Salad Days and a Recipe

Jeanne and I recently met up in the small Western town of Dubois, Wyoming, where we stayed with the town's baker, Jacki Blakeman of Home Slice Artisan Bakery.

I had met Jacki a year ago during a photo workshop (she was the subject) and had accepted her invitation to spend a few weeks with her and work in her bakery, located in a red farmhouse sitting in a quiet meadow. Jacki bakes loaves that preserve the town's Swedish tiehack history - grain breads, sourdough, even a heady Swedish limpa bread. The star of her loaves is Twila's 10-Grain Bread, first developed by her mom when she was town baker.

These days, it seems nearly impossible that anyone can make a living baking bread for a town of about 1,000, but Jacki's been doing it for four years. I wanted Jeanne to come and see Jacki in action, from the morning dough risings to the evening delivery at the lone grocery store, near the Wonder Bread.

While there, Jeanne and I did some cooking for Jacki and naturally, we created something for using up leftover bread. We didn't name the dish but I'll call it "Happy Bread Salad," because when everything's going well in the bakery, Jacki likes to say the bread is "happy today." Enjoy!

Happy Bread Salad

You will need:

good lettuce-style greens, about 3 cups
some leftover bread such as sourdough, about 2 to 3 cups torn up
a handful of olives, sliced or chopped (if using kalamata, remove pits)
a sprinkling of feta cheese
tomatoes, chopped
olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced
fresh lemon juice, about half a lemon
fresh ground pepper

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the bread pieces on a baking sheet, drizzle with some olive oil. Toss to coat, then allow to brown in the oven about 8 minutes (Jeanne says no more than 10 minutes).

2. Place bread in a large bowl, add the garlic, the lemon juice, 2-3 tablespoons of more olive oil and toss.

3. Add everything else and toss to combine.

Serve this bread salad as a main dish, paired with the wine you have on hand, why get crazy over the proper pairing when the idea is to just feel relaxed about the meal after a day at the ovens? We ate this dish using chopsticks, just for grins.

Want to know more about Jacki's bakery? You'll find it on the web at: http://www.duboishomeslice.com/index.html#

Jeanne, tell about the Rhubarb Cherry Slab Pie we did at the bakery.