Day 347: My Big Fat Greek Salad!!

I have perfected the art of making a Greek salad!  I have made two huge bowls in the last week. My kinds rave. Essentially the secret is f vegetables , good feta cheese, Greek olives and a homemade dressing made with light, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar,  and oregano. Here is my recipe:

MY BIG FAT GREEK SALAD

Serves 4 hungry adults

• 4 cups greens (I used a "spring mix" from Fred Meyer)
• 2 cucumbers
• 6 roma tomatoes
• one small red onion
• 1 cup cubed feta cheese
• 1 cup Greek olives (pitted)

Get out a big bowl. Peel a clove of garlic, cut in half and rub it over the interior of the bowl.  Wash the lettuce if it is not prewashed and packaged like mine was.  Dry the leaves, and tear into bite sized pieces. Throw into the big bowl.

Note: Romaine lettuce is good to include in the mix, because it is hearty.

Peel the cucumbers and dice. Add to bowl.

Cut the roma tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds (otherwise they make the salad watery. Dice and add to the bowl.

Add the feta cheese and olives.

Now make the dressing:

• 1/2 cup light extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon
• about 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• about 1 Tablespoon oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Pour olive oil in a cup.  Smash the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and remove papery peel.  Mince and then sprinkle about 1/8 teaspoon salt on the garlic. Take the prongs of a fork and smash into a paste. Add the garlic to the olive oil.  Juice the lemon and add to the olive oil.  Add the vinegar. Whisk all the ingredients.  Crumble the oregano into the dressing. Taste. Add salt and pepper.

Keep the dressing on the side. In case there is leftover salad, it stays fresh longer without being dressed before stored in the fridge.

Sometimes I had a sauteed boneless, skinless chicken breast.

This is so good and healthy. I could seriously eat it every day of my life!

It is 6:30 a.m. I am living a repeat of  yesterday morning. Laying in bed, listening to the songs of the early morning birds. I am going to head to the gym after I finish this post. Today is a Salem day for me. I want to get in a workout before I head down to Union Station.

I had a good musical day yesterday. I had a bit of a revelation about conscious practicing. I have learned this before, but I needed to relearn it. I did not have much time to practice before choir practice last night. We are performing the Mozart Requiem in May. I am playing from the orchestral score for rehearsal. It is insanely difficult. I have not worked on it as I should because I have busy with my chamber group and because for the performance we have a different score. And we will have another pianist. It is arranged for two pianists and choir.

But last week in rehearsal, I felt very lame and unprepared.

So yesterday, I practiced a bit, but the hours before rehearsal, while walking, while riding the bus, I studied the score and practiced in my head. Instead of thinking random thoughts, instead of worrying, instead of obsessing about what I was lacking (i.e. food...always hungry I am!), I thought in MUSIC. I practiced the whole requiem in my head!

And I drank copious amounts of iced tea too.  I never drink much caffeine before rehearsal, because it is in the evening and I fear not being able to sleep.

But it worked! I went to rehearsal, and felt like I knew the whole requiem practically by heart!

And I got home, ate an artichoke with my daughter (our favorite food!) and slept like a baby.

I learned this technique in part from reading The Inner Game of Tennis in college and partly from experience. But in my experience, we have to keep relearning, reexperiencing for it to take hold.

On that note, Happy Wednesday!