Mixed Greens with Orange Juice Vinaigrette — The Meal That Made June Feel Like a Reward

The new Sven is a puppy. A puppy in a sixty-two-year-old grief house. The contrast is its own medicine. He chews everything. He pees on the rug. He has no concept of the sacredness of the kitchen. He runs through it like a tornado. He is not the first Sven. He is loud and goofy and embarrassing and entirely necessary. I love him completely. Sophie is showing now. The baby is due in summer. She is naming her Ingrid. The name was a gift, given to me at the worst time, which is also the right time. Mamma would approve. Mamma did, in fact, know — Sophie told her in October, before Mamma's mind started slipping at the end. Mamma had cried. Mamma had said, "Sophie, that is the right thing." The right thing carries forward. Gerald at the Damiano Center asked about Mamma. I said she was gone. He hugged me. The hug was longer than I expected. Gerald is a thoughtful man and not a hugger by inclination, and the hug from him was a weighted thing. He said, "Linda, my mother died when I was nine and I have missed her every day since." He said: "It does not stop. But it changes." I said: "I know." We kept ladling soup. Forty more bowls. The hug was over. The work continued. Sophie had her baby. A girl. They named her Ingrid, after Mamma. I drove to Minneapolis. I held her — she was tiny, with the same dark hair Sophie had at birth, with eyes that tracked the room with serious attention. I said in Swedish: Välkommen, lilla Ingrid. Welcome, little Ingrid. I cried. Mamma would have approved. Mamma did approve, in the months before she went, when Sophie told her the plan. The name is the bridge. I cooked Grilled chicken with garden greens this week. Chicken thighs marinated in lemon and herbs, grilled, served over a salad of garden greens. The kind of meal that makes June feel like a reward. Damiano. The kitchen back-room I have known for over twenty years. The pot. The ladle. The faces. Gerald. The work continues. The work is the same work it has been since 2005. The continuity is, I think, the gift the Damiano Center gives me as much as the gift I give it. We hold each other up. Erik's house is empty now. The Fifth Street house has been sold (the new owners are a young couple from Hermantown, they are kind, they have promised to take care of it; they will paint the walls and tear up the carpet and the kitchen will become someone else's kitchen and I have made my peace with this, mostly). Erik's own house in Lakeside is being cleared out. I helped on Saturday. I packed Erik's coffee mugs. I held one for a long minute. I put it in the box. It is enough. It has to be. And on a morning like this, with the lake doing what the lake does and the dog at my feet and the bread on the counter and the kitchen warm enough to live in, it is. I have been reading the Bible more lately. Not in any new way. The same passages I have known since confirmation class in 1977. The Sermon on the Mount. The 23rd Psalm. The book of Ruth. Whither thou goest, I will go. The repetition of the verses is its own form of prayer. The verses do not change. I change. The change is held by the unchanged words. It is enough.

The week I made this, Sophie’s baby had just arrived, Erik’s house was being cleared, and Sven the puppy was underfoot in every room — and I needed something that asked very little of me while still feeling like a real meal, the kind that honors the season you’re in. Mixed greens with an orange juice vinaigrette, laid under sliced grilled chicken thighs, was exactly that: bright and undemanding and quietly beautiful, the way June can be when you let it. It is the sort of dish Mamma would have called sensible, which in her vocabulary was a high compliment.

Mixed Greens with Orange Juice Vinaigrette

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 8 cups mixed garden greens (such as arugula, spinach, and butter lettuce)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced cucumber
• For the Orange Juice Vinaigrette:
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice (from about 1 large orange)
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat the chicken thighs in the mixture and let rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
2. Make the vinaigrette. Whisk together the orange juice, white wine vinegar, olive oil, honey, and Dijon mustard until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. Grill the chicken. Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat and brush with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Grill chicken thighs for 6—7 minutes per side, until cooked through and nicely charred. Let rest for 5 minutes, then slice against the grain.
4. Assemble the salad. Spread the mixed greens across a large platter or divide among four bowls. Top with red onion, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber.
5. Dress and serve. Drizzle the orange juice vinaigrette over the greens. Arrange the sliced grilled chicken on top. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 12g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 310mg