When Making Lunch...

WHEN making lunch, it's good to have an array of extra stuff just sitting around. Case in point, today's request from the youngest boyo for a tuna sandwich. If I hadn't glanced counterward, yon tuna salad might not have had tarragon or ziran (carraway seeds) and would have been jut your basic tuna-mayo-celery mix. Instead, the ordinary and boring was nowhere to be seen, and when the luncheon gong sounded, the kitchen saw an excess of happy humming and other exclamations of gastrohappiness.

The same holds true for something as dirt-plain as an omlette or mashed potatoes. The former gets a healthy sprinkle of freshly ground nutmeg and a pinch of cardomom, while the eggs get a healthy dose of freshly microplaned imported parm as well as an assortment of fragrant stuff from San Remo and the spice jars adjacent. And the wife, she likes the addition of some colorfulSwiss Chard in her eggs. Yum!

It's not a matter of having a great cookbook at hand-- who takes the time to look when there are howls and groans of impatience and hunger coming from the other side of the counter? But having what Steve of ice cream fame called mix-ins handy helps ensure that the mundane is not to be found.

And remember, once you've added Basil, you probably need More Basil.