Fall Harvest Salad

We recently spent the weekend in New York( there is no place better than the northeast in the fall), and had an incident free time.  Mostly because we were not traveling with my father, the poster child for disastrous trips.

For years, my mother would travel with friends because Mr. Why Would I Want to Go Anywhere Because Bad Things Will Happen wouldn’t even contemplate leaving home.  He was full of stories about lost luggage, cancelled flights, bad food, and uncomfortable middle seats even though the last time he was on a plane, Orville and Wilbur were the pilots.

We finally talked him into taking a trip for their 80th birthdays, which I regret to this day.

The weeks leading up to the actual flight were filled with daily stress calls;

”The airline website says carry-ons should be twenty inches, but I measured mine and it’s twenty-one inches. What if they don’t let me bring it on the plane?”

”I weighed your mother’s bag and it’s 49 pounds.  The airline limit is 50 pounds, but what if their scales are calibrated differently than mine and they say it weighs 51 pounds? How will we get it on the plane?”

”What if our flight is cancelled and we can’t all get on another flight together? How will we ever meet up at the airport?”

”I’m packing three days worth of clothes in my carry-on so that when the airline loses our bags, I have something to wear.”

And that was just day one. The morning call.

The big day finally arrived, and despite our assurances that we had all flown multiple times and survived to tell the tale, he could have stressed out a bottle of Valium.

We got to the airport early, and…….

Our flight was cancelled. Only four of the five of us got on another flight….five hours later than the original flight. Three of the four of us ended up in middle seats.  And the cherry on top of the disaster sundae….. they lost all our luggage. For three days.

I’m pretty sure he wanted to say, “ I told you so”, but he couldn’t unclench his teeth enough to speak.

And that was the last time we ever travelled with my father. And the last time our luggage was lost. And the last time we all got middle seats…….

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of mixed greens
• 2 cups of pumpkin, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped sage
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 orange, rind off and separated into segments
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• pecans
• pumpkin seeds
• 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon finely chopped parsley
• 1 clove minced garlic

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cut the rind off the pumpkin, scoop out the seeds, and cut the pumpkin into half inch pieces.  Toss with the 1 Tablespoon olive oil, sage and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Put on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is tender, but not mushy.  Allow to cool.(This step can be done ahead of time and the pumpkin refrigerated.
3. To make the dressing: in a jar with a tight lid, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, parsley and garlic and shake well before pouring over the salad,
4. To assemble the salad: put the washed and dried greens on a plate or platter, sprinkle with the pumpkin, orange slices ( I cut them in half or thirds to make them easier to eat), cranberries and as many pecans as you like,  shake the dressing, pour over the salad and serve immediately.

Enjoy!