My husband loves salads. The other day I had lots of nice roma tomatoes, half an onion, perhaps two teaspoonfuls of capers, a couple handfuls of calamata olives, part of an avocado, and perhaps two pounds of diced up nicely seasoned pot roast leftovers. I did not have any lettuce. Creating a salad from these ingredients to feed the hungry comes under the umbrella of my vocation. Writing about my no lettuce salad comes under that umbrella too.
Here is how I tackled making my salad:
- For each person, I cut up two tomatoes, a little bit of onion, a forkful of capers, four or five olives, a small amount of avocado and mixed it in a bowl.
- I heated the meat in the microwave to warm it slightly then divided it among the bowls.
- Then I mixed a slosh of apple cider vinegar, a drizzle of red wine vinegar, a generous squirt of lemon juice (lime juice works even better), with a half handful of Italian seasoning, a sqeeze of stone ground mustard, several shakes of garlic pepper, and added a small amount of olive oil. I closed the lid and shook it until it emulsified.
- Drizzled the dressing over everything in each bowl, tossed it a bit to mix and served it.
- Leftover dressing went in the refrigerator (and I used it on other leftovers the next day).
Hubby really liked my salad. So did I and so did the Little Tiger. SUCCESS!
I’m not much of a cook, but this was easy and tasted good. No precise measurements and never exactly the same twice but so far good every time. mmmmmmm.
One of these days I’m going to remember to take pictures and put them on here like Fr. Z does on his blog when he shares his culinary masterwork. Unlike some of my cooking efforts, this salad was pretty to look at and I would have liked to share that visual success.
All this focus on food caused me to pause and think about Catholic missions and hunger in the world. Which organizations do the most efficient job of feeding the hungry of the world? Anybody know?
Dear Lord, Thank You for my family and the opportunity to serve my family by making salads. Thank You for the variety of food available to us in this country. Please bless the many people in the world who lack food. Help our Catholic mission work to succeed in aiding people in ways that are real and lasting. Please inspire us who are well fed to donate generously to that work. Amen.
