chop chop

Sometimes I forget how much I love a good chopped salad. I won't call it a resolution, but one of my goals this year (and every year) is not to let fresh veggies go to waste. For some reason, my potatoes almost always sprout before I use them, so I've been making hash browns more often. The kids love them and I just shred them in the food processor. I pretty much eat greens most mornings with eggs and fruit so that has mostly cured the greens sticking around till past their prime, but often it's when I have one of this or that that the veggies end up in the compost bin. Luckily our veggies never go totally to waste because of the chickens. But anyway, I was reading the best of Cooks Illustrated this week and there was a write-up on chopped salads and that was just the inspiration I needed. I promptly got up, went to the fridge and made me a chopped salad with loner veggies that needed friends. The dressing is just red wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I almost always have Niscoise olives in the fridge, but I struck out this time. The kids were happy no olives showed up, but they would have made this even more flavorful..for me, that is.