Clever Salad Bar Concoctions

It's that night. The night you can't figure out what dinner is. Sure, they've said on the menu, but your nose and your eyes can't quite discern the brownish, warmish, foodish item eyeing you from the tray. In these moments I turn to the salad bar. And you may be mistaken, dear reader, in thinking that the salad bar is only for salad. Oh, no. It is a shining beacon, an oasis in a desert, if you will. There you can find a garden of leafy greens, crunchy cucumbers, perfect peppers--a plethora of ripe, raw ingredients for magical food wonders. With just a little elbow grease and ingenuity, you can whip up a healthy and tasty meal that isn't just foodish, it's food!

Now, I'm a maverick of lunchtime grilled sandwiches, but dinner perplexes me. So the other night I turned to my roommate, a fantastic cook, to make me something delicious. Boy did she deliver! In no time she had me melting over perfectly flavored deviled eggs.

The yolks are mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, tabasco, salt, and pepper. A simple combination, but in just the right amounts. The mayo creates the smooth texture, mingling with the firm, smooth white bowl of the egg. The mustard and tabasco work in tandem, dancing across the tongue in alternating sweet and sour. The salt and pepper add just that little bit of familiar flavor after the bang of the tabasco.

So next time you find your food staring back in your local dining hall, take a look around and experiment...or as Ms. Frizzle would say "Take chances, make mistakes!" And, to add a little of my own flavor: Invent, play!