Dear Mothers,
I went to help my mom on Saturday with her wash and vacuuming. Anyway, we had pizza and a fresh salad for lunch. Mom kept saying how good the salad was and I got to thinkin' about it and why it was good.
I know you all probably have favorite ways to fix a salad but this is how I fix mine. I take a small plate... that's a plate smaller then a dinner plate and bigger then a saucer. But, anyway, I dice the lettuce up instead of tearing it in big pieces. I sort of shred it, so it looks like coleslaw almost but smaller. I lay this on the plate in a layer. Then I slice radishes very thin and cut the grape tomatoes in half. I dice up the green pepper and the celery. I lay these veggies on top as another layer. I don't mix it up. Then I put the salad dressing on the top.
Our John would eat his salad like that but on a dinner plate with a whole head of lettuce. I like my salads thinly cut like that as all the veggies blend together. I don't like big hunks of stuff on my plate unless it is on a relish plate and finger foods.
It's good for a housewife to learn to be skilled at cutting and slicing vegetables and fruits. Also when you slice your potatoes to fry, make sure they are all the same thickness as they won't all get done at the same time. Over the years I have learned to slice and dice pretty fast and to make the produce look pretty and appetizing. A good way to practice is to peel and cook a lot of potatoes. Like try to peel your potatoes without breaking the skin as you go. So you end up with the peeling all in one piece. As you go, you will become skilled in your cutting and slicing.
It's now relaxing to me to cut up veggies, etc. My children I babysit for love the way I cut up apples for their snacks. Even as a widow, I am slicing up fruit all day long or the children. I cut their oranges in fourths so they can put the fourth in their mouth and smile like a monkey. I say, "Oh, no, Olivia Jean has orange teeth" as she tries to hold the orange in her mouth without laughing. She is 5 and really not strong enough yet to peel an orange herself.
Little ones like their apples and oranges cut up. I used to fix alphabet vegetable soup for my children. I would get the alphabet pasta for the veggie soup. Do they still have this pasta at the store? Anyway, when the children were young, I would cut the veggies for the soup really small. About as small as the canned soups have it.
Love,
Connie
