Salad....The Bulgarian Way

Have you ever met someone and they say their name and you say "What was that?" and then they say it again and you say "oh, ok" because you still have no idea what their name is but you don't want to be rude and ask again? My friend Krassimira is like that, and the above is pretty much how our first conversation went. I would listen closely every time she would tell other people what her name was until I had it down.

Now, keep in mind that I did not have the luxury of having it written down in front of me and she does have a slight accent. However, we got over my lack of knowing what her name was for the first few months of meeting one another and now are great friends.

Our families decided to go on a quick overnight campout and we were discussing the menu when she came out and said she was going to bring a salad. I am proud to say that I managed to keep a straight face. I then went home and told my husband and we both had a good laugh about bringing a salad camping.

So, there we were, surrounded by all of the normal camping fare; chips, soda, hot dogs, chilli, smores, and then there was the.... salad. And after the first bite, all I wanted to eat was the flippin' salad!!! (by the way, that did not prevent me from having one or two or seven smores)

This is apparently the salad that graces every table at any kind of dinner in Bulgaria. It is so easy but SOOOO good. She eyeballs everything which I yelled at her about, but I found as I made it that eyeballing isn't too bad.

Cucumber, Tomato, and Feta Salad(I don't think this is the name, I just made it up)

One European cucumber, peeled and cubed (this means seedless- the one I got was from Canada)

3-4 Grape vine tomatoes, cut into medium sized cubes (this can be any juicy tomato, but just not Roma)

1 bunch of green onions, cleaned and diced

package of feta cheese (she uses Bulgarian sheep's milk and yeah, I couldn't find that so I used just regular feta)

extra virgin olive oil

red wine vinegar

kosher salt to taste

Combine cucumber and tomato and onion. Add olive oil. I drizzled and counted to 5. Really, just however much you want. Add red wine vinegar, again to taste. I used like 12 splashes. Add salt to taste as well. Put in crumbled feta and mix well. Serve.

Wow, there were a lot of parentheses in this post!