spring green & a tanka

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It might be the middle of winter and we've been dumped with a lot of snow in the last 24 hours, but a fresh green salad just lifts the spirits. I've always loved the simple salad with ginger dressing served at Japanese restaurants just before the miso soup, and finally I googled and found a recipe for it at allrecipes.com. The salad is just torn Boston bibb lettuce (also called butterhead, buttercrunch and Tom Thumb) and this light, fresh dressing.

Japanese Restaurant-Style Salad Dressing

• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
• 2 tablespoons minced celery
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a blender, combine the minced onion, peanut oil, rice vinegar, water, ginger, celery, ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper . Blend on high speed for about 30 seconds or until all of the ingredients are well-pureed.

Tanka

(a form of Japanese verse in five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables
which is older than haiku;
below is my first and not very lyrical attempt;
find more samples by clicking on the word "Tanka" above,
and here for a little history of tanka)

green salad so cold -
winter should not be the time
to lay you on my
tongue; but spring, on vacation,
convinced me: 'wish you were here'

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On the drive home yesterday it took an hour instead of 30 minutes. These photos are from the first few minutes leaving campus, when I was stopped more than I was moving (um, I would never take pictures while driving). After a while my windshield wipers got crusted with ice, and there was no place to stop and snap them clean as the pavement got thicker with snow and we all crawled along at 30 mph.

The farm this morning:

Neighbor Bill plows our drive before also going to the University, like me.



The sunflowers might give Jean Paul Gaultier fashion headgear inspiration?




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