My company is hosting an event later tonight, which means I will be heading back to work to manage this event later tonight.

My coworker who is helping me and I could have gone out to dinner and charged it back to our company, but we both had a minor dilemma. Mother Nature had thrown us a curveball today. We were both wearing cute dresses, sans tights, but the temperature had dipped to chilly.

The heat wave was over.

New York couldn’t decide what season to be.

Which left she and I in need of wardrobe changes.

We would part ways, eat at home separately, change and then meet for the event.

There would be food at the event, but if you have ever worked an event, you know that you will never taste the food.

I needed to make something quick, something that required little cleanup, something that I could assemble with the contents of my fridge because I did not have time to stop at the store.

Salad.

Salad and bread.

That’s my go to quick meal.

Now, I know you’re thinking that’s such a cop out.

But I was not prepared for having to make a quick meal tonight. And I’m going to be working later, so I didn’t want to make extra work in the kitchen.

I love salads. Salad to me is a necessary part of any meal. But it’s not just a starter. It’s not just a salad. If done right, a salad can get your palate ready for the meal to come. It can present its own burst of flavors.

And sometimes, like Elaine Benes, I just want a big salad. (Seinfeld fans will get that)

Some nights I come home and I don’t really want dinner dinner. I want a salad and some bread.

But if you do it right, it won’t be just a salad.

It will be a big salad.

It will be a satisfying salad.

I like to think of salads in terms of layers. You have your base layer – your choice of lettuce – then you have your crunchies, then you add your garden freshness, something for a bit of chew and then top it with a tangy dressing.

Here’s what I mean.

Start with your choice of lettuce. I used romaine.

Then I added some shredded cabbage for a different crunchy texture.

Next came some bean sprouts.

After that are some cucumber chunks

And then for a little chewiness, some dried cranberries.

I topped it off with a simple vinaigrette – some spicy brown mustard mixed with olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar.

Normally I’d be content with this salad and some crust bread and butter, but like I said, it got a little cold out. I wanted something warm. The bread would be warm after a trip to the oven, but I didn’t want to slather it with cold butter. And I needed something to keep me full through the event. I needed protein.

So I rummaged around the kitchen. I always have garlic and olive oil and some kind of bean. A warm bruschetta. Yea that sounded good. Chop up a clove of garlic, add it some cannelini beans (drained and rinsed) and olive oil in a frying pan. Cook over medium heat until the garlic and the beans soften.

Add a few grinds of black pepper and then, using the back of a spoon, smash the beans.

This is somewhere between a bruschetta and a hummus.

Spoon out onto warm, crispy bread. The juxtaposition of the creamy, rich, warm beans atop the crispy bread with the cool crisp salad.

The perfect quick dinner. And definitely not just a salad.