Savoring September Salads

Autumn is my favorite season.

I love the beautiful colors, the crisp air, dry leaves that crinkle under my boots, and the cool, damp nights.

But I am not the only one who enjoys the cool, damp nights of autumn... salad greens like this kind of weather, too. They thrive in it.

If you have a garden, or a window box, or a flower pot on a stoop you can plant some lettuce and spinach seeds and have some quick growing salad this time of year. Depending on where you live and the kindness of Mother Nature, there may still be time to plant seeds for salad makings. Keep them well watered and they will continue to make salad for you even as you pick and use the greens. They will likely survive some frost. And no salad tastes better than the one that you tended into the coldest of weather.

My favorite way to dress a salad is the simplest... a splash of tasty vinegar, some olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss it together and dig in.

But salad is very accommodating. It will accept all kinds of additions. The more you add to it, the better it gets, limited only by your imagination and bravery. So throw in anything you've got.... steamed broccoli, sliced pork chop, caramelized onions, fresh chopped parsley, zucchini blossoms, toasted pumpkin seeds, diced apple, cooked lima beans, hard boiled egg, or leftover toast. Salad makes a great dumping ground for many of the odds and ends lurking in your fridge.

I've never met a salad that I didn't like.