Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A note of thanks...

Max, Jeff and I wanted to start out this post by thanking you all for the many e-mails and comments about Spike's passing yesterday - it smoothed the edges of a very rough day.

I mentioned on Monday's post that the pizza we had was the last meal Jeff was going to be able to have for a couple days. If yesterday wasn't tough enough already, in the morning he had to begin a "clear liquid" diet in preparation for a colonoscopy (sorry if that is too much information!) test this afternoon. So, he has only been allowed to have broth (homemade at least!), water, apple juice, Gatorade and Jell-O. Fun huh? One of the other restrictions was that nothing could have the colors purple or red! The test was a little soon considering his age, but his father passed away quite suddenly a couple weeks ago from colon cancer. On the plus side, the test came back completely normal!

Anyway, let's move away from the sad news and get back to the food. So, on Monday, I did serve a salad along side of that pizza that we didn't get a chance to talk about. Like most salads, this Arugula, Grape, and Sunflower Seed Salad came together in a hurry. With a combination of red wine vinegar, honey, pure maple syrup, stone-ground mustard and a few drizzles of olive oil, this dressing was tangy and slightly sweet - however, if you like your salad well-coated, you may want to double the amounts. While we love the peppery bite from Arugula, we cut the amount with some baby spinach for a more mild experience. Tossed with the greens are some crisp halved grapes, toasted sunflower seeds and a small amount of fresh thyme for an herbal note. We never use grapes much in salads for some reason, but the sweet juicy bites were a pleasant textural compliment to the tender leaves and crunchy seeds. Light and delicious, this recipe went to the top of the salad recipe pile to get made again soon!


8 comments:

  1. DH was on that same diet last week, with the same good results I'm glad to add.

    I'm sure your good cooking made him very happy to get back to "real food".

    ReplyDelete
  2. I subscribe but just got around to reading about Spike. It's just so heart breaking to lose a member of the family. My heart goes out to you both.

    -Lisa (formerly from PHX and now, DFW)

    ReplyDelete
  3. So sad to read about his dad. Glad that the test was normal. That's good news. After reading this I'm so proud that my 16 yrs old son is raising money for the Relay for Life.

    Back to the salad, it's a great one. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sorry to hear about Spike and Jeff's Dad. I feel for all of you.

    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  5. My sympathy about Jeff's dad. Glad to hear the test came out okay!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe,

    You and Jeff sure have been through a lot recently. My sympathy to Jeff on the loss of his father yet I am so very happy to hear that all is well with his test results.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dee - he was very, very happy to just eat anything again!

    Lisa - Thank you.

    Helene - It was a nice and light side to go with that pizza!

    Sue - Thanks for the support.

    Sara - it was a big relief!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mindy - yes, it has certainly been quite crazy around here!

    ReplyDelete