M. Suzanne Terry

As integral to our family life as food was, I didn’t really learn to cook a lot of things growing up. Mom had a system, and it seemed to stress her out to have us in there when she was cooking.

But it’s hard to mess up a salad. We didn’t need a lot of direction (other than the main one of chopping everything into small bits so that a long-ass piece of lettuce doesn’t get dressing all over your face when you’re trying to eat it), so once my sister and I got old enough to wield a knife with minimal risk of peril, making a salad was our job.

I don’t remember a time growing up when there wasn’t a salad in the fridge, and that faithful constant remains true today at the farm. We made one every night at supper with enough left over for lunch or for a snack the next day. To this day, I count salad among my snack food options.

To this day, I also feel compelled to visit the salad bar if it’s available wherever I eat. I don’t always give in, but I feel the tug.

I do not often make a salad at home, though. I have done that enough to last a lifetime. I will buy the bagged salads with the ingredients already chopped and the toppings already prepared (Taylor Farms kits are my faves, particularly the Everything, Asiago Kale, Sweet Kale, and Thai Chili Mango kits) and make a whole meal out of them, but I rarely buy the ingredients alone.

But occasionally, I get a nostalgic urge for a basic green salad and the compulsion to chop it up myself. When that happens, here are my favorite ingredients:

• Leafy greens of some sort (usually some type of lettuce, but I also love arugula and kale)
• Radishes
• Snap peas
• Carrots
• Whole cherry or grape tomatoes (I do not like tomato juice dripping freely throughout my salad)
• Black or Kalamata olives
• Dried cranberries or apricots
• Some kind of cheese (my typical preferences are a sharp, hard variety such as cheddar, feta, or goat cheese)
• A little bit of dressing (specifically French, Russian, Catalina, honey mustard, or Caesar)

What’s in your favorite salad?

I’m talking about home and how it has influenced my food choices this month.