celeriac salad

Also celery root. Frankly, I have no idea what it is. Saw it in the store and thought,"That looks weird. I should buy it."  

Cut these too thick. These sticks were cut again in half lengthwise, then again, so each stick became four sticks. They were soaked in sweetened acidulated water. The vinaigrette is flavored with grated ginger. The salad included apple, red bell pepper, onion, raw baby courgette, all soaked with the celeriac then black beans sprinkled only because I thought  black dots would be cool in the photograph. 

Speaking of photographs, sometimes I have a hard time making up my mind which one to use. This one seemed to me to have advantages. I like the specks of light in bokeh reflected off the background tomatoes but on second thought they do distract. The salad is the subject and those tomatoes draw away. Whada'ya think? Should I switch them out? 

Wanna hear something off topic? Okay, goes like this: Today is the last day for the Tutankhamun[hekaiunushema] exhibit that has been open for months half a block from my home. I've been through it half a dozen times, I cannot get enough. It's like the exhibition came to me directly, that's how I know God loves me, and now I am sad because it is leaving. 

Man, some times, I tell ya, I get so sick and tired of the lame excuses people make. I called a friend I haven't seen in a whole year and asked if he saw the exhibit. He goes, "Why no, as a matter of fact, I have not." I asked if he would like to see it as my guest. He goes, "Yes, I would like that very much." I told him today is the last day and then it is gone forever, so we made plans for today. The next week he called back to say, "I'm sorry but I cannot go to the exhibit ... I'm still all backed up with end-of-the-year tax accounting for three companies ... I am trying desperately to retire and I must get this out of the way ... my niece got married in Connecticut and I had to go there for the wedding ... the blizzard that coated New England messed travel nationally complicated my arrangements and caused debilitating anxiety ... then *choke* my father whom I've been caring for the last several years has died and as the oldest surviving son I have to manage all the funeral arrangements ... Through all that I've become quite ill because my resistance was lowered by grief and anxiety and because I've been sobbing throughout  the whole last two weeks ..."

and blah blahblah blah blah blahblah blah.

So I called Karen and she was thrilled with the idea. She and her son braved the snow to join me this morning, OMG, the guy has shot up an entire foot in the four months since I've seen him. He's as tall as myself but two shoe sizes larger, and he's only fifteen. Karen said she can't keep up with clothes. After the exhibit we walked over to Palette's for lunch where all three of us ate like starving animals. Karen kills me. She told her son she wanted just a taste of his lunch then proceeded to devour the whole thing. The boy sat there nonplussed as his mother savagely attacked his plate. It's a white tablecloth kind of place so that behavior is most unbecoming. Probably not as bad as my sweary stories, and our uproarious laughter, but all this is beside the point. He asked the waiter for a take-home box and in the next moment Karen goes after her son's lunch again, her stabbing-fork ready aimed,  but the whole thing had disappeared. He, the growing boy, wisely scooped it into the box out of reach of his ravenous mother.  Hahahaha. I like that kid. 

So anyway, this is tonight's salad.