Confetti Salad

I love salad but I hate the work: cleaning, cutting, chopping, etc ... 

Yet I spent a couple of hours in my kitchen this evening doing just that and I have a vat (you'll find I love hyperbole!) of good stuff to gnosh on throughout the week. It is inspired by a rainbow slaw from Rainbow Foods (peeps local to the Decatur, GA area will know this natural food store that has been around for 40+ years). 

Here's what I put in today's version: 
1/4 red cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, shredded (I wanted to put in two but only had one)
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped 
1 red bell pepper, chopped 
1 red onion, chopped 
2 apples, peeled and shredded 
1 cucumber, chopped 

I tossed it all together, then added the secret sauce: 
Brown Rice Vinegar
Toasted Sesame Oil 

I did not use any specific amount - I just chugged them over the confetti of veggies and tossed. Less is probably better than more, but then my personal preference is not to drown my food in sauce - whether it is a salad dressing or a gravy. (Butter would be the one exception!) You could also change the proportions on the veggies as well. 

I love Balsamic vinegar and Olive Oil - two great traditional combinations, but there is a certain "umami" flavor of the combination of Brown Rice Vinegar and Toasted Sesame Oil that just cannot be beat. Add the slight sweetness of the apples and the crunch of the veggies - yum! 

Earlier in the day I had set some dried garbanzo beans to soak, and then cooked them while I assembled the salad. Adding them to the salad makes for an easy meal. You can certainly use canned beans as well. 

If you want a more traditional salad with lettuce chop/clean your favorite type, put it in a bowl and add as much or as little of the "confetti" as you would like - toss and enjoy! For what it's worth - I have found that salad spinners are the best places to store lettuce if you do not use it all at once. I just wish they did not take up so much space in the fridge. 

I'll bring a container of this to work tomorrow to store in the fridge. I may supplement it with an easy chicken salad - drain a container of chunk chicken, mix with some mayo, add pepper and perhaps a few other spices and lunch is done while the coffee is brewing. 

I saved the odds and ends to be stored in the freezer for later use in making vegetable broth/stock. Peels went into the compost pile, along with egg shells I saved and powdered in the food processor. It's not much but it's my way of doing what I can to fulfill my "hippie-at-heart" self.  

I had a productive evening, as I also made a snack mix by toasting some slivered almonds and pecan pieces (together) - 350F, ~20 minutes. Once they were out of the oven I slipped in several handfuls of flaked coconut to toast as well - this isn't as forgiving as the nuts, so be careful to not overdue them, 350F ~10 minutes. I mixed the coconut with the nuts and once they had cooled I added some mini chocolate chips. Nummy to nosh! Some dried fruits would likey make a fab addition to this. It also is delish as a mix-in for yogurt. 

**No affiliate links in this post**

The Spotted Trotter: Charcuterie

This past weekend I had the pleasure of a trip to The Spotted Trotter, a charcuterie in Atlanta. There are two locations (Kirkwood and Krog Street Market) - I went to the Kirkwood location, a small shop in the historic neighborhood of Kirkwood. While it is local to Atlanta they do ship and if you are not near enough to come physically I encourage you to make use of this option - you will not be disappointed! 

Charcuterie is the branch of cooking that specializes in prepared meat products, especially (though not necessarily only) pork. Fortunately there is more to this than mixing meat together, stuffing it in a casing, and "preserving" it with lots of salt and even more chemicals. 

I appreciate the philosophy of the owner of the Spotted Trotter - procuring (pun intended!) locally and humanely raised meats and continuing to treat it with respect as it is prepared for our enjoyment. The more I learn about CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) and mass-produced big-ag meat the less I want to eat it and the more willing I am to pay a premium for meat raised in a physiologic manner - respecting how it was designed, and killing it in a humane way, respecting the principle of stewardship (which is far different from "sustainability"). I was told the meat is all pasture raised, and I saw a display for White Oak Pastures - a place for which I have deep appreciation and great respect. 

One of the purchases I made there was some ricotta cheese. This is far different from the glop you get at a grocery store that is mass produced from big-ag dairy! I had never had real ricotta - now I have. The texture was firm but slightly crumbly, and it was ever so slightly sweet with a definite (but not overpowering) hint of lemon. Absolutely amazing!! Yum! 

I also picked up some "Burger Blend" and a recipe for meatballs that I used to make meatloaf. It turned out quite well - I'll post the recipe in a follow up post. 

I am a hippie at heart and one of my fondest fantasies is to have a wee farmette. I don't know that I will ever be able to live that dream, but I feed it through farm tours - and their "friends" page lists plenty of places to be explored!