when we completely mix up our routines, especially in such a delicious way.

This week I am marking the 5th anniversary and 250th menu of The Scramble! Whether you’re a recent or long time Scrambler, I am so glad to have you as part of the Scramble family and am thrilled to be able to share dinner recipes and food thoughts and ideas with you. If you have a birthday wish for The Scramble, or a suggestion to improve it in it’s 6th year, please post it here.

Corn and Barley Salad

Adapted from “Raising the Salad Bar” by Catherine Walthers (Lake Isle Press, 2007).

This is a simply delicious whole grain summer salad — it would be perfect for a potluck or party, but also makes a wonderful side dish or light lunch. I might add 1/2 finely diced red pepper for color next time, but I haven’t tried that yet.

4 ears unshucked corn
1 cup cooked barley (cook it according to package directions)
1 large lime
1 – 2 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped chives
1/4 - 1/2 red bell pepper, minced (optional)

Shuck the corn and steam it until it is just cooked, about 3 – 4 minutes. (this can be done in advance). Let it cool, and cut the kernels off and transfer them to a medium serving bowl. Add the cooked barley.

In a small bowl, whisk together the zest and juice of the lime, the cumin, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste (optional). Pour the dressing over the corn and barley, and stir in the chives.

It’s merely 85 degrees here, cool for a Washington, DC summer afternoon. Anyhow, I saw an ad for a blended coffee drink on our way home from running some errands and decided to save $7.00 and make them myself for Andrew and me. These are so refreshing!

Here’s the note I received today from subscriber Michele H.: “Hi Aviva! I know you value feedback so I just had to respond. I love mac n cheese and have tried many recipes - I was so excited to try this recipe I did it tonight. I have to say I am extremely disappointed - actually it was the worst ever. The cheese/milk curdled, the macaroni was cooked but it just was not good. Just want you to know.”

Though it’s been one of the most popular recipes I’ve run in the Scramble in the past year, a couple of subscribers report that they didn’t like or had problems with the Miraculous Macaroni and Cheese. I can’t explain how various home cooks can have such divergent results with a recipe, but if you’ve made this recipe and it turned out great or awful, please let me know!