The Palisade peach trees are being ambushed by the grape vines. The Grand Valley of Colorado, as this area is called, is the heart of Colorado’s ambitious and growing fruit and wine industry.
For me, carottes râpées and céleri rémoulade are the quintessential French bistro cruditiés, the fancy French word for raw salad. I’ve made these two recipes for years. Just take two rather ugly garden root vegetables, peel and shred, toss in a few extra ingredients and you’ve gone all exotic with your upcoming dinner menu.
A pound of newly-minted carrots just purchased at our Sunday Farmers Market.
Or, so I thought, as a young, rather Plain Jane cook in my kitchen. This week’s French Friday With Dorie recipe choice is Dorie’s delicious and versatile take on that café-style grated carrot salad. Serve it as a starter, side or snack. Slip it in a lunch box or pack for a picnic. It’s nutritious, filling and quickly made.
I needed a quickly-made something this week because I finally am making that long-anticipated move, at least until Thanksgiving, back to Colorado. For the past eight years my trips have been in the necessary flash-and-dash mode. I’d drive the ten-hour trip, stopping only for gas, in one day, stay in Aspen for three, and return the long albeit beautiful 510 miles the next. Each journey would end with my thinking, “Too old for this.”
This journey, no pressure, I could savor and enjoy. I left the still-darkened Henderson/Las Vegas area, as usual, at 5 A.M., the temperature was already 87 degrees. Since I lost an hour, due to the Pacific/Mountain time change, I arrived hungry in Green River, Utah at 1 P.M. While this community of less than 1000 residents may be a mecca for white water rafting (the Green River is the chief tributary of the Colorado River), the town itself is pathetically depressed with a boarded-up, for sale or rent, decapitated and delapitated main drag.
What’s not to love about Ray’s Tavern, a well-worn fixture in Green River, Utah.
Except for Ray’s Tavern. The destination-of-choice and only legitimate hang-out for, to quote Emma Lazarus, the tired, poor, hungry and huddled masses, Ray’s is a model for small town-institution. As one blogger put it, “The place is so authentic it doesn’t even have a website.” It’s a Jane and Michael Stern, Guy Fieri sort-of-place. It didn’t disappoint. Still crowded, authentic and hilarious, I sat at the 18‘ long community table to enjoy my teriyaki chicken sandwich, skins-intact fries and homemade slaw. As another blogger put it, “If for some godforsaken reason you happen to end up in Green River, Utah, then you might as well go to Ray’s Tavern.“
Two hours later I reached my overnight destination, the tiny, vibrant Colorado community of Palisade. Population, 3,000. With its 78% sunshine average and 182-day growing season, it’s proudly billed as “The Peach Capital of Colorado”. This week-end, Palisade is strutting its fuzzy stuff with their 44th Annual Palisade Peach Festival. 
Writing this, I have just checked into the Wine Country Inn, a lovely, faux-Victorian 80-room, wine-themed hotel built in 2007**. (**Nope, no perks, not free, always pay retail.) Set at the base of the Bookcliffs and next door to two wineries, the Inn is packed with Colorado peaches-on-their-mind tourists. Tonight I head to Main Street for the kick-off event, an Ice Cream Social and Street Dance. The peach sundaes are free, the Peach Queen will be crowned, recipes judged, pie-eating contests to begin, and the band will play on-and-on. Reminiscent of Manchester, Iowa, where I was raised, this is small town America at the ultimate and I couldn’t be happier. This year’s theme? “Life’s a Peach”. That’s true.
Let’s first return to this week’s recipe which can be found here. As I was saying, it’s simple. I made it Sunday to join an American hamburger and British ale for my international supper while watching the Olympics closing ceremonies. My only suggestions:
It’s easy to grate the carrots in a food processor.
One pound of carrots makes an ample supply of delicious carrot salad. The French like it plain, Dorie says, but she suggests we may add raisins, nuts and parsley. If one’s good, three is better. I added everything!
An All-American hamburger and French salad and………..
Pub Ale for a perfect supper to close the Olympics and salute the Brits for a job well done.
- If possible, buy Farmer’s Market carrots with a little dirt still clinging.
- In a hurry? Use the processor to grate the carrots and make the dressing.
- If the carrots weep, don’t you cry, just wring them dry.
- Although the French eat this “naked”, I added, at Dorie’s suggestion, raisins, roughly-cut walnuts and chopped fresh parsley this time. More nutritious. Yummy.
- One pound (5 large carrots) makes “beaucoup de” (lots of) salad. It took the neighborhood to get me packed and loaded for my Colorado trip so I shared with them.
Palisade, Colorado
Wine Country Inn, Palisade, Colorado
To see what my other French Friday with Dorie colleagues grated up this week, go to this Site.
Such a lovely post, Mary! Beautiful photos and yummy looking food… nothing better! 🙂
I am in for the salad except for the raisins – and make my Boddington’s pub ale a double!! : )
Sounds like quite a road trip and it all came back to carrot salad. Glad to see you on the move.
Love your road trip stories and photos already. Looking forward to hearing more. I also heartily approve of your ale accompaniment to the salad.
A beautiful salad. Great idea using as a side for hamburgers. Love your pictures:)
Such a great post, Mary! Love all your lovely photos…I’ve never been to Colorado…so I feel as though I’m tagging along! Your salad looks so pretty and very delicious! We really enjoyed this salad…I have been making a similar version of carrot salad for years…it’s a family favorite!! Safe travels!!
What gorgeous photos – the one of the grape vines at the top of the post is especially striking. Good luck with the move Mary. Your salad looks terrific! Perfect side with a burger.
Safe travels, my friend…I know you’ll savor the time you spend in Colorado. I back tracked this week, but looking at all these carrot salads has made me hungry! I’ll probably use craisins instead of raisins, but it will be on my menu soon 🙂
Oh, I love road trips, just you, your thoughts and the occasional Ray´s along the way. Nice pics! The salad was very good I think, but really, it would´ve been way better with your burger! Have a great weekend Mary!
Silly me – I thought you were already in CO! Thanks for taking us along with you. I love the photo of the grapes. This is our second year with our vines, so we don’t expect grapes until next year. We planted Red Flame on one side of an arch and Concord on the other – it will be so cool when we actually have some. The rest of our garden is doing great. I picked tomatoes & lemons today – we should have carrots & beets shortly. The carrots are multi-colored, so it will be cool to make this salad with them. Like you, we enjoyed the salad with everything!
BTW, have you ever read Phillipa Gregory? I’ve read 15 of her books and just started “The Changeling.”
Mary, beautiful and informative post today – we all loved Dorie´s recipe for the Grated Carrot Salad. I make a similar salad once a week and try to find organic carotts whenever feasible, they have a nice, slighty sweeter taste than the regular kind, so no raisins for us in this salad. I loved reading about your “journeys”, always love reading your posts! Running a few days late with commenting but we took the kids to the beach for a short trip before school starts again this week.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Gorgeous photos! Hope you are enjoying your time, the location looks heavenly. And your salad looks great, bet that burger was the perfect pairing.
“carottes râpées and céleri rémoulade are the quintessential French”
YES. I lived on these for many years as a poor teacher in Paris!
Love the Boddy’s you drank with this!
Love the road trip & related thoughts. Sometimes, all that time can be very therapeutic – especially if there is something to look forward to at the end of the road.
If I could relocate, the Denver area would be very high on my list. I fell in love with the area when I was out there a few years ago.
I’ve seen this salad on some of the other blogs. It looks delightful but your trip looks just as wonderful! Have fun!
I love your international meal! Sounds like you had a lovely trip from NV to CO. When can you start skiing?
Your posts are always so interesting with all your travels Mary! Boddington’s is so yummy – I heartily approve!
Welcome Home! We were so close, my son and I were in Paonia (another Colorado peach capital, although a bit later than Palisade) and then Aspen last Saturday. Hope we meet soon!