Goat Rope Salad

In the Navy we have a strange saying. When something is really a mess, all discombooberated, we call it a goat rope. That's the way this salad started out.

My S-I-L Ann, she who cooks like an angel, had recommended to me a beet salad that sounded really good. She even sent me the recipe which, apparently, I didn't read carefully. So, I went to the store, collected what I imagined were the ingredients and brought them home only to re-read the recipe and find that most of what I brought home was not in her recipe. A goat rope.

So, I improvised, while resolving to make her salad another day. This salad had three colors of the lovely last heirloom tomatoes of the season layered with some roasted beets and sprinkled with raspberries and crumbles of a marvelous, creamy, tangy French goat cheese called Chevre de Bellay. Topped with rocket and drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette, it was the best salad I've made all summer.

The colors were perfect, of summer shading into fall, and the flavors of sweet tomatoes and fruit married with tangy goat and balsamic and a little rocket bite were love songs to the tongue. Goat rope or no goat rope, this was one terrific salad.