J and I meet up with a lovely group of friends every few months for dinner and an evening of playing cards.  I wish I could say that we play an intellectual game, like bridge.  Or a hip game, like poker.  But we don’t.  It’s euchre.  It’s so much fun.

Last night, I lost spectacularly.  But it was still a gold-medal evening, thanks in large part to the excellent company and thanks in small part to the fact that it brought a great new salad into my life.

Our hosts made a delicious potato soup for dinner in observance of St. Patrick’s day, and I came up with this salad to go along it.  It turned out very well, if I do say so myself.  I hardly ever make a creamy salad dressing, but it was a winning combination with the smoked salmon and potato soup.  A little lemon, a little dill, a lot of tiny sweet tomatoes.  Crunch, zing, sweet, salt, smoke.  Are those the food groups or what?Green Salad with Smoked Salmon, Tomatoes, and Crème Fraiche-Dill Dressing: First, make the dressing by combing a few big spoonfuls of crème fraiche in a jar with the zest of a lemon, a big squeeze of lemon juice, a tsp. of dijon mustard, a pinch of salt and a handful of chopped dill.  Add a bit of cream or milk to thin (it should remain fairly thick) and stir or shake your jar to mix it up.  Taste and adjust the flavors to your liking.  Wash and tear a big head of lettuce and tear a few big handfuls of dill stems into smaller sprigs.  Mix lettuce, dill, flaked smoked salmon and a lot of sliced little tomatoes with a few spoonfuls of the dressing and toss well.  (We kept the smoked salmon on the side because not everyone was eating it.)