This one isn't so much a recipe as a technique; the ingredients listed are what I usually have on hand to use. It's all about how to make a nice one-person, main course salad with just a nice amount of dressing and without all the goodies gone in the first half dozen bites, but not requiring climbing up for the big popcorn bowl from on top of the cupboards so you can toss the thing peoperly.
Here's what I use:
romaine lettuce
leaf lettuce, preferably either very ruffled or with lots of beautiful red in it
spinach
medium white cheddar cut into short slivers
celery chopped into about 1/2-inch pieces
sunflower seeds
sunflower shoots
quail eggs, hard-boiled
some kind of meat in small chunks, often surimi (fake crab) or shrimp if the food bank has any
caesar salad dressing
Place about a third of each ingredient in a big bowl (or a quarter, if you prefer an even number of layers). Drizzle with a small amount of salad dressing, if you want dressing. I put my dressings in those squeezable plastic condiment bottles if they're not too chunky, to get a nice thin line and therefore fairly even coverage without anything getting drowned. Repeat until your ingredients are in the bowl and you have the desired number of layers. Admire your salad for a moment, then stir it gently as you eat to distribute the dressing more thoroughly.
If you're using a (big enough) spinner to dry your greens, you can use the same technique in washing the greens and loading the spinner. Then you're ready to go and don't have to dig down for anything or unpack the spinner into separate piles or bowls. It's all about not making extra dishes to wash.
Wow, a food bank CSA
As if free food weren't amazing enough, this year the Thurston County Food Bank is trying out a mini-ÇSA, four "boxes" of lovely fresh veg in May and June donated by local farms. You have to apply, I suppose to convince them you like produce and will make good use of the goodies. So I applied on the off chance, figuring families with children would probably get them all, but I won! Well, technically I was accepted into the program, but it felt like winning.
This week's box included a package of sunflower shoots, one of my all-time favorite "salady things." I got kind of addicted to them last year, at least to the point that I consider them pretty much essential to a nice chef's-type salad. So thank you Black Hills Organics for donating them!
Another thing that makes this salad season is that the quail at Lost Peacock Creamery have started laying in earnest this month. Hard boiled quail eggs are the perfect size for a salad, you can use them whole and not have stray bits of yolk wandering loose in the salad, and they're a better source of protein than plain chicken eggs.
Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek.
