it's all a part of going on vacation

yep, that's right, cleaning out the fridge, in preparation of being gone for a week to oregon. last night was one of those dinners where i pulled all the various ingredients out of the fridge, put them together and made them work. that's also how i tend to decorate my house, and somehow it all works out ok in the end. :-)

these are a few of the ingredients i started out with - zucchini and yellow squash brought from iowa by my mom last weekend, steaks leftover from a dinner with the parents and the remaining block of a package of sharp cheddar cheese.

some of the zucchini rounds were rather large, and i should have quartered them to cook more evenly with the smaller yellow squash rounds. frying zucchini is very simple but so amazingly delicious - melt a good chunk of butter in the skillet, add the zucchini, flip around once, sprinkle with a good dash of salt, then just keep frying on medium heat until the slices are nice and golden brown. that's it - no need to get all fussy!

this is about the stage at which i add the salt. roasting in the oven or on the grill with olive oil and salt also works great, but takes longer, and the stovetop is the simplest version.

there was more steak than this to begin with, but several cubes were eaten before they made it to the skillet phase of dinner. :-) since they were pretty cold from being in the fridge, i heated them first.

then added some leftover chopped red onion. red onion is one of my staples - i always have a few on hand, and preferably pre-chopped and waiting in the fridge for just such applications.

i gained a dozen ranch eggs from ranch wife jo keith earlier this week. since they're pretty small, i used three. and - you guessed it - leftover cream that i'd like to use up before i leave.

add the egg and leftover chopped green onion to the skillet with the steak and red onion. cook over medium to medium-low heat until the eggs are set up, stirring the whole thing to scramble it.

by this time the squash was lookin pretty good, and warranted a fork to grab a few to eat immediately.

and it didn't take but a few minutes for the steak scramble to finish up, and i added the grated cheddar to the pot to melt a little.

and there you have it - easy wednesday dinner while cleaning out the fridge. so, tonight go open up your fridge and use up some of those ingredients that may be beginning think they're a permanent resident. :-)