The Salad that Pleased an Engineer

Engineers hate salad. About once a month the company will have a lunch meeting and order 35 pizzas and a single tray of salad. The pizza is wolfed down in a matter of minutes but the salad lingers all afternoon until someone grabs the tray and throws it into the trash. It may begin to explain why "engineer" and "sexy" aren't generally used in the same sentence.

Today we threw ourselves a party to celebrate delivering our product on schedule. I signed up to bring the salad, Susie conquered the dessert and everyone else chipped in for pizza and soda. Did I mention that this isn't a good place to work if you are trying to eat healthy food?

Everyone eyed the salad suspiciously, but to my astonished amazement, everyone also went back for a second helping. Huh? Yep, you heard that right. Of course, everyone had taken only their obligatory 3 lettuce leaves the first time through the line, but then they thought it was so good that they got up specifically to get more. Not every salad has those kinds of bragging rights.

The dressing recipe makes a LOT. I used a 18 ounce bag of lettuce and about 3/4 of the dressing is still left. Hopefully someone will hear that I have a bunch to spare and show up on my doorstep, offering to take it off my hands before it goes bad. 1/3 - 1/2 of the dressing recipe would have been plenty. It is straight from the latest church cookbook.

On a final note, I don't really like mandarin oranges, onions, mustard, or vinegar. But when they all come together they balance out nicely and turn into something yummy.

Orange, Cranberry and Poppy seed Salad

Salad:

Lettuce

Grated Cheese

Mandarin Oranges, drained

Dried Cranberries

Slivered Almonds

Dressing:

2 T poppy seeds

3/4 C apple cider vinegar

2 C oil

1 small onion (or a small handful of food storage onions - they are milder)

2 T mustard

2 t salt

1 C sugar

Combine all dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth. Drizzle over the combined salad ingredients.