Shannan's Mango Salad

This salad is great in the winter, when mangos and avocado are in season.

-Mixed Greens (any kind, really--I often do spinach mixed with other greens and go for color and texture contrast)

-Mango--peeled and sliced into bite sized chunks (tedious, but worth it!)

-Avocado--peeled and cut up

-Pine nuts--toasted (I now stand sentry at the over door, otherwise I burn them)

-Holumi Cheese (I get this at Sparrow at Kerrytown--the cooler next to Monahan's)--sliced in 1/2" rounds. Pan fry them on med-high--no need for oil since they release a lot of liquid at first. You can leave them for a while, then once the liquid evaporates you need to babysit them, as they go from a beautiful golden crisp to overdone rather quickly. Shred them after they cool a bit (but the cook gets to eat a few warm whole chunks--one of the privileges of cooking...)

Dressing (I never measure, so this a bit casual in terms of amounts):

start with a small to medium jar that has a lid

-juice from one lemon

-enough olive oil so that the ratio of lemon juice to olive oil is 1:3

-1-2 tablespoons of dijon mustard

-2 tablespoons of honey

-a couple of dashes of salt

-a couple of rotations on the pepper grinder

-1/2 teaspoon tarragon (optional)

screw on the lid and shake, shake, shake!

If you are taking this somewhere, then travel with all the pieces in separate containers--don't dress before, otherwise it wilts quickly.

So--first you toss the greens ALONE with the dressing (if you put everything together first and then toss, all the good stuff goes to the bottom and it is not as pretty). Then you layer all the chunky stuff on top--I like to make sedimentary layers in color contrast--mango, cheese, avocado, pine nuts... enjoy!