I’ve been pondering salads lately, as that’s usually the
part of dinner my chef husband allows me to be in charge of, and it has brought
back fond childhood memories. How can a salad bring back childhood memories?
Perhaps because the salads my grandparents prepared were consistently the same
at every family gathering, so the thought of their salad makes me think of the
sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other get
togethers.
Before you think me strange, let me explain further. Nana’s
salads typically consisted of romaine lettuce, green onions, cucumbers,
broccoli, and often halved red grapes. To this day, putting green onions in a
salad makes me think of Nana’s house. Granny’s salads always included tomatoes,
green pepper, carrots, cubes of cheddar cheese, and the pièce de résistance:
cucumbers with serrated edges. This was Poppa’s contribution. He would peel the
cucumbers then run a fork down the sides before slicing them into discs. I
guess this made them fancy, company’s coming cucumbers. I love that he did
that.
Then there was the presentation of the salad. Granny placed
a small, wooden salad bowl beside each dinner plate. Nana served the salad
dressing in a glass vile. My mom still twitches if salad dressing is placed on
the table in the store bottle, while I have a hard time justifying dirtying
another dish when it pours perfectly well straight out of the bottle it came
in.
And let’s not forget the jelly salads. Granny’s was orange
jello with shredded carrots and mandarin orange slices. Nana’s was green jello
with pineapple and cherries. As gross as it sounds, I actually really enjoyed
both of them and it wasn’t a proper family meal without them.
Now, I enjoy some of the most fantastic salads you could
imagine at my in-law’s house. They are works of art! We’ve never had the same
one twice. Various styles of lettuce, combined with vegetables and herbs they
grew in their own garden, nuts, fruit, avocado, goat or feta cheese…and there’s
no salad dressing on the table. You don’t choose
your salad dressing. The creator of the salad invents a vinaigrette from
scratch that compliments the salad’s ingredients, and applies just the perfect
amount of this dressing to the salad before it goes to the table. I take a
small amount of meat and potatoes, and a large amount of salad, then hope that the
salad will make it around the table a second time so I can have more. Perhaps
this is why I’ve been thinking so much about salads lately. I actually get
nervous when I’m asked to bring the salad to my husband’s family gatherings.
It’s a big responsibility. I’ll tell you this much, if my salad came with cubes
of cheddar cheese and Catalina salad dressing I might be disowned from the
family!
