Daily Vinaigrette?

Radishes from the garden

Summer salad

Daily vinaigrette

     garlic clove

     olive oil

     walnut oil

     apple cider vinegar or sauvignon blanc vinegar

     small dollop dijon mustard

     salt and pepper

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I miss going to Maine and tend to start noticing my state-of-being around this time of year.  I am guessing it is because the fall seasonal change is just making its presence felt in the mornings here with a nippy little chill.  Those glorious fall landscapes in Maine were so special -- no way to do justice to the emotional feeling of viewing fall foliage along coastal Maine.  Do you recall that old two-story house in Bar Harbor where they would serve lunch out on the side porch?  Somehow I was thinking of it this morning -- they served great salads, and we appreciated the cool salad in the warm late summer days.  We'd sit out there and talk for so long.

Salads are big on the menu over here.  By lunch time we are often feeling a bit heated up in this Indian summer weather.  Also, the ingredients are something I almost always have around.  I think these days I am throwing in more things than in the past.  Sometimes I think about what "goes together."  Yet other times I just like variety without any thought to the mixture -- I might put beets and strawberries and who-knows-what in the same salad.  Friends gave me the best kitchen tool I have received in ages -- so useful.  It is called a garlic grater-marinade bowl. It is from a potter up in Sonoma called Architectural Ceramic Design.  I use it every day!  I take those glorious big cloves of garlic from Blue House Farm and begin the vinaigrette by running it across the grater in the bottom of the bowl -- then just add the other ingredients to the bowl.  So much easier than a garlic press.

I like reminiscing about the times we shared.  I think of you so often.  Love, Donna