Here's to you Captain Vegetable (Part 1 of a few, I'm sure)

Ah, the noble carrot, that passionate parsnip, you rugged rutabaga. Yes, the vegetable kingdom is wide and marvelous. Though we might not always think of a head of cabbage as being the most important thing in the refrigerator, there are many people around the world to whom these particular items are the bread and butter of their diet.

I am not one of them.

I am a carnivore, I like meat; but I am one who respects the vegetable, as meat is costly and you can only eat so much of if before you are...let's say, plugged up. Take my recent kick.

Salads.

Simple I know, but I'm really into salads of all kinds at the moment, preferably of the veg variety, with added proteins (as opposed to a mayonnaise salad like ham salad). The desk job I work part time has a fantastic cafe with a huge salad bar, lined with a daily variety of vegetation and proteins, as well as a hefty selection of different cheeses and crouton like toppings. I'll create a little mosh of regular lettuce, fresh spinach, carrots, and cabbage, as well as the occasional string beans, or kidney beans, et cetera. They have an array of chopped meats and cold fish as well. My protein of choice is the egg.

I could go on and on about eggs, so let's leave that for another time.

But eggs are darn good in a salad, the French knew it, and their nicoise salad (yes, named for Nice) is a fine example.

The Greeks have one of my all time favorites, Horiatiki is really the only kind of salad you get in Greece. I mean of course they have other kinds, but this it THE salad. Comprised of cucumber, ripe tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese, mixed with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and olive oil. I believe that the woman who cooked for us while we lived in Greece also added white wine vinegar to the dressing. But that was it; so simple, so fresh, and it would keep for a long while, already dressed, unlike lettuce, which wilts after a time. We had this salad every day; it is a staple, and one of the things the husband and I missed most after our residency in Greece came to an end.

Every culture has it's version of a salad like this. I mean, the Italians put tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella together, and it's become posh nosh in our young country. And people have been eating these types of salads for centuries, long before ranch dressing came into being--because they were healthy, and made of practical, on hand ingredients; and they were and are really, REALLY good.

Not to mention healthy. And fun!

I bet some kids out there would rather put together a colorful salad than finger paint. I know I would. Finger painting is messy and the red color always smells funny. Not to mention you cannot eat finger paints that you find in the art department at Target. That is a huge downer. Definitely should make one rethink finger painting altogether.

Anyway. Here's to you, you saucy salad (and sometimes not so saucy, depending on your taste). May you continue to reinvent yourself and cleanse our pallets; help us stay fit and keep our innards regular.