RJsCorner is meant to be a very diverse place. I cover many topics because I am a guy with many labels. One label I haven’t shown you here is my chef side. I spent five years in college working in a dormitory cafeteria serving about 600 people three meals a day. I started that time washing pots and pans and ended up running the entire student waiter staff of about fifty people. I learned many things about cooking and such in addition to how to be an engineer during those years.

Then thirty plus years later in 2003 started volunteering at a local soup kitchen serving about 50 people two meals a day. My eleven years there started as they did during my college years doing dishes and ended with totally crafting the meals two days a week. It was quite a creative challenge to put out meals with only the ingredients that were donated. Those were some of the most joyous years of my retirement life. But, enough of this rambling about the past.

I no longer cook for 600 or even 50 people now but I still enjoy the creative challenge of making new and unique meals for my wife and me. So, starting with this post I am going to be giving you some recipes that I enjoy the most. Many of them start with something I find on the Internet but I inevitably end up adding to them to give them a “little extra” punch. I do like punch in my meal creativity. 🙂

So, here is the first installment of this new category. As the title of this post indicates it started out as a standard Greek salad from the Internet but has since morphed into my creation.

Ingredients
 1  pt. grape or cherry tomatoes, halved 
 1  cucumber, halved and thinly sliced (leave the peel on)
 1  c. pitted kalamata olives 
  1/2 red onion, thinly sliced 
  3/4 c. crumbled feta 
 1 c. Fresh Mushrooms, quartered
 1 c. Broccoli Flowerettes (if available)
 1/4 c. Scallion tops, chopped (if available) 
 1 c. fresh Asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces (if available)

 For the dressing 
 3  tbsp. Red Wine vinegar 
 Juice of 1 a lemon (or a healthy squirt of a lemon bulb)
 1  tbsp. Dried Oregano 
 Kosher salt 
 Freshly ground black pepper 
  1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil 

The ingredients above are only a suggestion. I sometimes put a handful artichoke hearts in the mix too. Red pepper flakes are sometimes added for an additional zest.

The quantity above makes a good ten servings and will last at least a week in the refrigerator. Try it out and if you like it come back here to let me know.