Monthly Archives: November 2006

How Euphemism Ruined Discussion of the Tossed Salad

I didn’t eat very much yesterday so I’m starving this morning.

I just read FoodDay and thought every recipe needed to be clipped and tried as soon as possible. Sort of like going to the grocery store hungry.

The feature article highlights three people who donate time cooking for fundraisers. There’s a gumbo lady, a cabbage roll guy and a loukoumades (honey dipped donut hole) lady. I don’t like frying and neither does my digestive system so the donuts are out, but the other recipes are a must try. I don’t like beef or pork very much either so my cabbage rolls will have ground turkey. I bet if that guy knew I was even considering this substitution he’d come to my house and confiscate my cabbage.

As I was reading the article I was thinking of how great it would be to learn to make different kinds of foods standing elbow to elbow with people who’ve been making them for years after learning from their parents. Then I thought about how many of such opportunities I’ve squandered because I was too busy visiting in the other room.

There’s another article on salad dressings. This is another type of recipe that I always clip and hardly ever use. I’m not fond of creamy dressings. I hate bottled dressings for any reason except convenience. I have a standard vinaigrette that I make with slight variations.

I’ve developed a genius salad making technique over the past year. We get huge bags of fresh greens from a local farmer so we have salad almost every day. I make a two serving salad in a shallow bowl and use designer salt and a couple twirls of designer pepper. I throw on a variety of other chopped vegetables and depending on my ambition level, add crumbled cheese, toasted nuts, maybe some dried fruit and possibly some other random leftover that might fit in. Then I drizzle on the dressing and toss until the leaves are coated. Then it goes into serving bowls and onto the table.

Have you ever run into these annoying people who spent a semester in France and can’t stop telling you how brilliant France is because they eat the salad after the entree? Oh, so great, just because it’s France. What if the U.S. served the salad last and France served it first. Would that be the better way? What if Tunisia served the salad last? Would anyone talk about how awesome Tunisia is? I like the salad with the meal.

What I think is wrong is when you’re served a salad heaped in a dinky bowl with a little side serving of separated vinaigrette that you’re supposed to add. No wonder people don’t eat more vegetables.

I have an epic post for this weekend but I didn’t get to it yet. I spent all day working on my final project for Illustrator. I’m slow and not especially artistic and having a hard time.

Meanwhile, the non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner went fantastic.

I ran into trouble with the pasta maker because the person who designed it had a limited idea of how thick a kitchen counter might be, as if we had kitchen counters/tables/whatever made out of a sheet of plywood. I couldn’t clamp it down. For the first rounds of flattening it didn’t matter but as I got to the last couple of levels I needed more muscle and I couldn’t hold the pasta maker down, crank the handle and manage the pasta at the same time so it got all gummed up which lead to me opening the dinner wine a couple hours early. I ended up finishing it with a rolling pin which required a lot of brute strength, it’s not like rolling cookie dough. The strands were all different shapes and some with rough edges but turned out fine when it was cooked. It was excellent pasta but I’m not sure worth that much extra work.

Now that I’ve done it once I think I can make it easier next time. I’m going to try at least once more before I give up on homemade pasta.

The linguine turned out excellent. I sauteed Prosciutto with leeks and garlic and then added some cheapo white wine and chucked my very thoroughly scrubbed clams in there. I had clam paranoia so they were sparkling by the time I got through with them. The recipe called for cherry tomatoes which are out of season and I don’t like to cook with them anyway. I used a half a jar of sun-dried which was a good call. The cooked noodles get added last and after letting it all mingle together for a few minutes, it gets heaped on warmed plates and sprinkled with parsley and toasted pine nuts. Excellent.

The bread didn’t rise into a pretty dome but tasted great and the roasted potato and spinach salad had a nice zing from the dressing, a fairly generic vinaigrette with tons of shallots. I ate leftover salad for lunch today.

The brulee turned out creamy delicious but the torch was a little scary. It doesn’t come with many pictures but tons of directions with millions of danger disclaimers so I was afraid I’d blow up myself and/or the house. Filling it with the butane is also scary and I had some dripping down my arm which I then washed for 20 minutes so as not to accidentally ignite it.

The directions weren’t clear on how much sugar to put on so I used a lot and the torch is like a extra-hot hair dryer and blew the sugar around which I didn’t expect. Also the sugar didn’t slowly burble, it melted and pooled into a brown mass. At that point I figured it was done. It tasted fantastic.

Priscila brought crab and shrimp and crudités so we did end up with way too much food. But we’ve got all weekend to eat it.

I do not do crowds if I don’t have to. I don’t wait in long lines. I’d skip my own funeral if it took more than 5 minutes to find a parking place.

I took today off partly to get started on my final project for my Illustrator class, partly to do some day-before cooking projects and partly to avoid the evening commute. Between the weather and the holiday traffic, it will no doubt be a long, slow haul.

Bob had to work late last night so I made plans for some dinner and drinks with a friend downtown and then I wanted to stop at the New Seasons on Interstate on my way home. All the upscale-natural type food stores near our house have moved across town or closed so as part of my holiday weekend planning strategy, I thought this stop would make my life easier. HA HA

I won’t bore you with the details but I’ve never been there before and almost never drive to that part of town so I got completely lost and it was dark and raining and my windows all foggy so pretty much optimal driving conditions. When I finally found it there was a line to get into the parking lot.

I optimistically inched along and then joined the dozen SUVs that circled the world’s smallest parking lot, in the rain, dodging customers, can’t see for crap. Who builds a market with 20 parking spaces?

The earlier D&D at least kept me sedated so I exited the micro-park as soon as I possibly could, who knows how long and how violent it would get for parking and the area is not set up for street parking. Then got lost finding my way back home again. That aspect of the plan failed on all levels.

This morning I got going early and did the shopping and finally got a much needed haircut. Now I’m not in the mood for Illustrator or cooking and I’m tempted to say, aw screw it and panic about it later.

I read over my recipes and then decide.