Recently, Facebook sent a memory of a note sent by my sister 13 years ago that read…

“…Me and you should keep a blog together about the FOOD WE COOK. A sort of recipe/menu collection from day-to-day or special events or whatnot. Just imagine… the different styles, the big sis & little sis. I would love to gather all that foodie goodness together.”

So, she set Big Sis Little Dish up, and we got going!

I originally published this salad recipe on August 8th, 2010. It was the seventh recipe we posted! The first few posts had no photos but, despite lack of visual finesse, the recipes in the old posts are excellent and we still cook a lot of them! I’m repostng this one now because I still make it every summer when these vegetables are in season.

The original blog post said “The salad was inspired by one that I ate at Diner in Williamsburg one early afternoon while rather hung over.  It made me feel better.  I started making it a lot.  One morning, Silvi and I ate this salad for breakfast and then rode our bikes from Queens to Coney Island.  For those of you unfamiliar with the outer boroughs of NYC…..thats a REALLY long bike ride.” I have not riden my bike to Coney Island in a long time, but I still like to make this salad for breakfast when I need to feel fortified and hydrated for a long NYC summer day.

Here are some photos of me and my sister from back when we rode our bikes everywhere.

Coney Island is an important place for us. My sister has the Wonder Wheel tattood on her arm. Here is a Wonder Wheel photo gallery that chronicals 2001(ish?)- 2023 (including an image from a shadow puppet show that I made).

And here is a gallery of all just SOME of the non Wonder Wheel related photos from over 20 years of trips to Coney Island.

Here is the “recipe” for Ride Your Bike to Coney Island Salad. Adjust to use whatever summer vegetables are amazing where you are! Use it as fuel to do something fun and adventurous.

Ride Your Bike to Coney Island Salad

• Romaine lettuce, chopped (these days I like little gem lettuce, quartered as shown)
• Fresh basil leaves
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced (I didn’t have any for this photo shoot)
• 1 tomato, diced
• corn scraped off of one cob (ideally fresh enough to eat raw)
• 1 avacado, diced
• 1 cooked beet, diced
• 1 small cucumber peeled and diced
• chevre
• creamy herb dressing (see the original recipe in “4 reasons to make home-made mayonnaise” or add a big handful of fresh basil to this Kefir Miso Dressing, which works just as well with yogurt or buttermilk if you don’t have kefir)