We find ourselves in the delightful position of having too much to tell you about! I can’t keep up! I’ve also been talking too much lately. So, first of all, I apologize for posting several times in one day. Second of all, these are salads. Salads should be quick to make and pleasing to eat, and you shouldn’t waffle on about them for hours and hours. So I won’t! I’ll give you some recipes, and some good music, and set you on your way.

My boys loved both of these salads and fought over the bowl. The first is green and light, with arugula, romaine, pink lady apples, feta, and pecans. The second is a little heartier and quite savory. It’s got chickpeas, feta, kalamata olives, capers, pine nuts and fresh juicy tomatoes. We ate it with crispy eggplant rounds, as a nice meal.

And here’s a playlist featuring songs with horns. Horn-y songs. I love songs with horns! If anybody would like to suggest other songs with horns to add the list, I’m all ears!

SALAD # 1
4 or 5 pieces of romaine, crisp and clean
2 or 3 cups baby arugula
1 pink lady apple (or any kind you like tart-sweet works well here) cored and chopped
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese, diced into little chunks
olive oil
balsamic
salt
pepper

Cut or tear the romain into bite-sized pieces. Put in your salad bowl and add the arugula. Drizzle olive oil over, and using two big forks, toss everything lightly. Sprinkle on some sea salt, lightly toss again. Sprinkle on some balsamic and lots of freshly ground pepper, and toss again. Scatter everything else on top, and give the salad one more light toss.

SALAD # 2

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 big tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 t capers
1/2 cup kalamata olive, pitted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup feta, diced
2 T pine nuts, lightly toasted
olive oil
sherry vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil, cleaned and chopped
salad greens of your choice
salt and freshly ground pepper

Put the salad greens in the bottom of a broad bowl. Put the tomatoes on top, and then the chickpeas, toss these together lightly. Top with olives, feta, capers, pinenuts, olive oil, vinegar, basil. Mix everything lightly. Season well with salt and pepper