She's going to add WHAT to the salad???

I enjoy food. Okay, I enjoy GOOD food. I would never venture to Food Critique aspirations (or Bizarre Foods either!), but I am open for new food experiences. I have expanded my palate as I've grown older and have tired some pretty exciting things over the last 10 years (Alpaca, cow tongue, cow heart, cow intestines, different kinds of calamari). However, when I was younger, my idea of a salad was pretty basic: iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, maybe carrots, I'd pick out the onions if there were any -- ALL of it smothered in Ranch dressing!

My mother got us to first eat salad with what we called "Vinegar-Oil Salad," a scrumptious mixture of tomatoes, shredded cheese, chopped celery and diced avocado mixed with apple cider vinegar, oil, s/p, garlic and onion salts -- all tossed together with (she used) shredded iceberg lettuce, and we'd scramble over the bits left in the bowl after the lettuce was gone. Still a family favorite but all us kids have added to it our own twists.

But my Mama taught me to be respectful to others and if you were eating at someone else's house, to eat what you were offered. How she enforced this I have no recollection; maybe I'm just naturally polite :) So, one time on my mission, my companion and I (Hi, Sarah!) were with an investigator in her tiny apartment. We had to catch a train, but this lady wanted to make us something fast to eat before we left (bless her heart).

She has me cutting lettuce and Sarah cutting up fruit (strawberries, nectarines, kiwi) while she's making a vinegar dressing. Then, much to my surprise, she tossed it all together!! Fruit and lettuce?? What?? She kept saying over and over, "Lettuce is just water. You need something filling (pointing to the fruit)." And I'm thinking sarcastically, I know we're in a hurry, but do we really need to toss it all together?

With my first bite ever of fruit, romaine lettuce and vinaigrette, my vegetable life has never been the same! Wow! What have I been missing?!? If you've never tried a kiwi or nectarine or strawberry in a vinaigrette salad, you really need, no - have - to try it! This coming from a Ranch lover. :)

Expand your taste buds...your mouth will thank them!
Just leave the lobster and crab in their tanks for me :) Hey, I have to draw the line somewhere!