One of my all-time favorite salads is a Greek salad. This is surprising to me considering that I hate tomatoes, and tomatoes are a big part of a Greek salad. But tomatoes are easy enough to avoid, and I love the mix of textures and bright, briny flavors of a good Greek salad. How many times can I say Greek salad in one paragraph?
(Greek salad sidebar: One summer during graduate school, I studied abroad in Prague for a few weeks. Good food was difficult to come by, for a poor grad student. But one of my favorite things to do was go to a little restaurant just outside the old town square and order a Greek salad, bez rajčat. The salads, to my recollection, had no lettuce. They consisted of cubes of cucumber, cubes of feta, kalamata olives, and a beautiful tangy dressing. I am sure the waitstaff thought I was bonkers for rejecting the tomatoes, but they kindly made the salads tomato-free , and they were SO GOOD.)
My husband and I usally roast a chicken breast to have with our Greek salad. If I am feeling fancy, I will also whip up some hummus and pita. (Or buy one or both of those things pre-made from the grocery store.) The last time I made hummus, I only used half a can of chickpeas, so I roasted the other half-can in the air fryer with a little salt and olive oil until they were crunchy, and added those to the salad too.
SALAD INGREDIENTS (all to taste):·
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Red onion, finely sliced
Cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half-moons
I made a big fall salad last week and it was SO GOOD. It was a little fussy, because I went All Out by roasting a sweet potato and making a batch of crispy quinoa. But the result was well worth the prep work. And it wasn’t difficult prep work; just a little time consuming. I enjoyed it so much, I made it again yesterday, this time omitting the sweet potato and crunchy quinoa. Still delicious.
This salad has responsibility spinach plus spicy, feathery arugula which pairs well with the sweet/tangy dressing and the creamy goat cheese. It has pomegranate seeds for a tart, juicy burst of freshness. It has roasted sweet potato for a little meatiness and that nice crunchy, mealy combo of textures. It has crispy quinoa for additional protein and crunch. It has sliced apples for additional tartness and another texture. Finally, it has nuts or seeds for more protein and fat, sweetness, and crunch. Everything about this salad is SO DELICIOUS and screams “There is so much to enjoy about fall!”
Spinach and Arugula Fall Salad with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette (inspired by Once Upon a Chef)
Salad Ingredients:
Baby spinach (10 oz)
Arugula (10 oz)
Pomegranate seeds (2.5 oz) (or you can use dried cranberries or dried cherries)
Tart apple, sliced thinly (1)
Goat cheese, crumbled (4 oz)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Pecans (5 oz) (or nuts/seeds of your choice; my favorite are the Sweet & Spicy Pecans from Trader Joe’s)
Optional Extra Salad Ingredients:
Sweet potato (1)
Cinnamon (to taste)
Cayenne (to taste)
Extra virgin olive oil (1 Tbsp)
Salt and pepper
Quinoa (1 cup)
Water (2 cups)
Extra virgin olive oil (1 Tbsp)
Kosher salt (1/2 tsp)
Vinaigrette Ingredients:
Minced garlic (1-2 tsp, although you will want to measure with your heart)
Minced shallots (2 Tbsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Freshly ground black pepper (1/2 tsp)
Maple syrup (3 Tbsp)
Dijon mustard (1 1/2 Tbsp)
Red wine vinegar (4 Tbsp)
Vegetable oil (10 Tbsp)
Directions:
1a. (Totally optional step if you like fussiness and have time and inclination.) Prepare the crispy quinoa. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Rinse 1 cup of quinoa under cold water for 1 minute. Add rinsed quinoa and two cups water to a small saucepan. Over high heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until all the liquid is gone, about 15 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Once quinoa is done cooking, allow to cool slightly. Then pour onto prepared baking sheet. Add olive oil and salt to quinoa and mix through with your hands. Roast for 15 minutes, then stir. Roast for an additional 10 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the quinoa is golden and crisp.
1b. (Totally optional step if you like fussiness and have time and inclination.) Prepare the roasted sweet potato. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Wash and peel a sweet potato. Cut the sweet potato in half-inch cubes. (This can be very imprecise.) Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the sweet potato cubes with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, and cinnamon and cayenne if using. Spread the cubes on the baking sheet and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, tossing halfway through, until cubes are brown around the edges.
1c. Prepare the salad. Add a handful of baby spinach and a handful of arugula to a large bowl. Add a sprinkling (a tablespoon or two) of each of your toppings: crumbled goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, crispy quinoa, roasted sweet potato, pecans, etc. Top with another handful of spinach and arugula, then repeat until your bowl is full of yummy fall goodness. Slice the apple right before serving and add it to the bowl.
2. Prepare the dressing. Add all the ingredients to a jar, cover and shake until emulsified.
3. Dress and eat. Add dressing to your salad, toss, and enjoy.
Notes:
I store the quinoa and the sweet potato in separate Tupperware containers in the fridge. They keep nicely for several days, or until your husband eats them because they are delicious even by themselves.
This recipe makes a large portion of dressing, but I love this vinaigrette so much I like to keep it on hand in the fridge. I use emptied and washed glass salad dressing jars to store my own dressing.
This salad is endlessly customizable. When I don’t have pecans, I use pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds or pistachio nuts. Sometimes I don’t have an apple, so I don’t include one. If the grocery store doesn’t have pomegranate seeds, I’ll use dried cranberries or dried cherries.
What salad do you get really excited about? Are there salad ingredients you need on every salad… or any you REFUSE to eat? I won’t eat a tomato or a beet — really, I’m quite sure — thank you very much, and I really prefer to avoid blue cheese, although occasionally I will tolerate it on a wedge salad.
I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here.
May is chaos. I was whining to the mom of one of Carla’s classmates recently about busy I feel, and she said in a gritted-teeth, long-suffering voice, “That’s just how May is. And it will get worse as the kids get older.” So that was cheering.
It feels like I was just chugging along, doing my thing, and then suddenly realized that I have fifty deadlines heading my way and I am only partway through each project. Luckily, this isn’t true (at least in the paying work sense; I am on top of those at least). But it FEELS that way. Worse, it feels like everyone else has alsosuddenly had the same realization. My email inbox is jammed with teacher conference requests and reminders to schedule my gutter cleaning and invitations to end-of-year parties and check-ins about summer swimming schedules and gently scolding messages from camp to fill out my kid’s many, many forms already and notifications to update school payment plans and on and on.
We had, in the past week, an invitation to a musical performance at Carla’s school literally three days before the performance itself. And then a notice, seven days ago, from Carla’s teacher, that the class has themed days all this week – and require things like sandals that I had not yet purchased. Then we had to schedule a meeting with one of the teachers to review Carla’s goals for next year. And I (stupidly) signed up to volunteer at a big end-of-school carnival. Not to mention, we get alerts near daily about Covid cases in Carla’s grade. Plus, Carla’s been working on her big Eleanor Roosevelt research project. IT’S A LOT.
I have not felt up to most things lately – reading, cooking, planning meals, blogging – but I miss those things (except planning meals). So let’s try a random info dump. I will try not to complain TOO much, but no promises.
Zoom Awkwardness: While I am deeply, sincerely grateful for the ability to meet with people virtually, I wish someone would figure out how to solve the end-of-meeting awkwardness. You know what I mean. When you have all already said goodbye, but then you have to fumble around to find the button that ends the meeting. I realize that this awkward moment lasts maybe five seconds, but I find it excruciating. Often, I find myself distracted in the last moments of the meeting itself because I am trying to plan my exit in the quickest possible way. But no. Even if I can find the “end meeting” button ahead of time, I inevitably fumble it, or forget that I’ve carefully hovered my cursor over it for exactly that purpose, or the “are you sure?” box pops up and I just want to die of embarrassment. I realize this may not be as big a deal to some people as it is to me, and obviously I have lived to zoom again, but I HATE IT. Just let me out of this virtual discomfort!
End of Year Teacher Gift: Every year, our Room Parent (i.e. Room Mom) collects money for a class gift. Every year, I dutifully send in money. Every year, I fret and worry and scour Etsy for an additional gift that my kid can give to her teacher, personally, on top of the considerable amount we have already sent in. Every year, I decide that the collective gift is BETTER – usually it’s a gift card, and I’m guessing it is much more useful/appreciated by the teacher than whatever dumb crap I could come up with – and exit Etsy without buying the personalized water bottle/bookmark/coffee mug I was pondering. And yet, despite going through this for SIX YEARS NOW, I inevitably find myself in the last week of school, fretting and fretting about the possibility of being the ONLY person who doesn’t double gift with a physical gift in addition to the cash contribution.
Road Trip: I am doing a right terrible job of Not Complaining, so let’s talk about something positive. My husband and Carla and I are going on a Road Trip this summer!!!! Aside from the astronomical cost of gas, I am really excited about our Road Trip. (Yes, I am capitalizing it.) We finalized all our hotel stays over the weekend, and so now I am gleefully shopping for Road Trip Necessities. This is what my father refers to as a “Tool Buying Opportunity,” which is part of what makes the planning portion of something (an event, a hobby) as enjoyable as or more enjoyable than the actual thing itself. My husband is researching the best family audiobooks to buy (or check out from our library) for our trip, and I love that this is the way his trip planning excitement manifests. He has already played a few samples to Carla, so that they can figure out whether she’ll have trouble understanding the accent of the narrator.
Birthday Planning Stagnation: Despite ALL of your lovely suggestions, I have made ZERO progress toward planning Carla’s birthday party. Zero. This fills me with dread and anxiety. However, I will say that with every confident, encouraging comment about hosting a party here, I grew more and more entrenched in my certainty that having a party in my home is NOT the right way to go. So that was extremely helpful, and I am so appreciative. I genuinely envy those readers who are so easy-breezy about hosting an in-home birthday party. You make it sound so easy! And fun! And like the better choice! But my gut was clear: NO. So whatever we end up doing, it will be somewhere else. Your kind, helpful suggestions also clarified for me something that I already knew – but did not know I felt with such stringency – which is that I loathe trampoline parks. We used to take Carla when she was smaller, because it was a great way to release her endless reserves of energy in the dragging months of winter. But even then I always felt like I had to be careful not to touch ANYTHING, and I would always through Carla in the tub and her clothing in the washing machine the instant we returned home. Perhaps this speaks more to the cleanliness of my local trampoline park than to anything else, but since that’s what we have available, I am going to skip it. So I suppose even if I haven’t made any forward progress, I am at the very least narrowing the field. Thank you so much for your help, even if you may feel like I am ignoring your very helpful recommendations. Your advice is helpful nonetheless.
Handyman: In other good news, I finally finally got a handyman to not only return my call, but to come over and look at my long list of projects!!!! He seems great. He reviewed things and took measurements, and was very clear on things he can/will do and things he cannot/won’t. The most important result, though, is that he CAN and WILL repair our ceiling. I don’t know if I’ve described our ceiling hole in this space, but I am going to do so now in case you want to skip to the next equally riveting bullet. It is not a hole, per se. It is more like a place where the plaster has declined to provide its normal coverage. The plaster is peeling away from whatever material forms the ceiling, and so it looks like a hole. We have had the spot examined several times by a plumber (and by our fathers), and it does not appear to be a leak. And it’s been there for YEARS, so I think we would know by now. But this stupid plaster lapse makes me so self-conscious about our house. It looks terrible, and it’s right above the kitchen table, and I hate it. And now it will be fixed!!!! Of course, there is no scheduled date for the fixing; the handyman warned me he is booked out for several weeks. So I guess now I am just hoping he really will send me an estimate and offer some dates. I almost don’t care what it will cost because I want it fixed. But then again, I have no idea what this kind of thing should cost, so… I will report back on whether it is a swallowable amount or something that kicks me in the gut and forces me to live with the stupid hole for longer. Like I said, we’ve been living with it for YEARS, so it shouldn’t be such a big deal to keep on living with it. But at some point in the past few months, I have reached some sort of tell-tale heart level of complete inability to co-exist with this thing for one second longer.
Calendar Bedlam: Recently, I am having an issue that makes me think my mind is on a steep decline. I keep making plans, putting them in EMPTY SPOTS in my calendar, and then realizing – sometime later – that I have double booked myself. Example 1: A friend invites me to a performance. I check the calendar and see I have plans that night. I decline. Later, a friend invites me to dinner. I check the calendar and see I am free, so I accept. The next time I talk to the performer friend, she mentions the day of her performance… which is on the day I originally had free but now do not. Example 2: I set a playdate for Carla. The next day, I notice that she in fact has an orthodontist appointment that day, so I have to reschedule the playdate. Example 3: I have to do a mandatory nicotine test per our insurance, so I schedule it in an empty spot on the calendar. I get a reminder for the test at the same time I get a reminder for a meeting with Carla’s teacher, because I have scheduled them in the same time slot. WHY AM I DOING THIS AND HOW CAN I STOP.
Dirty Martinis: I recently learned the joy and beauty of a very, very dirty martini. My whole life, I have been staunchly anti-vodka, but it seems that may be because I have only ever had cheap vodka? I recently had a martini with really good, smooth vodka and it was delicious. Then I made one at home, with the fancy expensive vodka my father-in-law drinks, and it was also delicious. I am now out of olive juice.
Jury Duty: My stint of jury duty went GREAT. The summons said that we needed to be available for five days, beginning on a Monday. So I prepared to be gone that entire week. When I did jury duty several years ago, I went in on a Monday, sat around all day, and then was called to a courtroom near the end of the day. I wasn’t selected for that jury, but I was released from jury duty for the rest of the week. This time, you call a number in advance of your service and figure out if your jury number has been selected for that day. I got to miss two days, but my number was called for Wednesday. Then I arrived at the courthouse, sat around all day, and… was released. I didn’t have to go back at all! It was… kind of pleasant? Of course, the anticipation was the dreadful part. I had to worry about childcare for Carla for the whole week, and then I had to worry about driving on a freeway during rush hour, and I had to worry about parking downtown. But once I had Carla stowed at school, had made it downtown, parked, and successfully made it to the courthouse, it was fine! Pleasant, even! It was a beautiful day and we got ninety minutes (!!!!) for our lunch hour, so I got something from Starbucks and walked around downtown. I was even a teeny bit disappointed that I didn’t get selected for a case – I think it would be interesting to serve on a jury. The biggest inconvenience of the week, it turned out, was that I kept having to email the school to let them know that Carla would or wouldn’t be arriving early for babysitting services.
Step Off: My watch has developed quite an overblown sense of its own roll in my life lately. Constantly telling me to stop and breathe, or noting that I am usually more active at this time of day what is up????, or advising me that I can “still do it!” if I just take a brisk 20-minute walk at 11:15 pm on a weekday. And now this??? Stay in your lane, watch. I am doing the best that I can.
Keto Stall: I feel the need to give you a keto update. During my extravagant jury duty lunch hour, I ordered coffee with cream (despite the fact that I hate coffee) and a pre-made lunch kit that seemed to be fairly keto-friendly: salami, cheese, and some nuts/dried fruit that I ate even though I’m sure it was full of sugar. I did not eat the crackers. Anyway: I continue to follow a low-carb plan. And I have completely stalled. It is SO frustrating. I am doing the plan, I am eating the high-protein/high-fat foods. I am in ketosis. And yet my weight has gone nowhere. It wouldn’t be so terrible except that I HATE it. Food is not fun or enjoyable. I do not look forward to meals, and in fact actively dread them. I cannot stand to plan meals, because they are inevitably some variation on meat + veg, or else they are complicated and frequently end up tasting awful. I am constantly asking my husband what I should make for dinner. I am not having fun, I am not losing weight, it is all awful. And yet any time I LOOK at a carb, I instantly gain two pounds. So I don’t think I’m ready to quit keto either. At least I am maintaining this not-quite-ten-percent-of-my-bodyweight weight loss. ARGH.
A Good Salad: I did make a really good salad recently. It was arugula (yum) and spinach (yuck), heavily weighted on the arugula side for me and on the spinach side for my husband (who dislikes arugula). I added goat cheese, blueberries, strawberries, a sprinkling of sliced almonds, and grilled chicken. And then I added balsamic dressing because I love dressing as much as I love sauce. (Perhaps this is causing the stall in the previous bullet, perhaps indeed, although I don’t eat salads often because of the dressing factor.)
Strawberry Marketing: The strawberries in the aforementioned salad were PINK. My grocery store had a big display and they had a lot of marketing to assure customers that the strawberries are fully ripe! And taste like pineapple! I had to try them. My husband wondered if they might taste like underripe strawberries and indeed they did. They were fine with some goat cheese and balsamic dressing though, but NOT worth $6.99 per container when I can buy actual ripe strawberry tasting strawberries for $3.50. Between these berries and the miniature iceberg lettuces, produce marketers are really working hard for their money, let me tell you.
Garden Inertia: Let us turn to another pleasant topic, which is gardening. Of which I have also done ZERO. What the hell am I doing with my time, if I am not cooking or gardening or planning Carla’s birthday party? I am fretting and wringing my hands and going in circles is what. We have people coming for dinner this weekend, so now I am suddenly feeling Very Urgent about having at least some flowers in pots. It’s not like my “garden” is anything impressive. But I do like to have a few pots with flowers and I need to do that. Perhaps Carla and I will go after school.
Spring Shopping Syndrome: In addition to fretting/hand wringing, I have been struck by Spring Shopping Syndrome. You are familiar with this yes? The point at which the weather begins to edge carefully toward warmth and suddenly you hate every single item of clothing you own? I have been buying (and then returning) things with great abandon. Loft has been my latest obsession, and they know it: they keep emailing me with adorable dresses front and center, and so I order the dress and then it doesn’t fit and I take it back. But, to get free shipping, I added on a cute blouse, and that DID fit, so now I have that sweet, sweet dopamine rush of clicking “buy” alongside the possibility, however small, that the item I bought will be cute, which makes me want to repeat the process all over again. Interesting how I am able to analyze this behavior and see it for what it is and yet I still can’t stop/won’t stop.
All right, that’s it for now my dear Internet.
What’s clogging your calendar this month? Have you made any springy purchases? Tell me which deer-proof flowers to buy for my garden.
