BLAT Salad and Motivational Blogs

I’ve been crazy busy this week after being inspired by some of your blogs.  Squirrel Circus motivated me to really take a look inside my closet, toss out what I don’t wear and re-organize it (see her impressive, motivational post here).  And I did start on that.  So far, 3 bags of clothes over to charity and 6 pair of (sob, ok I’m over it) shoes – much more on it’s way.  My thinking was that I would empty out my closet because of my daughter’s change in apartments whereby I inherit her discards which are always better than what I have.  I was looking forward to a lot of her things moving from my house to her apartment.  Alas, Niki did take some things from here but I seem to have inherited a lot more than she took, including…get this – another couch!  No I do not feel like reupholstering it & it’s in perfect condition so if anyone wants to come pick it up in Massachusetts, you’re welcome to it.

The Squirrel Circus had to go and clean her kitchen!  Well I nipped that idea in the bud and now I’m pretty sure we’re going to completely gut the kitchen including busting out soffets & tearing down a wall (have to be a spring start date though because of holidays).

Okay a little discouraged on cleaning out the inside of my house and we had perfect outside weather.  Again, I blame credit Squirrel Circus for this after looking at her Yard Fail post.  With the heat and humidity we’ve had this year, daytime yard work wasn’t an option for me and with our outbreaks of West Nile and EEE, early morning or evening just wasn’t worth the risk.  So things got a little out of hand but I’m on it now although I keep looking over my shoulder to see if Squirrel’s got her camera on me.

Cleaning out closets is one thing, pitch forks, rakes,hedge trimmers, and shovels – a whole different ball game.  I used to be able to do this all day when I was in my 50’s but now, once I’m down on my hands and knees digging, getting back up isn’t so easy. It’s pretty bad when you have to call your dog over so you can use her back to hoist yourself up.  And yes, I am somewhere in my 60’s in case you missed that but just a word of advice ladies.  I always hear women take their age down by at least a few years.  Are you crazy?  Bump it up by at least a few!  Wouldn’t you rather have someone say “wow she looks great for 65” than “oh man, that one’s got a lot of rough miles on her”?

So hard labor got to me and I needed a break.  My rest breaks seem to be longer than my work breaks but I really had a craving for this tomato/ avacado salad from Susan at Kitchen Inventions (she claims it’s the best salad she’s ever tasted & I’m inclined to agree with her).  I did make some adjustments and added bacon and lettuce just so I could call it a BLAT (Bacon/lettuce/avocado/tomato) Salad.  Thank you Susan – I hope others give this one a try because although it’s a mess to eat (I piled it a little high), it’s a taste sensation.

BACON/LETTUCE/AVOCADO/TOMATO SALAD

Now in my creation I started with a layer of lettuce, then tomato, followed by bacon, with avocado on top of that…repeat until you run out of everything (I didn’t use corn because then it would have to be called a BLACT) .  I had to change the dressing a little because I didn’t have buttermilk and I wanted a thicker dressing so I just kept adding mayo until I got it to a thicker consistency.  The dressing:

• 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used regular)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons  mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, minced

And now I have to run because I just heard that I’m getting another truckload of “stuff” and I promised Niki dinner.  Want to know who inspired tonight’s dinner?  An awesome blogger – BAM … How does Bacon Wrapped Sausage Stuffed Pork Tenderloin sounds?  Thank you Bam!  Thank you Karen!  Squirrel….I’ll be talking to you later!