Café Style Grated Carrot Salad

Simple, fresh, easy (when you have a Cuisinart....) and with ingredients 
we always have on hand.  And did we mention it tasted great ?

Per Nana ~

I can't believe I actually had all the ingredients for a French Friday

 recipe without a trip to Wegman's.    I must be doing something right. 

About a year ago I purchased a new blender.   After researching for 

about two weeks I settled on a Cuisinart combination blender with 

a mini chopper added.  I thought this would be great for small jobs. 

However, I could not figure out how to attach the mini chopper so

 I forgot about it for awhile.  

After reading all the recipes for this month I thought this would come

 in handy, especially for the basil coulis and the chopped carrots.

 Along comes hubby who just sets the chopper on top of the blender

 base and " voila"  it works. When I finally got over my frustration, 

 I was in my glory.  I grated the carrots and chopped  the walnuts and also 

mixed the salad dressing in the mini Cuisinart.  Worked beautifully. 

I'm not sure if this was the way to grate the carrots. 

My original thought was the box grater to give them a slivered look, 

but hubby insisted that was not the correct way.   (I guess I will have 

to wait and see how the other Doristas did theirs.)

To be honest I did not care for the recipe.    I'm not exactly sure why,

 but it didn't work for me.  Hubby said it wasn't too terrible. 

 That means don't bother making this again.....

Per Tricia ~

I had the treat of trying Nana's version earlier this week 

(yes, she is ALWAYS done before me....) and as she described- it

 was not something we were rushing to try again. I considered not 

even making it but since I have passed on a few dishes lately, the guilt 

 got me.   Plus, it was a simple recipe and I had the ingredients on hand.

  The best ingredient in my opinion, silly as it sounds, 

was the Cuisinart.  This is because while the salad tastes lovely,

 if my Cuisinart had not been there to prepare the carrots perfectly

 and instantly.... I am not sure I would re do this one if sweat equity 

were involved. Instead I ended up amazed that my little machine took 

a few carrots on hand and when tossed with a very simple vinaigrette

....made a dish that was basically "company worthy". Or darn special

 for a weeknight at least.  

While I will be losing many of my Dorie "taste testers"

 soon enough to college and study abroad, I enjoyed having all forks 

on deck tonight -and even a visiting friend. We all grabbed forks and 

tested the platter accordingly- savoring the company, the experience

 AND the carrot salad.  Everyone gave it a hearty thumbs up !

Happy French Friday !

P.S. - I sent a sample over to Nana and she gave it two thumbs up.

 It was all in the cut of the carrot, though my "Savannah Bee Co"

  honey worked wonders too :)

P.P.S. - We are headed back to France.  Nana and I booked a trip

 in late October. Paris and the Loire Valley.  Ooh la la !!