kale and peach salad.

Besides a pool, the thing I long for most come summertime is central air.  Central air spoiled me because IT IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.  Window air-conditioners just don't satisfy the way air pouring out of a vent from a wall does.  And unless you are one of the lucky ones to have access to such a luxury, you don't turn on the oven during that summer stretch of awful sticky and humid 90-degree days.  Trust me.  There is nothing worse.  

For that reason dinner becomes a series of meals centered around raw and refrigerated food.  It forces you to get creative.  Salad creative that is.  I can't even begin to tell you how many ingredients I have tried throwing into a pile of lettuce.  There have been some misses, but for the most part salads are pretty forgiving. The real fun is when you hit upon a combo that just works.  The salad itself becomes satisfying and you find yourself eating the entire platter.

There is no formal recipe for my new favorite but the beauty of a salad is it shouldn't require you to be precise. This one takes full advantage of the August farmers market bounty and is a nice way to incorporate those crazy good peaches in a savory way.   

Kale and Peach Salad

I'm one of those people who likes a lot of add-ins (this is why I always have a high proportion of toppings to actual Fro-Yo).  Feel free to use the lesser amounts of pistachios and blue cheese if you are not as topping happy as me.  

Serves 2 as a meal  

One small bunch of Dinosaur kale, center ribs removed and thinly sliced (about 4 cups)

1 peach, washed, halved, pitted and thinly sliced

1/3 - 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (the best is Jasper Hill's Bayley Hazen Blue)

1/4 - 1/3 cup pistachios

1 tablespoon pepitas 

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar + additional for drizzling at the end

2 tablespoons olive oil + additional for drizzling at then end

Place the kale in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Toss with the olive oil and sherry vinegar. Let sit for a couple of minutes and then spread on a platter.  Top with the sliced peach, blue cheese, pistachios, and pepitas.  Season with additional salt and pepper and drizzle some extra olive oil and sherry vinegar over the top.  Eat.