Salad Days of Summer

So I went the El Dorado Hills Farmer's Market yesterday for the first time. While the veggies looked nice, I was rather underwhelmed. I am still the salad maker in the family and I take this job very seriously. I spend a some time most weekends cutting veggies into small squares so I can make my beloved "Israeli salad". Personally, I have yet to find any great difference in taste from the expensive farmer's market produce to the stuff we buy (at a lot less) from Costco. None of these come close to the veggies from the Shuk or the supermarket in Raanana. I was blown away this week when I went to Safeway to pick up a few things for my weekend salad - bell peppers were $1.99 each! Even at Waitrose in Richmond three peppers were 99p.

So I will not be buying anything at the farmers market in the near future. While trying to be a thoughtful husband, I bought bwo some chocolate chip cookies, $7.50 for three. She said they were "meh". 

My salad recipe (it's not hard): 3 tomatoes, 1 large cucumber (or 6 or the little "Persian" ones), 2 bell peppers (red, or orange or yellow), some snow peas (or sugar snap peas), half a red onion and if you have some parsley (must be fresh), spring onion or any other kind of veggie (we had some leftover roasted broccoli which was delicious). Cut these up into small squares  (with a sharp knife). Make a lot and keep it in the fridge in a Tupperware, do not add dressing till you are ready to eat. My current favorite dressing is raw tahina (needs to come from the Middle east - we get ours at 99 Ranch or from visitors from Israel) mixed with quite a lot of salsa (I like the pace medium or El Paso hot), no water, just tehina and salsa. Salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly, then enjoy the crunch.