I think I've told you before, but my twin brother Jordan is an incredibly talented character. He's an amazing source of humor and inspiration for me, even when whole oceans or endless stretches of land seem to surface between us. So here he is with a tale of the family, and of a particularly special salad...
Some iteration of this sentence has surely appeared in the stream of consciousness below: There are two things that my family likes to do--play tennis and eat really good food. Neither my twin sister nor I had the attention span to endure anything beyond the youth tennis camps our mother so happily forced us to partake in; however, we both did come to love eating, and what better setting to do so in than at the all too frequent five-o-clock dinners our family has whenever we're both home. Then we were naive children who were unaware of our future as gourmets. Now we are mistakably pretentious (or as we prefer to say, passionate) about really good food. What facilitated the transition were the dinners we had with our family that exposed depth and intricacies of food. I might add that our family loves to characterize the behaviors of each of its members--so naturally, everything from Uncle Terry's classic ice-down-the-back to our Mom's erratic photo-shoots (look at our fridge the next time you make it to the Orinda house) sends our twin-telepathic hilarity into overdrive. Yet, the end product of these lovely gatherings is always the same: a massive feast and a great deal of laughter.
Living on my own and supporting myself the past few months has afforded several great life lessons. Always take the subway ten minutes before you have to, because if you don't the train will probably break down and you'll be late to work. Don't borrow your best friend and roommate's car while he's studying abroad in Germany if you're probably going to rear-end another car and end up with a big bill to pay. And, if you get invited to a potluck with your coworkers make something that they will remember. Well, when I was invited to attend my lab's cookout it wasn't difficult for me to decide on an unforgettable dish.
The heat of a Boston summer is unforgiving and oppressive. The humidity weighs you down so much that you'll avoid eating anything that you might feel sitting in your stomach afterwards at all costs. So what better to bring to a cook out than a colorful chop salad. In fact, the chop salad I had in mind was the one that my Uncle Terry typically prepared for our summer dinners. He was flattered to give away the recipe because, as he said, "Nobody asks for my recipes"! Well, a $50 trip to whole foods (who knew cucumbers were so damn expensive!?) and a few hours of chopping later I had a wonderful salad. So blow off some steam from your long commute home from work where you're the only non member of the army of mesmerized blackberry and iphone users. Look at the recipe below and write it down. Go buy the ingredients and don't open your computer until after you've enjoyed this wonderful salad. We all need a break from our overly connected lives, better to do it eating a great meal!
Uncle Terry's Chopped Salad
2 avocados
6 tomatoes
5 small cucumbers
6 green onions
2 bed bell pepper
4 radishes
Parsley
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Optional: Bacon
Chop the ingredients into small cubes and garnish with a Balsamic Vinaigrette. The final tossed salad should be colorful, textural, and tasty.
