The Quest for the Perfect Salad

A couple of months ago my friend took me out for lunch to a cool little restaurant in Leesburg, The Eiffel Tower Cafe.  (We both have a little love affair with all things French.)  The food in general was very good but what particularly made us swoon was the "Wild Mushroom Salad with Goat Cheese".  I start salivating every time I think about it. Yum.

The first time we were there, the food was delivered and looked delicious but I told her I would resist the temptation to Instagram my food.  The second time I had no such scruples and I took this cell phone shot of that delightful salad. (It would be a mistake to find this salad lacking based on the poor quality of photos that my cell phone takes.)

The other day, after having tended to a sick child all day, I suddenly got a hankering for this salad.  (Which is not really shocking because ever since I first had it, I've pretty much craved this salad nonstop.)  As I was saying, I was hungry for this salad.  My husband was headed to grab something from the grocery store so I asked him to pick up greens, mushrooms and goat cheese.  While he was doing that, I made a balsamic vinegar reduction, which turned out to be pretty easy.

He came home with spinach as the greens. I wouldn't recommend spinach for future endeavors but it still wasn't bad.

 

Next I went to the grocery store.  I must have caught them right before restocking because they were a little low on things and didn't have endive so I tried it with romaine and a mushroom medley.  I liked the mushroom medley.  I liked the romaine better than the spinach but it still couldn't compare with the original.

So the quest for the perfect salad continues (because I'm telling you, this salad *is* perfect).

By the way, since I was already sauteing mushrooms, I also sauteed some tofu and put a tofu and mushroom mixture on top of some Shirataki Noodles.  That was yummy too.

We Got Cannibals Up in Here

This morning Kardynn and I were discussing the importance of being honest.  I was trying to drill into my little five year-old that every time she tells a lie, we trust her less and less.  She piped up, "Yes, it's part of being a cannibal."  I was startled and trying to figure out the connection until she repeated herself, "It's part of being ah-coun-able (accountable)."

I feel safer already. 

(For the record, it does seems to me that cannibal children have a mighty big incentive to be honest to their cannibal parents.)