This blog is most definitely dedicated to my sister-in-law!

Many moons ago (exactly one year and seven months) my sister-in-law Jessica and I became unexpected roommates. I had just been kicked out of Portugal (visa) and was behaving like a stray cat and well, the clever Miss Jessica knows that the key to a thriving marriage is taking little snippets of time apart from your other half. So in the blustery cold of January, we convened in her pied-a-terre in Manhattan and started to really get to know one another. Over the weeks and months our comfort level grew and soon - over coffee, lunches, walks in the park - we bared our struggles, our hopes, our aspirations, and our lives out to one another. Didn't that sentence sound civilized and dramatic? I thought so too. Actually let me paint the real picture - we were like two school girls at summer camp - playing dress up with outdated disco outfits, donning wigs instead of winter hats, which we thought was just hilarious, and then snorting, chortling and gasping for air when the laughter became too much.

Oh and I also thought of a new career everyday. "Jess, I know! I am going to write a book!" "Great," she would reply.

Then for the next week I would tell her exactly how I was going to do that and she would give me 110% of her support. Then the next week would arrive. "Jess, I know! I want to make wall tiles! Really pretty wall tiles!"

"Great," she would reply.

Then for the next week I would tell her exactly how I was going to do that and she would give me 110% of her support. Then the next week would arrive. "Jess, I know! I want to be a funeral home director!"

"Great," she would reply.

Then for the next week I would tell her exactly how I was going to do that and she would give me 110% of her support. Then the next week would arrive. "Jess, I know! I want to make iphone applications!"

It was a Fall day like any other in New York when I exclaimed, "Jess, I know! I want to make a salad blog! Yes! That's it! A blog all about....all about....Salad!"

As I stood there in front of her without my book, without my tiles, without my new funeral director job and without my iphone application, I knew that the salad blog might have been the straw that finally broke the camel's back. "You can't do this to me anymore!' she bellowed. "I can't go down this road with you again! You get me all excited and then....and then... nothing!"

She was right. I couldn't lay down another idea until I had checked one off the list. So I decided to go ahead and tackle the most difficult one first - the salad blog. Conceived almost one year ago and born today - this salad blog Jessica is for you!