A Salad and a Healthy Dessert

am sending Linnea a CD track by track and while I wait for it to load I will tell you about the salad we made for the Pat and Greg and the dessert they brought on Saturday night. What with all of the dietary restrictions because of an fascinating variety of ailments we have collectively, it is an interesting challenge to cook for the four of us. There was a recipe in the paper (The Minneapolis Tribune may be a bit short on news but they still do have recipes. We get it, you know, because they didn't endorse George Bush.)

My Improved Version of the Salad:

Cut up about 1 medium carrot per person or an equivalent amount of winter squash or sweet potatoes. The sous chef around here was told 3/4 inch by by 3/4 inch. Toss the roots in a little olive oil and add some grated ginger root if you like and pop it in the oven at about 375. (The newspaper wanted one to line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Things turned out fine without the foil and the sous chef cleaned the pan.) I may have sprinkled on a bit of sherry--can't remember. Peel one ripe pear for every two people and an extra one. put them, cut side down, in the roasting pan and sprinkle a bit of oil over them. Again you could add ginger root or sherry if you wanted.

When the pears and vegetables are softened to your taste remove from the oven. Put a half a pear (or a whole pear if you are preparing more than four portions) in the blender with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar. Put a small handful of greens or arugula per person on a platter or a dish with low sides. Toss with a bit of oil and sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of vinegar.

Arrange the carrots and pear halves prettily on top of the greens and sprinkle the pear-oil-vinegar mixture over everything. You can do this just as the pears and vegetable come out of the oven or after they have cooled some. Just don't refrigerate them--actually I guess you could do that if you wanted but warm or room temperature seems better to me. All four of us liked the salad a lot. Time for bed. I'll pass along Pat's dessert recipe later.