Susan and I have been friends since about 1978. We met at Lake Tahoe when she interviewed and became a roommate in our 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home with a loft, 20 foot ceiling, and wall of glass with a lake view. She joined Michael, Clare and me for several years of fun.
We paid $425/month for the house. It became a VRBO at one point and was renting for $365/night off-season. It’s off market, right now…
ANYWAY…
In late 1980, I moved to Boston. Let us just say that living at Tahoe and working for a casino was a ‘fast’ lifestyle. I needed to put distance between Tahoe an myself. Susan moved to Boston the following year and we became roommates, again.
Susan is an artist. At Tahoe, she supported herself as a waitress. In Boston, she became an Art Teacher for Boston Public Schools. While we were roommates in Boston, Susan concentrated on ceramics – she had her wheel and kiln at the house and produced a ton of fabulous objects – I have several bowls she made at various times – along with drawings, paintings, silkscreens… even notepaper!
Fast-forward many years and she’s back in California, we’re in constant contact, and her birthday was this past weekend – that meant I had to use one of her bowls at dinner!
While the items are definitely objets d’art, they’re also functional pieces – meant to be shown, but also meant to be used. And we do use them!
This time was for a farro salad.
This version was a bit of a clean out the ‘fridge salad…
Farro Salad
- 1 bag Trader Joe’s 10 Minute Farro
- 1/2 small red onion
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 leek, thin sliced
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1 handful fresh parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 can Mandarin Orange segments, drained – save juice
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
- 1 pinch freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp orange marmalade
- 1 tsp sambal oelek
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon honey
Cook farro according to package directions. Drain, and cool.
Mix thinly sliced red onion with shredded carrots, sliced leek, orange segments, chopped basil, and chopped parsley. Add to farro and toss.
Make a dressing of drained juice, oil, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, marmalade, sambal oelek, and S&P.
Mix well and top with chopped green onions.
This is one of those recipes that you can pretty much do what you want with it… Fresh veggies from the garden, some shredded chicken… play with it! Have fun!
It was a fitting tribute, as Susan is also an accomplished cook.
Of course she is – she’s an artist!
