Technically Fruit Salad

This salad is a "technically fruit" version of greek salad, in that it has only fruit (botanically) as its ingredients. This is incredibly refreshing and is ready within minutes. Also no acrid onion breath afterwards!

Ingredients

1 large cucumber, peeled (or not) and chopped into quarter moons.

2 tomatoes, ditto

1 yellow and 1 orange bell pepper, chopped into medium sized pieces.

1 apple, cored and diced into medium sized pieces.

100g feta cheese, cubes, not crumbled

Dressing

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tsp plain mustard

1/4 tsp wine vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

fresh herbs, of your choice: oregano, mint, basil

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing, except the herbs. Add more vinegar/sugar or even salt if you feel it needs it, but not too much because of the feta. Once the dressing tastes right, add the herbs. (It's easier to mix and taste without greenery in the way)

Place all the fruits, but not the cheese, into a bowl, and toss well with the dressing. Finally add the cubes of cheese, and gently toss to combine. Keeping the feta in larger pieces and adding it in the very end allows you to really taste the pieces of feta, rather than just having little crumbly bits everywhere.

Welcome!

In homage to Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking published half-a-century ago, I named this blog Mastering the Joy of Eating. While the allure of becoming the best chef or host is quite understandable (a good chunk of Food Network's programming being devoted to this!) too often it is at the expense of what really matters: the food! Even though Julia Child's book title used the word "cooking" and not "eating", what she was trying to convey to the general public was the love of food. The taste of food. And not taste in the way a snooty person has taste, but following one's taste buds. How does the food taste to you? Chefs create restaurant food. This does have its place, and they have the time to use those little steel cylinders to make their food stack up nicely, and of course the endless array of coulis and other adornments to create what can only be called FOOD PORN, but that still doesn't make the food taste any better. Prettier, not tastier. I think because of the fear of not being able to live up to these "cheffy" standards, too many people are terrified to cook, and eat, at home. (N.B.: eating frozen pizza at home doesn't count as home-food!)

I have cooked for myself since I've been able to reach the stove, and at this point, I can confidently say that I can outdo the taste of many restaurants. Maybe not presentation, but that's more from a lack of caring to adhere to metal cylinder standards, than from a lack of caring about taste. How is that possible? Aren't they the professionals? The secret is that I make the recipe how I want it! Everyone's sense of taste is unique, so it stands to reason that any food you make for yourself will be perfectly suited to you.

Unfortunately, though, there's the skill factor. Some people are quite lousy at cooking, I will admit! I have had undercooked and over-sauced pasta, charred steaks, and bland everything-else more times that I can count, even in restaurants. Again, at a base level, this is still the product of caring more about one's image, or the presentation of the food, rather than the food itself. The taste. Cook what you can manage, what you enjoy, not what you hope will impress your guests.

The path is clear: follow your taste buds!