Summer Meals

Manatee and I are getting down to the wire in terms of our wedding. On a rather ragged Saturday evening, we were up North and in the midst of wedding chaos. I had brought up two bags of fresh CSA produce and I was determined to eat it. I began chopping, sans recipe and sans plan. As a I mauled my way through the tomatoes (Manatee can't stand the way I cut things, apparently I am supposed to saw but I prefer powering through) a plan began to crystallize. I threw mushrooms, garlic and onions in a pan and let them cook for awhile. Then I added tomatoes and began to chop eggplant and zucchini. My timing with all of this was off because my mom had broiled chicken breasts which were already done. We sawed up the chicken and threw all of it into pans. As it simmered I realized one pan didn't have enough liquid. First I put in water and then realized that it would be bland so I dug through my parents' cupboards and found balsamic vinegar. I threw some of that in the pan and covered it.
At that point of course I realized I had too much liquid and this was going to turn into a mess fast. This time I scavenged in the fridge and found a head of ice berg lettuce. I tore it up and took the cobs of corn out of the boiling water and voila! A summer meal of chicken, tomatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini and egg plant over lettuce with corn on the cob on the side. :)
It sure beat the baseball hot dog and potato chips that we would have ended up eating had I not used cooking to calm my nerves.