Recipes & Epiphanies

I write a lot. A LOT. During the school year, I'm constantly writing essays, my favorite form of long distance communication is email, & I take extensive notes in all my classes. This blog has become a place for me to express my ideas without the constraints of MLA formatting & to write about the things I love most.

Family - check
Friends - check
Music/Lyrics - check
Art - check
Traveling - check
The Gospel - check
The Color Blue - check
Food - um... wait, WHAT?!

Yes, it is true. I have never written a post about food. If you know me at all, you'll realize how incredibly odd this is. I love to cook. I love to feed people. I love to make up recipes. I love to share recipes... & yet, somehow, inexplicably, I have never posted a single recipe on my blog?! This ends NOW. (& good recipes, like everything else, have good stories)

A few months ago, I was having dinner at a wonderfully ghetto apartment in Provo inhabited by three boys who served missions in Eastern Europe. (I also met my platonic soulmate, Miss Martha, on this particular wonderful evening.) Head Chef Beazer had concocted an incredible salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, & lots of feta cheese. I had absolutely no idea what it was called, but it was delicious. Good work, Beaz. My friendly neighborhood Bulgarian expert informed me today that it is called "Shopska." I think an equally good name would be "Fresh Goodness." You can find the real recipe HERE, but this is my version. It was pretty адско вкусно. (this is pronounced somewhat like "odskoe fkoosno"... I think... it means "incredibly delicious.")

Summer Shopska Salata
Makes 3 large or 5 small servings

1 cucumber, peeled & diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Feta, crumbled, & lots of it

dressing:
1 tblsp (aka table spoon) olive oil
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
2 ish tblsp fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

The instructions are pretty simple: Chop up all the veggies (I took the seeds out of one of the tomatoes, just to reduce the liquid in the salad a bit.) & mix them together in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients, mix thoroughly, & dress the veggies. (Note: You don't need to use all the dressing, that's up to your taste buds.) Stir it up, serve it up immediately, & top it with as much feta as you like. I like a lot.

I would also highly suggest a piece toasted artisan bread to accompany this dish - rosemary bread was terrific.