elena's salad

in what seems another lifetime ago, i had a friend named elena enter my life. Our lives were mirrors of each other--a husband, a boy, a girl, a dog and a job. she invited me and the kids to join her and hers for pizza, delivered, and a salad one day.
alas, she has moved aways from here, but never away. when i make this, i think of her, as she helped expand my concept of what a salad is. (it is NOT iceberg, tomato and cucumber. more on that another time).

spring greens
broccoli slaw
sliced onions (optional)
nuts--almonds, pistacheos
dried cranberries
crumbled bleu cheese (also optional)
balsamic vinagrette

the ten dollar salad

the name of this comes from my sister who used to work at a HoJos, or more formally a Howard Johnsons restaurant. there was a one-price salad bar and of course some customers probably abused the concept. to organize this would cost more than ten dollars, certainly, but assemble what's available from leftovers and it's a cool and inexpensive answer to WFD?

the salad:
lettuce
carrots
onions
celery
cabbage
frozen peas, thawed
broccoli
cauliflower
radishes
etc














the stuff on top that makes it taste good, makes it an expensive, calorie-wise choice:
ham
cheddar
hard-boiled eggs
turkey
sesame seeds
raisins
chinese noodles
croutons



the idea is to make everything bite sized and an interesting combination of flavors
for this, ken's steak house thousand island is the only choice for dressing.