Salad Bar Salad

because no matter what's going on in the world, it's good to have lunch

If you’re new here — welcome! My newsletter is now twice a week and Tuesdays are all about lunch because I love lunch. Paid subscribers get an easy lunch recipe every week. Want to become a paid subscriber and get the lunch recipes? Just click here:

Thanks to my mom who alerted me to this cartoon by David Sipress that recently appeared in The New Yorker.

Before I jump to lunch, I just wanted to take a moment to THANK EVERYONE WHO CAME TO MY COOKING CLASS ON SUNDAY. We made a delicious meal (penne vodka with sausage + spinach, roasted squash with hazlenuts + pecorino, and clementine cake, plus cranberry + prosecco spritzers) and shortly before class I decided to make it a fundraiser for the TRANS JUSTICE FUNDING PROJECT and THE TRANSGENDER LAW CENTER.

It was a really beautiful opportunity to be and cook together, take care of ourselves, acknowledge how we’re collectively feeling and, most importantly, raise some serious dough for both organizations. Thanks to the generosity of all class participants, I was able to send $1,500 to each organization and an incredible class participant and her daughter matched our donations, making the grand total a whopping $6K…!

Some moments from class: the full meal, me showing off the knit squash I bought at a craft fair, cutting squash, zesting clementines for cake!

No, cooking classes won’t fix everything, but I’m so proud of this cooking community and what we’re able to do together to support folks doing such important legal and financial work to support trans communities.

While I’ve often used my cooking classes as fundraising opportunities for various causes and organizations, I’ve decided that going forward I’ll give 15% of all my class proceeds to various groups. This feels like a consistent and easy way to weave in support for people doing work I’m not qualified to do by doing this random work I am qualified to do.

My mom’s wonderful illustrated notes from class <3 <3

So if you have an organization that means a lot to you and/or a particular class topic or theme you’d like for me to teach, TELL ME!

• My teaching schedule lives here, along with all class FAQs. I regularly add new classes to the schedule.

• All of my classes are recorded and available for purchase in my on-demand library (all of these classes include a PDF with recipes + a grocery list).

• Admission to a class(es) makes for a wonderful gift! All information for that is here.

This week’s easy lunch recipe is for what I lovingly think of as “SALAD BAR SALAD.” To me, a salad bar salad must contain lots of toppings with a variety of textures and I think a scoop of cottage cheese and Thousand Island Dressing are both pretty non-negotiable (but absolutely negotiable if you don’t like either of those things). My ideal salad bar salad is pictured above and the recipe is below for paid subscribers, including notes on how to adjust if you’re vegan or want some ideas for other variations! I eat a version of this salad at least once a week. Can’t go wrong!