We can pretend that it is in season

Holiday travel is soon upon us and with it the impetus to clean out the fridge.

Yet, yesterday I found myself in the produce department buying eggplant, green pepper, red pepper, and a head of romaine lettuce. They aren't local. They aren't in season. They weren't a good value, but I was really in the mood for a Macedonian Salad (The New Moosewood Cookbook). I don't have the book with me at the moment, but I have linked to another site that includes the ingredients if not the instructions.

You roast the cubed eggplant and then toss it while hot with the olive oil-red wine vinegar-lemon juice and spices dressing and let it rest and then combine the other veggies. Kalamata olives and feta cheese are listed as optional ingredients. We didn't have any feta, so I left it out -- if you plan to use feta then for heaven's sake leave the salt out of the dressing! I did chop in a handful of olives, though. Costco sells them in big jars which makes them economical to keep around. I served it with a scoop of hummus and a pepperoncini. I had leftovers today for lunch - Macedonian Salad with a scoop of hummus atop the leftover lettuce. I kept the lettuce separate until it was time to eat to prevent slime of course.

The romaine lettuce received a protein and fat topper - formerly frozen crab cakes. I saw the crab cakes at Costco a couple of weeks ago and can report that they are just as good as many I have had in restaurants. They weren't cheap, but I rate them to be a good value. You get six in a box (wrapped in packs of two, serving size is one) for something like $13 or so. The brand name is Handy, and they were indeed handy to have in the freezer for a dinner that felt much fancier than it really was.