Spring is here and I'm craving salads

The sun has been shining all weekend and I saw a fennel bulb in the grocery store with my name on it.

I love this easy salad that I make which is crisp, sweet and reminds me of spring and summer. You might want to try it when you want something other than your regular repetoire of salads.

Fennel & Orange salad

1 fennel bulb, sliced
1/4 red onion sliced, very thin
2 oranges
fresh crushed black pepper
red wine vinegar

Place the fennel and onion into a bowl. Cut the peel off the oranges making sure that you cut into the flesh and have no white pith on the orange. Do this over the bowl to catch any juice that may drip. Supreme the orange segments so no membrane is on the segments. Squeeze the remaining orange after you've placed all the segments in the bowl.

Add as much black pepper and red wine vinegar as you'd like.

That's it! The orange juice and vinegar are enough to dress this salad and the fennel has a wonder crisp anise taste.

Another salad that I love is bean salad. We have this popular recipe that was passed down throughout my family for ages but it includes oil, salt, sugar etc etc.

Over the years I cut a little here and removed a little there and now all I do to dress the salad is mix a little agave syrup (just a few spoons) with white vinegar and it's done. The key is to let it marinate for a while.

This week's version has lots and lots of green and yellow beans, some red kidney beans, chick peas, lima beans, green pepper, red onion and some black pepper.