{"id":800,"date":"2015-03-30T08:03:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T12:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=800"},"modified":"2015-04-01T12:23:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T16:23:50","slug":"salad-sings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/salad-sings\/","title":{"rendered":"Salad That Sings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robin<\/a>If salads could sing, mine would sound like a Mozart sonata. Infused with joy, my salads are lifesavers lifting me from a sea of sadness. These cheerful creations get me focused on something other than my loss. They help anchor me to a community of friends.<\/p>\n

It started out years ago when I was part of a small foodie group that made the rounds of regional restaurants and got together Saturday nights to cook what we\u2019d toast as \u201cthe best food in Ithaca tonight.\u201d The others<\/a> in the group were much more accomplished cooks than I. So each week my contribution was the salad. Not too much stress; if I botched the salad, there was always an appetizer, a main course, the cheese course, and two desserts. We wouldn\u2019t go hungry. Salads became my specialty.
\n\u201cWhat can I bring?\u201d I ask now when invited to dinner. Almost always I hear, \u201cCan you make a salad?\u201d And most of the time, based on the individuals, the season, and the main dish or theme of the dinner, I get an immediate idea for the conglomeration I will build.<\/p>\n

Making salad for friends is almost a ritual: spreading a blanket of greens, chopping on the ancient cutting board, mixing in pomegranates, pistachios, sugar snap peas, or florets of Romanesco broccoli. Into the bright concoction I throw cheeses, nuts, legumes, seafood, fruit, \u2026 sometimes even edible flowers<\/a>. I top each bowl with something beautiful, like splashes of yellow bell peppers, confetti of red cabbage, a snowfall of scallion, roasted cubes of sweet potato.<\/p>\n

My salads are celebrations of the sweet and savory, colors and crunch, local ingredients and exotic delicacies. And of the world that is ever turning, to which I still belong despite my grief. When you dive into my gift, the bowl that brims over in greens and gratitude, maybe you can tell: each toss is a song of love for those who have seen me through hard times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you take care of the ones who take care of you? What do you put into your favorite salads?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If salads could sing, mine would sound like a Mozart sonata. Infused with joy, my salads are lifesavers lifting me from a sea of sadness. These cheerful creations get me focused on something other than my loss. They help anchor me to a community of friends. It started out years ago when I was part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[464,462,465,463,461,460],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-374","tag-despite-grief","tag-foodie-friends","tag-gratitude-and-grief","tag-healing-salad","tag-life-saving-salad","tag-salad-that-sings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t