With warmer weather here, I’m anxious to plant my herbs and vegetables, but the nights are too cold now…my solution…plant them and put them on my windowsill until the nights get warmer to put them outside!!It just so happens that everything I planted would be wonderful in a salad…This windowsill over our sink is plenty wide to hold freshly planted lettuce, parsley on the bottom sill and herbs on the upper shelf… One of my older posts tells how we added a middle shelf to this window, click here to see it!  My sister, Marilyn gave us the laughing Buddha!!This is a closeup of gourmet lettuce consisting of different colors of leaf lettuce… On the top shelf among books and family photos are basil on the left and oregano on the right!! The extra large windowsill in our family room holds a chocolate mint plant, that I will use in a salad, because why not have a little chocolate in our salads??!!!If you don’t have a windowsill large enough for flower pots, you could use a bench or table close to a window…the plants are not only convenient to use as food but they add an earthy elegance to your decor!!  I put a bench close to our one of our doors on our sun porch, it holds a tomato plant and rosemary plant…that little porch smells divine with rosemary!!

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I used to make this salad in a jar for work…just recently Gina made this for her first day of work at a new job, which will be a post of its own someday!!  Since I had planted the herbs and vegetables, it reminded me that I could show you all how to make a salad in a jar!!

You could prepare lunch for a whole work week or for a fast supper, just serve with meat or fish with it or you could take it on a picnic!!  The only things you need are mason jars!!  It is so simple, just start with filling a dressing into a jar and then layer various ingredients like veggies, cheese and seeds, ending with lettuce on top.  Keep the jars in the fridge until you need them. Grab a bowl and empty the jar. The dressing will then cover the whole salad.  I like to start with a vegetable that could be marinated in the dressing, like black olives in the photo above!!

Next, I added a layer of chickpeas and tomatoes…On top of the tomatoes I layered scallions, then basil, oregano and parsley…Next I added small chunks of pepper jack cheese…And then the lettuce, cram it down so all the layers are tight…less air will keep the salad fresher!On top of the lettuce I added more sprigs of basil, oregano and parsley for flavor!!!Close the lid and there you have a salad that will keep for 5 days!!Don’t forget a fork and a light plastic bowl!!!

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Spring has finally sprung in our yard…Victor was thrilled that the tulips he planted came up!!And look who I found peeking out of the branches of the weeping cherry tree!!

I think that handsome cardinal had the spirit of my father in him, he was looking at me so intently…my father would have turned 104 today, he passed 6 years ago!!