Lucy's Celery & Cheese Salad...Do Not Try This At Home

Lucy dressed for Chinese New Year

This is not a recipe for you to make, dear readers, so put down the cheddar and back away from the celery.

In fact, I had nothing to do with the composition of this dish, save leaving a few discarded hunks of celery on the counter top and letting Lucy and her friend "Famous Eddie", from next door, mutilate an entire sleeve of cheddar with one of those cheese slicers from the 1970's.

There is still cheese ground into my wood floors. I've decided to live with it.

David was due back night before last from a trip to LA and Lucy decided she wanted to make him something so he could eat when he got home. Very sweet. But I got busy with things and Kian came over with a bottle of wine and Audrey just had a cancer treatment so she was hanging out and I was making her family some dinner to take back and there was a lot of talking and exchanging tawdry gossip about the neighbors who weren't present and children wanted juice, no milk, no juice and also small children were jumping off the couch into this enormous bean bag we have called a Sumo and screaming "Penguin twist!" and "Hippo Jump" as their legs and arms flailed in the air and their screeching voices blew out our ear drums...and Edie wanted to breastfeed every 10 minutes, so I was, you know, kinda distracted and didn't notice Lucy on her cooking stool quietly doing something at the kitchen counter.

Here is the fruit of her work - Celery and Cheese Salad

Lucy's Celery and Cheese Salad, elegantly displayed in a blue plastic bowl from Ikea.
The nutty notes of cheddar blend well with the fresh nuggets of celery.
As you can tell, we went to great lengths to get the food photography just right.
Anyone want to hire us for food styling?

She carried it around with her most of the evening, repeating over and over, "Daddy is going to be so excited to eat his salad." Then, she put the spoon in the bowl and carefully put it on the top shelf of the fridge. She was concerned he might not remember where we kept the flatware (Apparently David loses brain cells every time he goes to LA).

I showed David the bowl in the fridge when he got home - both kids were fast asleep. Next morning, Lucy retrieved the bowl from the fridge and, God bless him, he ate it. Nearly all of it. He had to because she was watching him like a hawk.

Then he raved. Anton Ego's judgment was in. And the chef was thrilled. Just beaming.

Still, I can't recommend the dish for your next dinner party. We're still perfecting it.

xxxooo YM