Lunch is becoming increasingly challenging.

During the summer months — yes, this counts as summer where I spend my days — the cafeteria closes many of its stations. There isn’t enough traffic to make the full foodstuff presentation feasible. That makes perfect sense. I get it, but it does leave me trying to figure out what to eat every afternoon. I start worrying by about mid-morning.

No, this not heading into what I am making for myself at home to eat at work territory. I am happy to assemble dinner, but I prefer to buy my lunch. (Because I like throwing my money away and because I am lazy.)

I have a few options just steps away. Hot dogs, sausages, fries, burgers and Chinese food. Sure I like this stuff sometimes, but if I ate it all the time, I would grow bored and increasingly chubby. There’s a little Korean place a bit farther away, but I can’t eat that every day either.

So there really is only one solution to this problem. (No, not bringing my lunch, silly.) I am going to start going out for lunch. There are some nice restaurants a bit farther afield and I am going to go through my Rolodex (um, I mean contact list) and ask everyone I know out for lunch. That should carry me until September.

Mortgage? What mortgage?

Right now there is gazpacho chilling in the fridge. I make gazpacho — either with or without avocado — about twice a week in the spring and summer months. I assembled and blended it earlier this afternoon.

That’s one of my key cooking skills: assemblage. This technique works best — in my case — without heat. (My other key skill involves throwing things in my crockpot, but that’s resting — cowering? — in the back of the cupboard until fall.)

Well, there are my soba noodle salads, which do involve boiling noodles for 4 minutes. So many salads can be assembled with this one staple. Soba noodles and avocado. Soba noodles and cucumber and pepper. Soba noodles and shrimp and mango. Soba noodles with salmon and asparagus. Good thing I like soba noodles.

The above salads can also be made with quinoa. Quinoa — if you don’t know it — is a magic grain (I think) that is very, very good for you. It tastes okay if you use it with more tasty ingredients. It tastes (far less) less okay by itself.

The other thing I like to make — and this is a lot less healthy — is the cold plate. All you need for this are a few picked things. I like picked peppers myself, but pretty much anything can be picked. (Not that I do my own pickling.) Beets are not bad either. Then add some pieces of cheese, a few olives and some sliced meats. Dinner is ready.

I am thinking of writing a cookbook.

Working title: “How to eat well using only one burner of your stove.”
Subtitle: “Never clean your oven again!”