Comfort food?

I love the comfort foods of winter, mac and cheese, polenta, anything over mashed potatoes. They are warm and satisfying. These kinds of foods just seem to help me to deal with the cold dark winter days. By the end of February, as much as I love those carb packed foods, I find myself a in need of something fresh and green. I crave something in a color scheme other than shades of beige. A good salad, perhaps. So when I saw that the theme for "Waiter there's something in my..." was salad, I knew it was just what I needed. The event is hosted this month by Andrew over at Spittoon Extra. He suggested that if possible everyone should use local, seasonal, organic ingredients. Not possible for many I'm sure, but I'm lucky to have access to wonderful fresh organic lettuce nearly year round. My parents grow the most delicious, buttery organic butter head lettuce as well as other varieties in their hydroponic greenhouse at Waterberry Farm. We're spoiled I know.
I had some blood oranges that I had picked up at the market a few days ago and wanted to use.
So I made Blood Orange Salad with Orange Poppy Seed Vinaigrette.
I tore the salad leaves of one head of the butter lettuce by hand. The butter head lettuce is so tender that cutting it with a knife tends to bruise it. I segmented one blood orange and added thin slices of red onion and some kalamata olives.

For the Vinaigrette:
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup good quality olive oil
juice from one small blood orange
about 2 teaspoons honey
pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl starting with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Drizzle in more olive oil if needed to bring the dressing together.

Today was rainy and cold but this salad was like sunshine on a plate. Maybe not quite comfort food, but the colorful salad helped lift my spirits on this cold cloudy day!