By New Year's Eve 2021, and I held to the plan: the Burgundy, a proper dinner. Duck breast with cherry sauce, roasted root vegetables from the cellar, a green salad with the shallots that have kept beautifully through December. I ate slowly, alone, at the kitchen table, with the radio on low. The fire was going. By eleven o'clock I was tired but I stayed up anyway, watching the clock turn to midnight the way you watch a clock turn to midnight when you're home alone and doing it out of commitment rather than celebration.
2022. I sat with the number for a few minutes in the new year's quiet. The year I'll turn sixty-nine, the year I'll have my eighth solo maple season, the year the farm will do what the farm does. I don't make resolutions, which seems like a practice designed to produce the wrong relationship between aspiration and action. I make note of what I want to keep doing, which is different. Keep cooking. Keep writing. Keep teaching Teddy. Keep calling Carol every Sunday and Bill from Maine when the mood strikes. Keep up the correspondence that the blog has generated. Those are not resolutions. They're the life I'm already living and intend to continue.
Went to bed at twelve-fifteen. Woke up on January first with the woodstove still warm and the property silent under a light snow that had come in overnight and covered everything in that fresh-start way that new snow does. I made coffee and stood at the window and looked at it.
Good enough. The year starts. Let it start.
The duck and the Burgundy get most of the credit for that evening, but it was the salad — shallots I’d pulled from storage, greens that had kept well, a straightforward vinaigrette — that I keep coming back to as the thing that made the meal feel complete. A house salad done right asks nothing of you and gives everything back. This is the version I’ve been making for years, and the one that sat alongside that New Year’s Eve plate while the radio played low and the fire held steady.
Classic House Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 6 cups romaine or mixed green lettuce, torn or chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 small red onion or 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced into half-moons
- 1/4 cup shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup croutons (optional)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon honey or a pinch of sugar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and honey. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Prepare the greens. Wash and dry the lettuce thoroughly. Tear or chop into bite-sized pieces and place in a large salad bowl.
- Add the vegetables. Top the greens with the halved cherry tomatoes, sliced shallots or red onion, cucumber, and shredded carrots. Add croutons if using.
- Dress and toss. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad just before serving. Toss gently to coat everything evenly. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- Serve immediately. Plate and bring to the table while the greens are still crisp.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 115 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 7g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 95mg