Barbara Salad

I'm BACK! Did you miss me? Josh and I survived my cousin's wedding weekend, and had a lot of fun, to boot. Turns out her husband's family and friends are fun (I already knew her friends are fun), which is a big deal and a big compliment from me since I go most places expecting to be bored brainless. And everything else was beautiful, but I would expect no less in that department from Sara.

Anyhow, after about 45 hours of extra sleep (being a MOH is some seriously hard work), it's time to get back into the kitchen. Thoughtful girl that I am, I stocked up on some recipes before I left so I would have stuff to roll out for you when I returned. Seriously, is there anyone better than me?

Continuing the salad trend for some reason, the next recipe was for Barbara Salad. I have no idea who Barbara is, but the recipe is from Lorraine Prost, the female half of Geff & Lorraine Prost, i.e. two of my parents' best and oldest friends. Lorraine is a pretty cool character - v into gardening (she has her own landscaping biz these days) and pets and stuff, which basically means that I may be turning into my mom's friend instead of my mom. I'm pretty sure at this point if you locked Lorraine and me in a room for 17 hours, we'd still be talking about our cats and the mushrooms coming up in my compost when you came and got us. (Side note: I discovered mushrooms in the lasagna herb garden this morning; they weren't there last night! Horrors!)

There could be worse fates than becoming Lorraine, I'll tell you that much. I logged a lot of hours at the Prosts' house growing up, and although many of them were clouded in an antihistamine haze for an imagined cat allergy (the cat that now sleeps on my head every night would indicate that perhaps that haze was for naught), I still recall it fondly. It was very homey and happy, complete with nice meals.

So, despite my innate and enormous salad-induced skepticism, I thought if anyone could pull off making me like things I didn't think I would, it would be Lorraine. I even think I have a memory of eating big salads at her house when I grew up. Could I have eaten Barbara Salad? I could have indeed.

Barbara Salad is pretty ridiculously easy; it's just a handful of Lorraine-picked ingredients that don't require long fussy preparations. So basically you can throw it together in like 5 minutes. Some of the ingredients immediately met with my approval (iceberg lettuce - YES. red onions - acceptable) and some of them immediately met with my disdain (red leaf lettuce? oranges? hmmm...). But I pretty much knew Josh would flip for it; I may not be an artichoke person, but Josh most certainly is.

In fact, he was evidently so excited by the notion of this salad that he decided he would grill some of its components. Although Lorraine does not specify at all that we should/need to, Grillmaster Josh grilled up the onions and mushrooms--to magnificent effect, might I add. Not only may they have been my favorite part of the salad, but I will probably start demanding grilled onions/mushrooms whenever it is convenient. Lorraine take note - we may have made the hard-won improvement!

Is it just me, or does this look exactly like the other salad?

Barbara Salad

Iceberg lettuce (YES!)
Red leaf lettuce (NO!)
Fresh orange - peeled and sliced into quarters and sections separated (hmph)
Fresh mushrooms - sliced thin (caps only)*
Red onion - sliced thin*
Marinated artichoke hearts (GLARPH.)
Caesar dressing (YES PLEASE!)

Mix all, skeptically eying the orange and artichoke hearts. Give piece of orange to dog, who, despite loving all things fruit and citrus, despite begging for lemons and gobbling clementines, says, 'Eh,' when you give him the orange and spits it out. Try to explain to the dog that while the outside is boring the inside is juicy. Be ignored by dog.

Take Josh up on offer to grill the onions and mushrooms, and be pretty damn proud of the results. Drown own salad in dressing (oh Caesar, sweet Caesar), but allow Josh a dressing-free version. Hoover up salad happily, managing to discover that you like red leaf lettuce (Serious score for Josh - red leaf AND butter lettuce have now been added to the roster. This is a major upset.) and that you can manage to eat a little artichoke heart without dying.

Lorraine note: I use equal amounts of both lettuces. For every four people, I use one large orange and 4-6 mushroom caps. Use one jar of artichokes and as much onion as you like. Add dressing just before serving. Make a lot. Most people have 2-3 servings. (True dat).

*Heather & Josh improvement - grilled. Delish.