Summer Salad

One of the many things I love about summer is the veggies. I love fresh vegetables to death, but often in the winter in Toronto I feel like I'm not eating enough veggies. Everything you'd find in the supermarket would be bland an unappetizing.

But in the summer, this isn't an issue. Delicious produce abounds. And so, when summer rolls around, I love to make salads like this.

I love salad, but given the choice between a leafy green salad and this kind of chop salad, I'd never eat the lettucy one. Because this salad is essentially a collection of my favorite veggies in a bowl together with dressing, cheese, and bread.

With recipes like this, I highly recommend you only look at my instructions as guidelines. If you have an idea of what could be added, go for it, and leave it in the comments so I can try it out.

Summer Salad

5-6 large servings

2 bell peppers (any color)
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes (Just get whatever looks the best and most flavorful)
1/2 large onion (sweet or red)
Feta to taste
4 thick slices of bread (lightly toasted optional)

Chop everything into bite-size pieces (~1 inch square) and toss in a large bowl. Top with dressing (recipe to follow). Toss salad to thoroughly coat with dressing.

Dressing

3 Tablespoons lemon juice/vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a jar or tupperware container and shake it into submission. It's ready when the mixture is homogenous. Don't feel obliged to add it all if it looks like too much. Everyone has different tastes. If you don't use all of it, just reseal the container and keep it in the fridge for later.


Variation:

I can rarely finish all this salad once I make it, but that's not a problem because it keeps wonderfully (another reason I love it more that leafy salads). If you think you can't finish it all at once, simply add the bread as you go. Serve yourself a bowl of veggies, toast a slice of bread and break it into your bowl. Give it a second to soak up all the dressing, and then enjoy.

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Continuing the theme of summer, my music selection for today is my current summer playlist. It just elicits this feeling of expansive landscapes and sunny skies and warm breezes. Essentially it epitomizes summer. I hope it makes you feel the same.

In the Yard - Bowerbirds
Skinny Love - Bon Iver
Madder Red - Yeasayer
Richard Parker - The Novel Ideas
Home - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Algebra - Airship
Alabaster - Foals
Alpha Shallows - Laura Marling

Hello world!

Well, hello everybody! So, this is basically going to be a collection of things that make me happy. This mainly includes food and music. So expect to see lots of recipes and music recommendations/reviews. I love cooking simple, delicious food (for myself, and for friends). It's so cheap and easy to make your food taste just the way you want it (rather than spending money at a restaurant for someone else to make your food their way. And I love listening to music while I cook. I'm not ashamed to dance around the kitchen while I'm making my dinner. Cooking is fun, and music just makes it more fun. So I hope you'll enjoy whatever recipes and music I dig up for you all :)