Not Your Everyday Veggie Platter

I think people truly miss the boat on a great salad!  A great salad doesn't always have to be tomatoes, lettuce, and a calorie overload of dressing.  A good salad can be anything you want it to be.  This summer in an attempt to use my favorite serving dishes and eat the bumper crop of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers from my garden, I thought about color.  Yes, color.  Color does please the eye.  As teachers we always laugh at our menu from our cafeteria.  We decided long ago that color plays a major role in what they serve on our trays each day.  The combinations are sometimes surprising, but always colorful. I don't know about you, but when I serve hot dogs in my house, I always place a healthy serving of cooked spinach right beside it, don't you?  As the kids say...not!  I say all of this in dear respect for our cafeteria cooks who honestly due to their good cooking have helped me add on the pounds over the years!  I realize that menu choice and selection are far, far out of their hands! 

I could rant on this for days, so back to my recipe of the day.  This really isn't a recipe...just a way to serve a salad in a different way.  In an attempt to make my dinner colorful, I got creative with my crudites or veggie platter.  My new white dishes from Crate and Barrel are the perfect white to complement the reds, greens, whites and yellows I serve on these plates.  On the side, you can really choose any dressing from light to creamy, or with nothing at all.  I like to add color when I serve my dressing in the choice of serving bowl I use.

Below is my salad platter.  There's no recipe...so be creative. Some of you may say to yourself that you do this all the time.  But what I have been delighted with most in doing this blog is that it is the simple things to me that are new things to others.  We all were a budding cook at one time, or didn't have the privilege as I did to watch my granny and mother cook meals night after night.  We are turning into the fast food nation, when honestly if you just shop ahead and plan a slight bit ahead, meals are not all that hard to prepare. 

It's my greatest hope that it's the simple ideas and recipes I share that will ultimately prompt you to cook for not only yourself, but for your family and friends.  As a teacher ultimately at heart, and mom that hopes my girls will be proud one day that my recipes are archived and online for them, I hope to make cooking look easy to the young and old. Because it; that is cooking, really, really is.  Promise!


Note:  You'll notice the open faced hand sandwiches I have beside the vegetable platter with my favorite Ranch Dressing.  Even sandwiches can be creative! 

Simple, easy...and it doesn't have to be a work of art getting salad on the table.

Alise



Spring is Just Around the Corner - Winter Salad Recipe

Spring is Just Around the Corner 
 
Winter Salad Recipe
 

In winter I dream about my garden in the spring.  What will we grow, when will we plant...and always have ambitious plans.  Our garden is always HUGE!  This past year my husband got a little carried away and planted 48 tomato plants.  Most of their fruit however was given to friends and family.  This year (my husband and I have predicted) that our garden will be much, much smaller than last...but this is something we say every year.  As we shop our for our plants...one pack though is never enough.

This spring I plan to plant heirloom tomatoes, white eggplants, and long, slender zucchini just to name a few!  I love planting brussel sprouts for my daughter to pick and mostly just enjoy knowing that most of my meal on some nights was provided off our ranch; the meat from our Hereford cattle, the vegetables from our garden, and prepared in my kitchen or at my grill.

As you sit by the fire with your computer nearby, google plant and seed catalogs, send off for their magazines, and start dreaming of spring!  My Winter Salad below is a taste of early spring.  It's a favorite at family gatherings and so easy to make.  It's right around the corner right!  I hope the ground hog doesn't see his shadow tomorrow and spring is just around the corner!

 

 

 

Winter Salad

1 large head of broccoli (cut with florets only), frozen can be used - thaw

1 large head of cauliflower (cut with florets only), frozen can be used – thaw

1 16 ounce Creamy Italian Dressing or Ceasar Salad Dressing

1 cup REAL Mayonnaise

 

Optional vegetables:

12 – 18 cherry tomatoes or Roma sliced

1 red onion, chopped

1 bunch - fresh spinach leaves

Combine Creamy Italian Dressing and REAL Mayonnaise with a whisk.  Spoon dressing mixture over broccoli and cauliflower.  Mix well.  Serve chilled.  Mix in a separate bowl from the one you serve in. 

*This will need to be refrigerated until ready to serve as broccoli will wilt.