Improvisational Cooking

I’ve been covering for my boss this week by teaching his class from noon til 1:00pm everyday. This means that I haven’t been able to have lunch with Paige like I usually do.

Paige left me a nice bowl of soup yesterday. Unfortunately there was nothing she could leave me today. I didn’t want just another cold ham sandwich, so I started looking around for what I could cook. Keep in mind this is Friday so we haven’t bought groceries in about a week. Also, I only have an hour for lunch so it had to be something quick.

The first thing to catch my eye was the package of hamburger buns on top of the pantry. They still looked and smelled like bread, not even a hint of fur. Perfect, I thought, everything is better on a bun. Now I began digging through the fridge looking for something to put on a bun.

Way back in the very back of the freezer I found a box of Veggie burgers. I’m not sure when they were purchased, but surely frozen vegetable patties never go bad. These were a match made in heaven for my recently aquired buns.

I threw one of the frozen chunks of everything but meat in a skillet and dove back into the fridge for some toppings. Mustard, pickles, even tomatoes were all there waiting for me.

Next I reached into the bottom drawer for a slice of cheese. Cheese! What would the cows think of cheese on a meatless burger?

The thought that entered my head next was even wilder than cheese on a vegetable pattie – the only thing better than a cheeseburger is a bacon cheeseburger.

Of course, we didn’t have any bacon, but there was some prosciutto left over from the last time I made pizza. I knew from experience that the thinly sliced prosciutto would cook up just like salty bacon so I grabbed four slices from the package and threw them in the skillet with the burger.

And thus was born the Prosciutto and Cheese Veggie Burger.