The latest edition of the Test Kitchen Dispatch.
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Relieve dinner fatigue with a low-lift meal
I love my family, and I love dinner, but I donât always love making dinner for my family. You can call it fatigue, malaise, burnout, or a bad case of the never-ending Mondays, but when the thought of cooking another meal makes me bonk my forehead against the kitchen counter, I make âPicnic Dinner.â This is when I pepper the table with a haphazard smörgÃ¥sbord of [cured meats](, cheeses, toast, [condiments](, a salad of some sort, and a bowl of hard-boiled eggs. And even though itâs my white flag of surrender, this party platter inspires nothing but delight from my brood.
âYay, French dinner,â my husband will yell. He equates picnics with a European fantasy of parking a scooter by the side of a country road and noshing on a crunchy baguette.
âGerman style,â my younger son will exclaim. This is because we used to have a German neighbor who regularly ate dry sausages, cheese, and pickles for his evening meal.
Then my older son will bottom-line the situation: âWeâre having leftovers?â
Heâs not wrong. Along with preserving oneâs dwindling sanity, not cooking is an opportunity to resurrect vegetables from previous meals and explore their potential as toast toppers. I also use it as an excuse to slice up leftover [roast chicken](, partial [pork chops](, or other cooked proteins and re-sell them as deli meats. Itâs a real anything-goes situation and a shameless fridge-dive, and you just donât know what you might get! I have not always had a salami hanging around, and on those occasions Iâve made a plate of crispy bacon instead. When I donât have leafy lettuces, I have shredded up cabbage (we have never not had cabbage this whole time), which I'll dress with cider vinegar, grated ginger, salt, and a few glugs of olive oil. A plate of cucumbers could appear, or a bowl of apple wedges. Is it a Kindergarten snack? Maybe! Sometimes I have a hefty wedge of crumbly cheddar or a round of Brie-like cheese, and sometimes I have a bunch of random nubs of cheese that Iâll slice up and present all together because they need to get used up one way or another. Pickles, olives, hot sauce, mayo, room-temperature butter, and kimchi are set down on the table without explanation. Use them! Or donât! I really donât care.
The one non-negotiable thing on these nights is a hard-boiled egg. I like to cut them in half and then use my fork to smash them onto my mayoâd bread, then top it with salt and pepper and whatever is passing as âsaladâ that night. I [cook them the way Chris Morocco taught me](: Any quantity of eggs are lowered into a pot of boiling water, then boiled gently for 10 minutes (I think this is even better than the Julia Child way: cover eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, then cover and let sit off heat for 17 minutes). After theyâre done, I shock the eggs in ice water so they donât overcook, and every time I do this I realize that itâs impossible for me to put up dinner without cooking something. I guess I just like to cook? Except when I donât. Not every meal will be as simple as a bunch of leftovers and a hard-boiled egg, but on these nights, itâs all I can do, and itâs plenty.
Bon appétit!
Carla Lalli Music
Food editor at large
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