Summer Breeze - Makes Me Feel Fine

July seems a wonderful month to play Wynton Marsalis CD's nonstop. Languid trumpet-playing and sultry summer evenings are a match made in my version of heaven. July is the perfect month for consuming cool, crisp salads of every description. I can become a salad snob in July. Whereas the rest of the year, I am content with romaine lettuce and ranch dressing, the heat of July and August changes my palate. I begin the elusive search for cold vegetable Nirvana, experimenting with exotic salad sauces like cucumber wasabi or southwest caesar. I will concoct my own dressings of olive oil, a splash of wine, seasoned with just-harvested herbs, coarse salt, and fresh ground pepper. Toss something like that with butter-soft, cool-crunchy lettuces, walnuts, mandarin orange slices, and lots of feta cheese, and all you need is a grilled something-or-other to make a meal. Why am I telling all this? I am not one to be miserly with my bliss. A stunning salad, a July evening at home, and Marsalis' trumpet playing go together...I want the world to know.