Smoked roasted red pepper salad.

In light of the start of jam/canning/preserving season, I stood staring into my pantry.  The jam cupboards were bare (make a mental note to make more this year), but pretty much everything else was still there, staring me in the face, reminding me of the winter of morning sickness, cold and flu sickness and general fatigue.  The few jars of peaches that were left fermented, and their absence was an obvious hole, but it amazed me how little was eaten.  It doesn't really surprise me when I think about it.  I did feel pretty awful, and when you feel sick, the last thing you want to do is experiment in the kitchen.

The jars that taunted me most were the ones full of smoked roasted red peppers, mainly because they were a recipe of my own invention.   I hadn't even cracked a jar to see how they smelled. 

So, I cracked one open.

They smelled devine.

I knew I needed to do something with them.  As a child, I remembered my mom making a pickled roasted red pepper salad, and I figured adding the smoky element would only add to it, so that's what I did.

It's a simple salad dressing, basically a 1:1 ratio of oil and vinegar (I use a light flavoured oil and white vinegar).  Then cut up as many of the pickled red peppers and onions as I want in the salad.  A touch of salt and pepper, and you're good to go.

Luckily I had a bag of mixed fresh salad greens that Husband's aunt picked fresh the day before.  If you don't have an aunt that gives you salad, feel free to get some at the store.  Toss the whole thing together and you've got yourself a salad.

A little feta cheese wouldn't hurt either.  I didn't have any, but hey, I can do that next time, but maybe after I make a pasta, or maybe a pasta salad, or a sandwich spread, or a casserole... or maybe...  well, that's a whole other post.