I feel very nostalgic lately. Thinking of people I knew long ago, missing friends and family. I long for smells of my past…Christmas time in my mother’s kitchen, the early mornings on the farm of our friends, the African animals, the African bush, pancakes with cinnamon sugar wrapped in greased paper at church fairs, tomato and onion salad with a sugar vinegar sauce.

The salads I grew up with, were simple and straightforward. A salad was a cold dish, eaten with warm meats. Today we have small salads, large salads, cold salads, warm salads, even soupy ones. Fancy or simple, with sauces or with “vinaigrettes” and “croutons” and toppings. They are served in salad bowls and on spoons, towered on plates or layered in glasses. they are served at the beginning of a meal or at the end with cheese… or without cheese. I think my mom would’ve appreciated this little salad. She was an adventurous woman.

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…which rule?…

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7 thoughts on “Quinoa salad with chicken and cranberries”

  3. I must say the festive season does that to me to… This is a perfect starter for a cold Christmas dinner. We do not do the turkey and stuffing thing….way to hot!

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  6. Funny you should talk abotu nostalgia – I had an attack last week, brought about by a newspaper report of students preparing for the annual post-exam pilgrimmage to Plett. I realised that it’s 19 years since I first went to this feast of teenage hedonism, and could clearly still remember the people, the places, the war stories and the luxury of lazy days spent surrounded by my brother and my friends. It was a time of no real consequences and no real worries. I would give anything to be packing my bags now for a week in the African sun with my closest friends.

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