Love Your

Our team has historically been pretty good about bringing in our lunches from home. But lately, this thrifty habit has gotten a little… out of control.

Pre-pandemic, leftovers were certainly in the rotation at lunchtime. But when we returned to the office after a year of working from home, there were far fewer options nearby for grabbing lunch. We also added a new staffer, Addie. She’s a real foodie, the sort who waxes poetic over recipe preparation and successfully grows veggies in her garden.

So we got better about bringing in our lunches, and then the lunches themselves got better. And at some point, we stopped preparing our lunches at home and just started bringing in the ingredients. These are usually assembled into salads, and they’re often a mix of greens, raw veggies and dinner leftovers.

These “salads” can mean vastly different things. I’ve been known to pack a head of almost-wilted romaine lettuce into a gallon ziplock bag, paired with extra taco filling from Friday night’s takeout. Cristina sometimes brings in a bagged salad from the grocery store. Addie brings in things like homemade salmon gravlax, blocks of romano cheese and pickled peppers to top her homegrown arugula. Her ingredients may sound a little “extra,” but they come from a place of hating to waste food and knowing just the thing to turn sad leftovers into something delicious.

So now assembling salads is part of our lunch hour. We chat at the counter while we wash our veggies and chop them up. A few months ago, after lots of scouting, we invested in matching navy-blue bowls for our big salads.

Thanks to Addie’s influence, our salads may be topped with freshly grated lemon, a dollop of burrata or a drizzle of espresso-infused balsamic vinegar. Needless to say, she always has the best ingredients. And luckily for the rest of us, she always seems to bring a little extra to share.

We take up a lot of counter space and create a lot of dishes to wash. But it seems to me like we’re replacing the best part of going out for lunch with our cafeteria ritual. We’re taking the time to reconnect, and actually sitting down for a meal with real plates and silverware. All the benefits of the brown-bag lunch, but just a little more gourmet.

Ayn-Monique Klahre Editor

FRI, FEB 10, 2023 | 8PM

January 2023

EDITORIAL

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AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com

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