Farmers' Market Salad

As I discussed in a previous entry, I think it's important to support local farmers and sustainable agricultural practices. Every week, I frequent the local farmers' market to purchase organic produce and freshly-baked goods.

Today, my purchases included romaine lettuce, Brandywine and Rome heirloom tomatoes, and a log of goat cheese. The cheese was produced on a pristine farm with 70 Alpine and Saanen goats. Happily, it's free of antibiotic residue and synthetic hormones, and it's super rich and creamy.

I like to do variations on a Caprese salad, so I whipped up a Farmers' Market salad with the lettuce, tomatoes, goat cheese, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper.

The Great Cobb Debate

My friend Emily--who, like me, is more than a little bit food-obsessed--is moving to another city soon, so we spent a long afternoon in Boston yesterday. (See yesterday's post about our visit to Flour Bakery + Cafe.) Or, as she so succinctly put it, "We basically spent the day walking to a restaurant, eating, walking to another restaurant, eating, and walking to a bookstore to read cookbooks."For lunch, we ate at Francesca's Cafe in the South End. It started off promising: Emily had Quiche Lorraine with a side salad:And I had a Raspberry Lime Rickey in a pretty shade:...but then, in my estimation, things went downhill. I had this Cobb salad:It was perfectly delicious--thanks in large part to the copious amounts of Gorgonzola, bacon, and turkey--but I always feel a little weird whenever the ingredients in a Cobb are jumbled all together. I mean, my Cobb looks essentially the same as Emily's side salad, albeit with more stuff thrown on the plate.

Indeed, the last three or four Cobb salads I've ordered in restaurants have arrived this way. I suppose it's the modern/avant-garde/deconstructed take on a traditionally structured salad. Or maybe the chefs just get tired of making the time-consuming traditional presentation. But I"m starting a one-person revolution: Bring back the true Cobb!