pink salad

so my latest variation from the signature is what i'm calling the pink salad. the main addition is a small to medium sized beet, peeled and grated just like it was a carrot. the more you toss it, the more pink ends up sneaking into the other ingredients, particularly the feta. shake (of shake & bake fame), was sort of shocked that the beat could be used raw, so maybe this is something other folks would be interested in knowing as well?

i made a fresh one today, but can't seem to find my camera cable and the photos i took on my photo are awful, so you'll have to settle for the photo above, taken at pre-thanks this year. the longer you keep the leftovers, the pinker everything else gets. on the third day, it looked more like japanese pickles than salad really.

same dressing as usual too, although maybe a little more mustard than usual just to combat the extra earthiness of the beat.

holiday blunders

or, "unintentional zucchini casserole"

At our pre-thanksgiving celebration, I attempted to recreate my zucchini au gratin from last year, albeit in larger quantity and with the addition of canned tomatoes on top instead of purely decorative slices of a fresh tomato. 


However, I managed to overdo the milk and garlic, so it never quite obtained that lovely gratin texture.  I wasn't pleased, until later I heard folks asking about "Who made that zucchini casserole?  It's so good."  Then I realized I should just not tell anyone it was supposed to be a gratin.


Moral of the story?  My kitchen mistakes are better than danielle's.  Also, if find out that your holiay meal isn't going as planned, maybe just keep your mouth shut and no one will notice. 


Happy holidays.

menu at obama's state dinner

So he may not have done a whole lot for the gays yet, but at least he has a vegetarian main course at his state dinner. And "White House Arugula"!

Anyone have menus they'd like to share, either for today's feast or otherwise?