Friday Friend Recipe #173 - Traditional Salad

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #173

Robbie's Traditional Salad

This is my favorite salad of all time.  In fact, in the FF cookbook, my name is listed on the recipe as the person who claims it as their own. It's called "Debbie's Traditional Salad".

  Robbie didn't turn many recipes in and I wanted this one in there because I love it, so I just went ahead and put my name to it, but 

it's really her recipe.  

This is all it has in it:

From eating at each other's homes every Friday Night for  the past 20 years,  we pretty much know all that each of us has to give on the food front, and I'm pretty sure we each have our favs.  Mine would be this salad but she doesn't make it anymore, she's moved on to a new salad, and a newer salad still.  All of them are very good, but nothing compares to this one for me.

It's the most simple salad I know how to make, but I just love it.  A note of caution tho---it's a salad designed for particular taste buds.  It has cilantro in it as well as chopped fresh ginger.  It lends itself to be a little spicy even, because of the ginger.  She and I love it,  our husbands hate it, so she would open a 'bag-o-salad' for them.

A few years ago we invited them for a weekend at our cabin in Oregon. We had a great time, it was an Art Show weekend and Robbie loves art.  They had a great art walk where you could wander and see artists in progress at different shops, as well as a couple of receptions where they did a wine tasting and art showing.  It was a lot of fun.

As well as art, we took a couple hikes that weekend--notice we are decked out for hiking. An afternoon hike doesn't entail taking off any jewelry, I guess. 

We also visited some micro-breweries and a local distillery. 

Later, while sitting down at the river,  the Handyman took a picture of Robbie and me, when we were trying to master the selfie!

Oh let's just face it!  We're just  bunch of old people who can't figure out our phones!

But the salad is  divine!

That's my story!

This is recipe number 173, my friends, only 121 left to go!