Last night was another one of those nights where I opened up the refrigerator, took a look at what was inside and just grabbed at what looked good.  Mumbles had been gone for a week and he’s a huge salad fiend so I knew there was going to be a whole lotta lettuce involved in his first dinner being back home.  And, since I missed him while he was gone and wanted to prove to him that he shouldn’t ever leave his doting wife for that long again, I decided to make the presentation impressive too.  Not only did the salad come out looking superb, I also donned my “honey, I’m home and don’t I look sassy in our kitchen makin’ you dinner” apron.  Okay, that’s not really what I call it, but that’s totally the message it sends.  It’s this here lovely from Anthropologie but in the half version (which totally defeats the purpose of an apron to protect your clothes, but looks super cute on, especially with heels. Write that down.).

So, here’s the final beautiful bowl of salad that we munched on together – two forks, one bowl.  [side note: should I ever have my own cooking blog/show/book, I will totally call it Two Forks, One Bowl. Cute, no?] 

Salad contents include: spring mix lettuce, celery, gala apples, sunflower seeds, pistachios (which i shelled myself because let’s be honest: isn’t it so much more gratifying?), two strawberry slices made to look like a pair of hearts [swoon, I know. although it doesn’t look like the hearts in this photo] and darling little yellow tomatoes sliced in half rounding the perimeter of the bowl like a frame, finished with a drizzle of grapeseed oil and balsalmic vinegar.  On the side I melted pepper jack cheese on some triangle slices of pita bread to help fork the salad goodies onto our forks and also because cheese really makes everything taste better.