Gym For The Jaw

Limp salad just doesn't do it for me. One of my pet peeves is salad that has clearly spent too much time getting to know its dressing. Limp and soggy, they hang from the fork and simply are not worth the calories to eat them. For example, wilted salads, even when they are made limp on purpose, always make me think, "Why?"

I like salads that are crisp and crunchy, a workout for the teeth and jaw muscles.

Last night, surveying the contents of the fridge and trying to come up with something a little different to round out our dinner, I decided to put together a simple, crunch-filled salad. I had some small, fresh carrots and a sparkling head of broccoli fresh from the farmer's market, half an onion and that jar of pickled cauliflower that my friend Carla gave me last week. They seemed like the makings for a fun dish, so I pulled them out. I peeled and sliced the carrots in thick diagonals. Beheaded the broccoli and cut it into small florets, peeling and cutting up the stem as well. Minced the onion since I can't eat much raw onion before revolution happens in my stomach but I love the flavor. Chopped a generous handful of fresh Italian parsley. Diced the pickled cauliflower and tossed all those ingredients together.

The dressing was a very strange combination, I'll admit it. I whisked together a quick balsamic vinaigrette, then gentled it with just a teaspoon of mayo. Tossed with the salad stuff, it was creamy without being heavy and tasty, tasty, tasty. We munched our way through all that health food, relishing the exercise and the tangy flavors.

Loving Lavender

When I was a little girl, my maternal grandmother sent me a lavender dress. Beautifully hand smocked with a big bow to tie in the back, it was my favorite gift of all time. I wore it to church and to parties. In one of the few pictures we have of me as a child (I was the third child - we have tons of pictures of the eldest, not so many of the subsequent progeny), I'm wearing that dress with white socks and black patent leather MaryJanes.

I loved it so much that one Sunday after church, I didn't take it off. Instead, I went blackberry picking in the woods behind our quarters and, having nothing to carry the berries home in, used the skirt of my lavender dress. You can imagine my mother's dismay - the stains never did come out. I still remember fondly that lavender dress and I still love the color of lavender.

Last year, I bought a small bottle of lavender buds to make a cold, refreshing tea; the bottle is still here but I hadn't found any good use for the lavender when it's not iced tea season. On impulse, I sniffed it to remind myself of the flavor and for some reason carrots came to mind.

I had some fresh, young carrots in the fridge so it was the work of a moment to add them, scraped and sliced, into the menu.

Melted a little butter in a wide pan with perhaps a tablespoon of water. When it was bubbling, added a sprinkle of the lavender buds, then the carrots and gently butter-steamed them, tossing frequently, for about three minutes.

I'm always amazed at how much a tiny difference like this can make to an otherwise mundane meal. The lavender added an herbal note and a tiny bite to the sweet carrots and a fillip to our taste buds. Don't be surprised if you find me madly sprinkling it onto all kinds of meats and veggies this summer. I'm loving lavender these days.

Oh, and, by the way, ¡H*A*P*P*Y C*I*N*C*O D*E M*A*Y*O!

Painted Soup

My choice for the second course at FarrahOlivia was their Painted Soup, a savory-sweet mixture of two kinds of soup decorated with a green swizzle of herbal oil. The pale yellow side was yukon potato with gruyere cheese and leek cream; the orange swirl tasted of gingered carrot. Each taste was as distinct as its color and yet they complemented each other wonderfully. One of those dishes where you hate to dip a spoon in and spoil the perfection but the scents wafting up from the bowl are irresistible temptation. The whole meal was pure self indulgence so what the heck!

Monster Mash

I'm calling this ugly stuff "Monster Mash."

I had the idea to make mashed potatoes from spuds I had roasted alongside our turkey breast, which I smeared with a little bacon fat before baking. I also roasted some of those purple and white carrots and onion slivers; in a coup of genius, decided to mash them all up together.

It looks really gnarly with the purple carrots, dark red skin of the potatoes and nearly black edges of the thoroughly caramelized onions but the flavor was divine and we ate it all up!

Better than the turkey. Better than the accompanying greenie beanies. Almost better than sex.

They're Alive!

These heirloom carrots spent just a few days in the dark recesses of my reefer's crisper drawer; when I pulled them out to make soup, look what I found!

They had all sprouted rootlets, proclaiming that they are still alive! I can't recall that ever happening with industrially farmed carrots.

I felt almost guilty as I scraped off the rootlets and chopped the carrots up for soup, but I also felt satisfaction at knowing that My Beloved and I would get all the goodness these veggies had to offer.