It’s Salad
Okay, it’s salad. Salad with lots of ingredients to make it full of all the good things I think I need. When I eat a salad, even when it has extras like cheese and nuts, I feel I am doing something good for myself. I don’t feel guilty eating it. Isn’t that terrible? Does that mean I feel guilty eating food? I think it does mean exactly that.
When I eat a salad that I’ve constructed, it is an act of love toward myself. It takes time to cut, to wash and to assemble. It takes decisions and thought to get the balance of textures and colors just right. Its funny how similar it is to making a painting. Both take work and consideration. Once you start on either endeavor you ride a wave of decision making. I construct a salad with colors to make it attractive but the hidden bonus is that the most deeply colored vegetables are the most nutritious. So if I approach the salad visually, layering and orchestrating the colors in a pleasing way, it’s the best thing I can eat.
I learned to make vinaigrette many years ago from the mother of a boyfriend back when I was in college. She was a poet and a bookstore owner in Bolinas, California, an art community outside San Francisco. She knew about the best propecia things in life – knowledgeable about art, literature, food. She liked me for her son because I was an art major at Berkeley, interested in all the same things she was. I was perfect for her, not so much for him. But back to the vinaigrette. I gained a lifelong skill and I sometimes think of her as I’m whisking the vinegar into the oil to make it emulsify.
I never buy store bought dressing. I’ve tried but I never, ever like it, it tastes fake. So my salads get the full expression of homemade. I can add pecans, almonds, walnuts. I can add garbanzos, black shiny olives, burgundy dried cranberries, crumbled goat cheese all with a base of cucumber, arugula, romaine, radicchio, orange pepper, sliced ripe cherry tomatoes. All I need is the perfect glass bowl which I am still searching for.
Vinaigrette Recipe: Into a small bowl toss a hefty pinch of kosher salt and 4 cranks of black pepper, add approximately 4 tablespoons of olive oil and whisk briskly with a fork or an actual whisk, trying to get the salt and pepper evenly distributed throughout the oil. Next, gradually add 2 tablespoons high quality balsamic vinegar (I like Masserie diSanteramo which I found at Citarella) . Whisking/stirring with a fork held horizontally (you are whipping it sideways) allows the mixture to evenly emulsify.
Enjoy!
Casey
