**Virtual points to anyone who can tell me where the big salad is from. :) **
Last weekend, my husband decided that we needed a new kitchen faucet. We can get something new and shiny? Okay, I'm in! :)
I don't have a before photo, but here is the after:
I'm seriously in love. I feel all fancy when I'm doing dishes now. Our old spout came straight out. I had no idea how much room a gooseneck spout would give me!
I wanted to try out the new faucet further by doing something other than dishes. If you recall, in my
previous post, I mentioned how I had bought some lettuce the other day that went bad
really quickly. Well, I had purchased the other salad veggies to go with it, but now they didn't have a bed of lettuce to rest on. Quite sad, huh? I didn't want the other veggies to follow in the footsteps of the first head of lettuce, so we picked up another head.
Disclaimer: I am fully aware that Iceberg lettuce has virtually no nutritional value, but it's the only kind my husband will eat. Every now and then I try to slip some Romaine or Green Leaf lettuce past him, but I usually hear about how he prefers the other kind. For the sake of this post, please imagine whatever type of lettuce you prefer to eat. :)
Yes, I know that making a tossed salad is super easy. I just wanted to pass along some tips that I've found along the way that I think are helpful.
Tip #1
Use a lettuce knife. The serrated plastic blade keeps greens from browning which can happen when you use a metal blade. I love my
lettuce knife by Zyliss.
Please be careful. Even though the knife is made out of plastic, it still hurts if you run it across your fingers.
I may or may not be giving you this tip from personal experience...
Tip #2
Use a salad spinner. I didn't have one until a few months ago, and I constantly wonder how I lived without it. My friends Jess (from
Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy) and Marcin gave me a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card for my birthday this year. I wasn't sure what to spend it on and finally decided on this
salad spinner. I'm glad I did! It really does help dry the lettuce after you've washed it. I used to just shake the collander around until my arms hurt, but my lettuce was usually still really wet. No more soaking wet lettuce = a happy Brooke.
Tip #3
Shred your carrots. Shredded carrots are much easier to pick up with a fork. You don't have to be a master chef to use shredded carrots in your salads, trust me. I used to use the julienne disc for my food processor. This was very easy to do, but kind of a pain to clean up. If you're making a really large salad, I would recommend using this method, but if you're making just a small salad to go with dinner, I would suggest getting a
julienne peeler. Again, I have one made by Zyliss, and I LOVE it.
Tip #4
Cover your salad. If you're preparing your salad in advance, make sure to keep it nice and crisp by covering it with a wet paper towel. My mom learned this neat little trick when she volunteered in the kitchen at
Camp Barakel where I used to go to summer camp. That was over 15 years ago, but we still use that handy tip to keep our salads from drying out. I also cover my bowl with plastic wrap before sticking it in the fridge.
And there you have it! A crisp, green, fresh salad to go alongside dinner. We had ours last night with Stouffer's French Bread Pizza.
Sometimes I just don't feel like cooking. :)
To make the invites, I used my trusty Paint Shop Pro (since I don't have Photoshop), Google Images (to search for the lavender clip art), leftover envelopes from our wedding, and cardstock that I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics. Gotta love those 40% off coupons!
