Salads sound so good on hot summer days. I have a great vintage wooden salad bowl that I like to use, and some pretty hand-painted wooden utensils for tossing and serving, too.

I love how they photographed the salads from above in this Mazola Salad Bowl Book. The only date I found inside is 1939. Mmmm...fresh watermelon, peaches,honeydew, cantaloupe, and strawberries served inside a melon half, surrounded with mint, and served on a yellow Fiesta plate. Looks good to me!

An interesting combo in this one - canned green beans, cooked potatoes, canned tuna or salmon, um, I'm not sure. Could use some tweaking..

This one sure looks pretty! Bananas, avocado, pineapple, watermelon, apple, cantaloupe, oranges and strawberries. (Click on the pictures to read the recipes, if you like.)

One of my favorite salads lately is a variation of the one my friend Kari in Vancouver served us when we were there for a visit in May of 2007:
Spinach and/or leafy greens
Gorgonzola or goat cheese
Fresh raspberries or sliced strawberries
Glazed or spiced walnuts or pecans
Girard's Raspberry or Champagne dressing
Toss it all together, adding fresh raspberries last due to their fragility. Kari used mixed leafy greens, Gorgonzola cheese, the Raspberry dressing, and homemade glazed walnuts. I don't even really like Gorgonzola, but it was fabulous. I like to use my favorite Montchevre Crumbled Goat Cheese, spinach, fabulous sugared/spiced nuts from our local farmer's market, strawberries (just because they hold up a little better) and the light version of Girard's Champagne dressing. Yum. Try it with whatever your favorites are!