Fiesta Salad and Housewives

In the three weeks that my husband and I have been back from our Australian vacation, we've hosted two small gatherings to celebrate our birthdays. As Jews, we are forbidden to send our guests home hungry. Needless to say, we have lots of leftovers falling into categories of cookies and cheese. Today, I will tackle the cheese.

The husband insisted on buying a GIANT block of Manchego for our first gathering. Manchego, being a Spanish sheep's milk cheese, naturally inspires a Latin-theme salad. My Latin food tastes skew Mexican (and we had all the right ingredients in the house already, including another party leftover, chips and salsa), so I decided the use some of the Spanish cheese in a Mexican salad. And guess what. It worked!

As Andy Cohen would say, here's what (makes two big salads):

• leftovers: tortilla chips. salsa and Manchego;

• 1 head of romaine;
• 1 pepper (I used orange, but any color would work);
• 2/3 an avocado;
• 1/3 can of black beans, rinsed;
• 1/3 can of corn;

• a few sprigs of fresh cilantro;
• granulated garlic;
• lemon or lime juice.

Here's how:

1. Chop the romaine and pepper.
2. Combine with the chopped avocado, corn and beans.
3. Grate or finely slice the Manchego and add to the salad.
4. Finely chop the cilantro (I used about 1-2 tablespoons) and add to salad with 1-2 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice and granulated garlic to taste.
5. Toss salad and add a few tablespoons of the salsa to taste. Toss again.
6. Crumble tortilla chips on top for crunch.

Finished product:

Since the salad makes two portions, I ate one for dinner and packed the other up as a lunch salad. I left the tortilla chips on the side and crumbled them in at work. The salad was a little deflated the next day, but boy, it was still delicious!

Earlier in the post, I mentioned Andy Cohen, Bravo's executive vice president of development and talent. As far as I know, Andy has nothing to do with salad. (I would know; I read his book.) But, since this is my blog, it makes sense that I blog about things I like, and believe it or not, I like more than salad. I also like. . .wait for it. . .the Real Housewives of New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Beverly Hills, and of course, Bethenny (who I think would greatly appreciate this salad blog). I know, high quality. And I just need to take a moment to sort out some thoughts about the recent goings-on of the Housewives. 

I am a few episodes behind on RHONY, so forgive the lateness of the observation. I don't know what to do with Ramona. Do I like her? Do I think she is crazy? Do her facial expressions remind me of my mother's? Yes! Yes! Yes! On a recent episode of Housewives, Ramona orders Aviva, another housewife, out of the pool because she is not wearing her swimming leg. (Back-story: Aviva lost part of her leg in a childhood accident. She now wears a prosthetic leg below the knee.) I hope Ramona did this out of concern for Aviva, but it was totally inappropriate. Later in the episode at a dinner party hosted by Aviva and her husband, Ramona orders Aviva's kitchen staff to skip the salad course and go straight to the main dish. Mind you, Ramona is a guest at Aviva's Miami apartment!

But here is where everything becomes really confusing! On the next episode, Ramona calms down her friend, Sonja, who appears to be drunk, after Sonja yells at another housewife's boyfriend. In this moment, Ramona helps her friend avoid further embarrassment, appropriately taking control of the situation. So who is Ramona, an overbearing nag or a caring friend? I have no idea. Discuss.