Life Makes Sense Again! Subtitle: Spring Means Salads.

As I unpacked my first farmshare box of the season last night... well, let's just say I'm glad no one was there to see how excited I got about various vegetables.  And... I suddenly felt like life made sense again.  This box contains normalcy, and happiness, and hours of delightful cooking and thinking about cooking and eating.  It is a very exciting time for me.

Most people I know who have tried a CSA but haven't kept it up give the same reason: they like having fresh local produce, but they want a choice in what the produce is.  I respect this opinion, but I do not understand it.  All winter long, I've been going to the grocery store and just staring at the produce aisle blankly.  What do I want?  I have no idea!  I want variety!  I want to have interesting things thrust at me so that I am forced to creatively use them!  Also, the produce aisle just does not interest me anymore.  (This reflection actually makes me a bit sad, because just a couple of years ago I would've named the produce aisle of any grocery store a comforting sight - "What peaches and what penumbras!" - although I suppose now I get that feeling from looking at growing vegetables?)

In any case, as it is spring, and I received three heads of lettuce, a bag of arugula, and a lb of fresh spinach... the natural first step was to make salad.

Before I ate lunch, this container held less than half of the 3 heads of lettuce I acquired.  Salads with every meal!!

here's what's in it:
3 heads lettuce, double washed and torn
1 bunch radishes, sliced
1/2 c almonds, sliced
one head broccoli (I still can't spell this word!), broken up
5 carrots, sliced
1 bunch green onions, chopped

I would've added beans for protein, but I got home so late from picking it up (and holding a tiny baby!) that I didn't bother - I usually cook beans in my slow cooker, and the freezer was empty of cooked ones.  That's when the almonds came in.  The spiciness of the radishes as well as my general propensity to have green onions with Asian food - especially peanut noodles - as well as my desire to add a bit more protein to this mess, inspired the following dressing (amounts are approximate) which I'm head-over-heels in love with:

1/2 c natural peanut butter
1/4 c organic brown rice vinegar
2 T sesame oil
1 t cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/4 t salt