Welcome to the best salad in the history of the world.

{Something personal about me: I have just a smidge of an obsessive personality.}

When I say that this is the best salad ever, I really mean it. I will eat this salad for the next week, overloading on corn, peaches, tomatoes and feta until I’m orange with yellow and red splotches and have salad fever.

And then I’ll move on to my next obsession most favorite thing. But, for now, this salad is THE best!

Before I give you the recipe, would you like to meet the newest member of our household? Drumroll please…Dear readers, I give you…Beauty!

Beauty is a peacock. From Michael’s. And I never in a million years thought I’d be posting photos of Beauty when I picked her up from the clearance rack.

Here is her story, copied and pasted exactly as I posted it on my personal Facebook page:

Yesterday I picked up a small decorative peacock from Michael’s clearance rack. Katie loves peacocks so I thought she’d love it just to play with. She & Kylie played with it a lot yesterday and this morning I saw it on the coffee table. I clipped it to some flowers on our fireplace mantle and waited. Katie came in awhile later and here’s what transpired:

Katie: Where did my peacock go?
Me: I don’t know, sweetie.
Katie: But I left it right here, I’m sure of it!
Me: Look! It flew up and landed on those flowers!
Katie: {takes a minute to think about it, and then…} So she’s alive! She must fly around when no one’s around!
Me: Yep, that must be it!
Katie: So I don’t need to buy a real peacock when I get to be a grownup! I already have one!

And now, she wants to know what to feed it.
{uhhh…bugs and grains, I guess?}
Okay, mommy, can we get some for her?
{uhhhh…sure honey, no problem}
And we’d better make sure that everything is really put away every night so she doesn’t accidentally eat something! {okay, sure, I’ll make sure the pantry door is always closed, sweetie}
And can we call Daddy? I have to tell him that my bird is really alive.
{uhhh. sure, go ahead and call him}
I’m going to bring it to school and show everyone that I have a real peacock!
{well, we’d better leave her at home where she feels safe, sweetie}
MOMMY! DON’T LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN! MY BIRD MIGHT FLY AWAY!
{right, sorry, I’ll work on that}.

And this, my friends, is what I get for lying to my 6-yr-old!

I love that my daughter still lives in a magical land of fairies and peacocks. It will be a sad day when she realizes that magic and pixie dust aren’t real and that life isn’t always so magical. But for now, it’s a delight to be a part of her world.

And really, this salad is pretty magical and it’s waaay better than any boring ol’ pixie dust.

Talk about a great way to get more fruits & veggies into your diet! You absolutely have to use the best summer produce you can find – don’t be tempted to try this in any other season. There’s no dressing here, just a drizzle of a good olive oil, salt & pepper, so the flavor of the produce really shines. The combination of sweet corn & peaches with the salty feta is everything it needs!

Visit the following posts to see more stacked salads and get tips on presentation:

Tarragon Lemon Salad with Fresh Crab & Avocado   &   Stacked Salads, Plating Techniques