By Classroom building continues. Went in Monday and Thursday this week. The corkboard is now covered in student-accessible materials: the alphabet strip, the number line, the picture-exchange symbols printed and laminated with the laminator I found at the school resource center for teacher use. Laminating things is satisfying in a particular way — you feed the paper in and it comes out sealed and smooth and more permanent. I have been laminating everything that will benefit from lamination and some things that probably do not need it.
Drove to Oak Lawn on Sunday to visit. Babcia Rose had us for dinner — pierogi and beet salad and a cold cucumber soup that she makes in summer, the kind with the sour cream and the dill. She seemed a little slower than my last visit but she made everything from scratch and she ate and she told me about the school where her friend Halina's granddaughter teaches on the North Side. She asked me about my students. I said I did not have them yet. She said "But they are already yours."
I thought about that on the drive back to Chicago on the Stevenson. They are already yours. The children who will come to Room 108 on the first day of school in August, whoever they are, with whatever history is in their files — they are already mine. That is the responsibility and the gift simultaneously. I am going to know these kids the way Babcia Rose knows a recipe: from the inside, from repetition, from paying attention to what the dough needs.
Made cucumber soup at home, from Babcia Rose's recipe as I understand it: two cucumbers, sour cream, chicken broth, fresh dill, garlic, salt, blended and chilled. It is cold and tangy and clean and exactly right for July. It cost about two fifty and made four servings. I texted Babcia Rose to tell her I had made it. She called back — she does not text — and asked how it turned out. I said good. She said "Did you use enough dill?" I said yes. She said "Use more dill." I always use more dill now.
I have been thinking about what Babcia Rose said all week — they are already yours — and about the way her kitchen operates: no shortcuts, no approximations, just repetition until you understand what the ingredients need. The cucumber soup she made was all of that. I couldn’t replicate it exactly, but I could keep reaching toward it, and this Shepherd’s Salad is where I landed the next night: cold cucumbers, ripe tomatoes, fresh herbs, a sharp lemon dressing, nothing hidden. It is summer food that tells the truth about itself, which felt like the right thing to make.
Shepherd’s Salad
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and diced (about 2 cups)
- 2 medium Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (use more — Babcia Rose would insist)
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Optional: 2 oz crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Prep the vegetables. Peel, seed, and dice the cucumbers into roughly 1/2-inch pieces. Seed and dice the tomatoes to a similar size. Finely dice the red onion. Pat the cucumber pieces dry with a paper towel so the salad doesn’t water down.
- Combine. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion to a large bowl. Add the chopped parsley and dill and toss gently to distribute the herbs evenly throughout.
- Dress. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over the salad. Season with salt and pepper. Toss until everything is lightly coated. Taste and adjust — more lemon if it needs brightness, more salt if it needs definition.
- Chill and serve. For best flavor, cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before serving so the vegetables absorb the dressing. Scatter feta over the top just before serving if using. Serve cold.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 115 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 6g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 310mg