| Hey folks, Thanksgiving dinner is always a production. You've got kids running around, some laughing, some crying. An uncle or aunt is getting a little too deep into the champagne, an in-law is tasting the gravy and making faces you can't quite decipher, the range fan's blaring, and a half dozen cooking alarms are going off for one dish or another. Things get chaotic. Things slip through the cracks. All the big dishes are good to go. No one forgets to make the bird, the various potatoes, the rolls, the gravy. They forget the vegetable dish. Because after turkey with rich gelatinous gravy, buttery sweet potatoes, fluffy mashed potatoes, you need some vegetation. Glazed green beans, roasted Brussels, and gingery sautéed butternut squash are good, but they simply extend the theme of Thanksgiving dinner. You need something lighter to cut all that richness. You need a pattern interrupter. You need an acid. Enter the Thanksgiving salad. A simple plate of leafy greens, crunchy cucumbers, and a few tart tomatoes dressed with something tangy and punchy to break up all the heaviness of classic Thanksgiving food. | 