Sweet Tart Salad

This is an easy salad that has bits and pieces to keep everyone happy. My basic philosophy here--as with a lot of my dishes--is that its okay for a kid to eat around the edges of a dish, because even if they're just eating, say, the apples in this dish, they'll be picking up other flavors, whether they want them or not. And over time, their tastes will expand and they won't even notice the "weird" things in a dish.

Okay, so it's just a theory.

A couple variations on this:

• If you can't find good pears, use sweeter apples alongside the Grannie Smiths.
• If the balsamic vinegar taste here is too strong for your kids, try white balsamic vinegar.
• If the kids really fuss about the blue cheese, just put it in a separate bowl on the side for the adults to sprinkle.
• And no, the extra halves of the apple and the pear don't go to waste. You eat them, dummy.
• If you have leftover dressing, it'll keep for at least a week and maybe longer.

Sweet Tart Salad

One bag of green lettuce (red leaf, baby romaine, that sort of thing)

1/2 Grannie Smith apple, chopped

1/2 Asian pear, chopped

1/3 cup blue cheese

3 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

3 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon honey

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the vinegar, olive oil, and honey. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Put the lettuce in a large bowl.
3. Top the lettuce with the apples, the pear, and the cheese.
4. Pour 1/2 of the dressing on the salad and toss. Add more dressing to taste.

Family Ratings on a scale of 1-10:

Lucy, who will eat everything but the blue cheese: 8

Jamie, who will eat anything we put in his mouth: 8

Will, who will only eat the apples and pears: 3

Paul, Ellen, and every other adult who's eaten this salad: 100