It’s like a salad, only bigger, with lots of stuff in it.
What’s not to love about summer? These days, we are taking advantage of every ray of sunshine and every piece of produce that comes our way. We had the best weekend ever by doing both.
Friday, we had a wonderful meal at the Brickyard.Saturday, after stopping at the farmer’s market,and Flook’s meat market,the whole fandamily saddled up and rode down south. OK, not that far down south, but when you are in a 56-year old quirky convertible, you generally know your limits. Selinsgrove is a lovely town! We each ended up giving Ben half of our sandwich. Sophia was along for the ride, so if you are keeping score, you’ll know that Ben had two and a half sandwiches. Sometimes, I tell Ben to pace himself. His answer is always the same. “I hate pasting myself!”Sunday we started the day off right with blueberry pancakes and bacon. I’ve been really monitoring my caloric intake lately, so Ben had to work hard for this one. When he heard me say bacon had a lot of fat, he proclaimed, defensively, “Bacon’s not fat! It’s skinny!” As proof, he held up his thumb and index finger a mere inch apart, to show the width of a piece of bacon.The afternoon found us casually socializing with some other Lyco folks, which was awesome. When we got home, we worked on the “Big Salad,” all hands on deck.There were a lot of moving parts, and I’m not sure I can adequately sum up what we did, but I’ll try.
From top to bottom:
Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Fresh corn, lettuce, and cucumbers, topped with homemade ranch dressing.
Grilled T-bone steak.
Roasted baby carrots with parsley pistachio pesto.
Farro, peach, sugar snap pea and mint in a dressing of equal parts lime juice, brown sugar and fish sauce.
Every salad element contained locally sourced items! Did I mention how delicious it was? I’m not even sure I could nail down my favorite, but Ben’s was certainly the steak. What did you expect him to pick? His love of salad is no accident.
Our salad advice is to get things you love that look great at the farmer’s market. Keep elements separate on a huge platter, so you can appreciate each part. Combine things that make sense together. Make different dressings/sauces for different parts. Some items should be warm or room temperature, while others will be cold. Use different textures and flavors. Include protein and some ballast (like farro).
