Orange-Champagne Salad

Last night in my cooking class our assignment was to make a salad to go with our salad dressing we made in the previous class.

Mine kicked @$$!

I'm super proud of it.  It was really pretty.  It tasted awesome.  We had to lay the plates out for group critique, and one of the other girls in the class said that I inspired her.  She wanted to eat my salad before she ate her own.  It made my day.  Quite possibly my week.

I have eaten a lot of salads.  I got tired of them really quickly, so now I look for unique ones.  So this assignment was right for me.   (If you're tired of salads, try some of the ones at California Pizza Kitchen!)

This one is made of shredded lettuce as the base, with orange sections, yellow bell pepper, red onion, and cilantro.  I'm calling the dressing Orange-Champagne Viniagrette.  It's made from champagne vinegar, olive oil, orange marmalade, garlic, salt, and pepper.   It was tangy with a sweet finish. I really enjoyed it.  And I'm a salad dressing snob. (Also from eating way too many salads.) 

My salad had some critique points about it.  Normally you should put diced items in salad so people don't have to chase them around the plate.  It was too large, as it's spilling over into the rim.  I shredded the lettuce with a knife, which will bruise it if prepared a while before serving. 

I don't know what grade I got on it, but it doesn't really matter.  I challenged myself.  I had fun doing it. And I inspired someone else.  That's all I really want to do in life.