Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Greens and Shoes

I just can't get enough greens lately. They seem to be all I'm craving - it's great! Over the weekend I made Emerald City Salad, Monday I made that Creamy Millet and Kale Salad, I've been eating lots of plain old greens salads with whatever toppings I have on hand, and yesterday I made this Massaged Spinach Salad, adapted from a recipe in my favorite cookbook based on what I had on hand. Isn't it so colorful and pretty? Doesn't it make you feel good just looking at it?
Massaged Spinach Salad
Big bowl of spinach or kale, chard, etc
Baby salad greens
1 teaspoon salt
Purple cabbage, chopped
1 apple, diced
1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/3 cup raisins or currants
Red pepper or purple onion, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • Place spinach and greens in large bowl with salt. Massage salt into greens for about two minutes. Add cabbage, apple, sunflower seeds, raisins, and red pepper.
  • Combine olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Toss with salad ingredients.
  • This gets better after sitting in the fridge for a while!

Here's a question for you: Are you a shoes on in the house or shoes off in the house family? We're the shoes off type of people. (Well I am. Clint prefers shoes on, but he so kindly respects my preferences and doesn't wear his inside.) I don't like shoes in the house because they drag in all kinds of chemicals from everywhere they've ever been. Before long, we're going to have a little person who basically lives on the floor, crawling around on and quite possibly licking the carpet. I don't mind good old dirt, but I'm NOT ok with pesticides, herbicides, and other miscellaneous chemicals. And that stuff gets into the carpet and stays there! Now, if you're a shoes off family, how do you handle visitors who leave their shoes on in your house? I don't want to offend anyone who comes to see us, and I haven't figured out a tactful way to ask people to remove their shoes without feeling like I'm singling them out. Suggestions anyone?

4 comments:

Maggard said...

Oh man. I can see all the loogies, dog poop, etc people drag in... yuck.

Sharon Telschow said...

Dog poop is exactly what I was thinking. ICK! Well, you could do the hospital booties thing. Of course they would be ones that you made and are reusable and fit on everyone's shoes. My thought is keep your own shoes by the door (a designated area with a chair/stool) so that other people see that you take them off. You could always just say that with a baby in the house you prefer shoes off or booties.

susan said...

"if you don't mind would you please leave your shoes on the porch." (they will know you have a baby in the home.)
you don't need to explain. I know when I go to Jake's parents house, we just know to take them off at the door. (snow, etc.)
I don't think anyone would be offended.

Jessibrianne said...

I unabashedly printed out a sign that has a shoe with a red circle around and a cross through it and hung it in our foyer so it's the first thing people see when they walk in the front door. But we only have family over, and they don't get offended because they know my quirks already :) But I own a carpet cleaner and clean the carpet anyway a few times a year.