When you're asked to bring the green tossed salad . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"A city girl prefers a mixed green salad; country people, maybe not so much..."

?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make your own croutons with cinnamon sugar. Then toss mixed greens, dried cranberries, and crumbled blue cheese with the croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette. The croutons will take a bit of work at home, but the salad will asssemble in two seconds on site. You won't even need a knife.

Please don't put cinnamon sugar in salad for a family gathering.

+1 nasty

I'm not the PP and I would never do it, mainly because making croutons sounds like too much work, but I'm not sure why cinnamon sugar croutons seem nasty when several of us have posted that they like the cinnamon sugary pecans in the TJ's salad and noone has batted an eye.

Exactly. What a weird thing to nitpick at.

[Anonymous]

Skip the croutons.

[Anonymous]

Are y'all imagining cinnamon toast crunch or something here? I've had cinnamon croutons on pumpkin soup at a Michelin-starred restaurant and they were great.

[Anonymous]

Make a kale salad. You can dress that in advance; the kale will stand up to it and not go all wilty on you. (In fact, it will get softer and better.)

There are lots of good kale salad recipes out there. You can do a kale caesar, or we like one with a garlicky lemon dressing with bread crumbs and parmesan. (Which, it occurs to me, isn't that far off from a caesar, just less creamy and no eggs/anchovies.)

There's also the approach one of my grad school mates used. There was a bagel shop in town that happened to have really great caesar salad. If he was invited to a potluck, he'd take a big salad bowl and some plastic wrap in the car. On the way to the party, he'd stop off at the bagel shop and buy 4 large caesar salads to go. In his back seat, he'd dump them in the salad bowl, throw plastic wrap over it, and off he went. There were people at school who thought he made really great caesar salad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make a kale salad. You can dress that in advance; the kale will stand up to it and not go all wilty on you. (In fact, it will get softer and better.)

There are lots of good kale salad recipes out there. You can do a kale caesar, or we like one with a garlicky lemon dressing with bread crumbs and parmesan. (Which, it occurs to me, isn't that far off from a caesar, just less creamy and no eggs/anchovies.)

There's also the approach one of my grad school mates used. There was a bagel shop in town that happened to have really great caesar salad. If he was invited to a potluck, he'd take a big salad bowl and some plastic wrap in the car. On the way to the party, he'd stop off at the bagel shop and buy 4 large caesar salads to go. In his back seat, he'd dump them in the salad bowl, throw plastic wrap over it, and off he went. There were people at school who thought he made really great caesar salad.

Please, no kale in the salad. Please, I'll eat the damn cinnamon croutons. No kale!

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Nature's Promise organic greens at Giant keep fresh the longest because of clever packaging. My favorite is arugula salad made with with sundried tomatoes (Trader Joes's sells the kind that is already cut in convenient pieces), crumbled goat cheese and nuts or seeds - slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, can also use pecans or walnuts. Dressed with olive oil + balsamic. Sometimes I add a pinch of cayenne pepper for some kick. Sometimes I use the oil in which the tomatoes came in, though it is not 100% olive. The tomato flavor is amazing.

Yes, this one! Get a tub of pre-washed arugula. Or, for 25 people, 2 tubs. Or 1 tub of arugula and one tub of mesclun blend. The sundried tomatoes (or my favorite, peppadew peppers), goat cheese, and nuts or seeds (like, say, pepitas) are all packaged separately. Assemble when you get there. I wouldn't even bother with a fancy vinaigrette. Just take some really light oil (like grapeseed, or even canola) and some really light vinegar (like rice vinegar). You don't want to overpower this with something like balsamic. You could have that on the side for people who really like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make a kale salad. You can dress that in advance; the kale will stand up to it and not go all wilty on you. (In fact, it will get softer and better.)

There are lots of good kale salad recipes out there. You can do a kale caesar, or we like one with a garlicky lemon dressing with bread crumbs and parmesan. (Which, it occurs to me, isn't that far off from a caesar, just less creamy and no eggs/anchovies.)

There's also the approach one of my grad school mates used. There was a bagel shop in town that happened to have really great caesar salad. If he was invited to a potluck, he'd take a big salad bowl and some plastic wrap in the car. On the way to the party, he'd stop off at the bagel shop and buy 4 large caesar salads to go. In his back seat, he'd dump them in the salad bowl, throw plastic wrap over it, and off he went. There were people at school who thought he made really great caesar salad.

lots of people do not like kale! i do, but i cannot imagine my elderly relatives enjoying it.

bringing a dish is not about teaching others what to like. it is about pleasing the crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make your own croutons with cinnamon sugar. Then toss mixed greens, dried cranberries, and crumbled blue cheese with the croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette. The croutons will take a bit of work at home, but the salad will asssemble in two seconds on site. You won't even need a knife.

Please don't put cinnamon sugar in salad for a family gathering.

Why not?

Because it's gross? I mean, because not everyone likes sugar and/or cinnamon in a salad. Candied nuts are more self-contained and can be eaten around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make your own croutons with cinnamon sugar. Then toss mixed greens, dried cranberries, and crumbled blue cheese with the croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette. The croutons will take a bit of work at home, but the salad will asssemble in two seconds on site. You won't even need a knife.

Please don't put cinnamon sugar in salad for a family gathering.

Why not?

Because it's gross? I mean, because not everyone likes sugar and/or cinnamon in a salad. Candied nuts are more self-contained and can be eaten around.

Candied nuts aren't really more self contained that croutons.

[Anonymous]

My go-to salad for away from home (or church socials).

1) Bagged spinach
2) Tub of feta crumbles
3) Packet of dried cranberries
4) Chopped pecans (or candied ones -- your choice)
5) Bottle of vinaigrette dressing (like a raspberry one)

All of these available at Trader Joes. Just bring a bag of all the fixings and then assemble at the gathering location. You scale how much of the other ingredients you use depending on how many bags of spinach you have.

[Anonymous]

You can eat around a pecan but can't avoid eating a crouton? What?

[Anonymous]

With 25 people, you might have someone with a nut allergy...check that first.

No dressing on the salad.

Blue cheese or any strong flavor will make it something that some people love, some people tolerate and some don't like at all. If you are cooking to impress with your salad making talent, then do fancy things. If the idea is just to have a nice salad that almost everyone will eat, then stay simple.

[Anonymous]

Ha, love the "self contained candied nuts" direction this thread has taken. The next big DCUM debate.

My mom may have been on with something, no conflict with iceberg lettuce and baby carrots.