Columbia Salad

A great recipe for leftover ham and who couldn't use a salad the day after Thanksgiving;).  We have had this salad at the Columbia restaurant in St. Augustine and we loved it.  Then, some years later, we were in a cabin in North Carolina with some family and they had recreated the salad for dinner one night. It had become one of our family recipes and we all love it.  It is super easy and the dressing is wonderful on any salad.  If you have kids that require some extra calories or carbs, we add a baguette and butter for them.  Not only is is a great use of leftover Thanksgiving ham, but we had a lovely oriental salad mix from the Front Porch Picking basket.  Normally the salad is made with romaine, and it is great that way, but also wonderful with the mixed greens.  The recipe is a little vague because it was never written down properly and I hate to now assign an arbitrary measurement now, but for the sake of, some, clarity, I will throw out a measurement even though I eyeball it and it might in fact be quite different from the numbers I will put in parentheses.

Columbia Salad

Salad:
Lettuce (6 cups)  Any will do, but romaine is the original
Tomatoes (1 cut up)
Swiss Cheese, cubed (4 oz)
Ham, cubed (6 oz)
Green Olives (1/3 cup)
Dressing:
1 Part Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice (2 oz)
1 Part Worcestershire Sauce  (2 oz)
4 Parts Extra Virgin Olive Oil (8 oz)
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
a Splash of the Olive Brine

First of all the, make the dressing.  The reason for the vagueness is we usually start with the juice of one lemon.  I put this in a mason jar and put a rubber band at the level of the juice.  I then add worcestershire until the band is in the middle.  Move the band to the top of that level and add olive oil until the band is marking the bottom third of the dressing in the jar.  Add the garlic and brine and shake and let sit while you make the salad.  I would suggest you follow my procedure instead of my math above;).  Then just cube your meat and cheese, wash and chop your lettuce and tomato and toss in a large bowl with as much dressing as you like.

Before dressing and tossing