Salad

COULD SOMEONE tell me when the nitwits at Phillies games started to call for anybody who catches a ball hit by an opposing player to throw it back onto the field? That's a Chicago Cubs tradition. If you want to start a tradition here, have security grab the morons who throw the hot dogs on the field on dollar dog days and stick them somewhere that's not printable in this newspaper. Lou Gerner, Philadelphia

"Salad days" are every day for slim gourmets! Fresh vegetables are a part of every meal, right? No? Why not? Can't shop often enough? Nobody can agree on ingredients? Can't stand/can't live without garlic (onions, green pepper, radishes, etc.) ? The family wants high-calorie dressings, but you don't? Here are some salad survival tips for getting the good greenery every day with minimum hassle: MAKE A MINI SALAD BAR: Serve a "suit-yourself" salad tray, instead of a salad in a bowl, with ingredients in separate mounds or piles on a shallow platter so each family member can assemble his or her own. SERVE SALAD NAKED: The salad, not you!

The secret to successful salad-making is speedy preparation and quick delivery, lest your lettuce wilt to a wad of damp tissue before its time. But even wilting won't cause worry once you know another secret: the secret of salad longevity. It's marination, a simple process that not only makes a salad immune to the ravages of time but guarantees that it will miraculously improve with age. Marinated salads are already part of most cooks' warm-weather repertoires. Coleslaw and potato, pasta and three-bean salads are marinated favorites that lend themselves to hundreds of variations.

Oh for the simplicity of a perfectly made salad. Martha Stewart, under investigation for alleged insider trading, told The Early Show host Jane Clayson that all she wanted to do was make a salad, but paused long enough from cabbage-slicing to predict she would be "exonerated of any ridiculousness. " Clayson persisted with questions about the domestic diva's stocks. Stewart sold 4,000 shares of ImClone stock the day before the Food and Drug Administration announced that it wouldn't approve the biotech firm's new drug for battling colorectal cancer.

Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration are working with police in the North Penn area of Montgomery County for the third time this week after a Souderton resident reported finding a pill in a salad bought in a convenience store in Towamencin Township. Towamencin Police Detective Stuart Newman said yesterday that an unidentified woman bought a chef salad at the Wawa Food Market on Forty Foot Road at 3:45 p.m. Monday. She ate half the salad and put it in her refrigerator.

Even though the popular "spring mix" of greens has become ubiquitous in grocery stores year round, it just seems wrong to rely on it as a main salad ingredient every season of the year - especially in winter. Once, not so long ago, farmers, gardeners and diners waited eagerly for the first tender young leaves of lettuces and other greens to herald spring. Nowadays, modern farming, processing and shipping allows us all to serve clean and ready-cut salad from a bag whenever we please.

The young, harried executive returns to her desk to find a message that her husband has telephoned. She returns his call. "The reason I called," he explains, "is to find out if you would be agreeable to having stuffed shrimp, roast Cornish hen and Caesar salad for dinner this evening?" "That would be perfect," she replies. "And don't forget to chill some wine. " Was that a conversation between a working wife and a househusband, a husband about to spend hours food-shopping and then more time in the kitchen?

Neal Anderson was sitting at his locker, eating forkfuls of salad from a plastic container. Last year, the superb Chicago Bears running back would dash off during his lunch break and later return with a hamburger and two orders of fries. Anderson ate like that "three times a day," but then it finally dawned on him that he was wrecking his health. Thus, when the Bears now break to eat and his teammates gravitate to the pizza, Anderson slides over to the salad bar. "I realized the diet I had was awful," Anderson said.

From her stoop next to Kurth's Seafood, known for its fried fish, Elestine Ashlock, at 82, can see beyond the papers in the gutter and the empty lots, still see the world as it was - the sprawling, brick trolley works at Ninth and Susquehanna, and Silk's grocery (or was it a drugstore?), and the old bookbindery, and a block away, the pretzel factory. There was much more in North Philadelphia, circa 1936, the year Jacob Kurth began selling his 35-cent fish platters (fried flounder, hand-cut fries, and choice of cole slaw or potato or macaroni salad)

The ice cubes and the tossed salad were the source of the illness that caused food-poisoning symptoms in more than 100 people who dined at the Woodbine Inn over the Memorial Day weekend, state health officials said yesterday. According to Lyn Finelli, an epidemiologist with the Division of Communicable Diseases at the Health Department, preliminary lab tests conducted this week determined that the viral illness was associated with people who ate salads and drank beverages containing ice between May 22 and last Sunday.

Makes 6 to 8 servings For the croutons 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups rustic bread, cut into 1-inch cubes Salt and freshly ground black pepper For the chicken 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 3/4-inch 1 teaspoon olive oil For the dressing 2 garlic cloves 2 anchovies Juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 teaspoon Worcester- shire sauce 1 egg, coddled (see note) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 heads romaine let- tuce, outer leaves discarded, inner leaves washed and dried 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler 1. To make the croutons: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of April 30, 2013: Craig LaBan: With the spring weather blooming, it's my cue to lighten up with salads like this one from Zea Mays Kitchen truck, which focuses on creative uses for Native American ingredients. It didn't make into our food-truck story, so I'm glad to give it a shout-out. In big restaurant news from the Insider , some exciting new projects coming to the burbs have been announced: Josh Lawler of the Farm and Fisherman is the latest big Philly name to head to South Jersey, with plans to take over Andreotti's Viennese Café on Route 70 in Cherry Hill with a larger and more casual F & F Tavern and Market, targeted for the fall.

Makes 6 servings 1 tablespoon fresh    lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspooon sugar 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground    pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 4 cups torn kale leaves 2 cups torn Swiss chard leaves 4 teaspoons unsalted pumpkin       seed kernels 1/4 cup sliced green onions 1 ounce shaved fresh pecorino    Romano cheese    (about 1/4 cup) 1. Combine first five ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Maliyah Gregg's eyes lit up when she spied a package of bacon on the counter for cooking class in the convent kitchen at St. Martin De Porres in North Philadelphia. And then she saw the spinach. "Can I eat just the bacon? Please? Just the bacon and a boiled egg. It will be like breakfast. Please?" After four weeks of cooking lessons, I had gotten the message loud and clear from Maliyah and the other 5th and 6th grade girls: We want meat! While many people are eating less meat and trying to center meals around other proteins for health and environmental reasons, these girls are not quite buying in. I heard the same chorus from my own two boys when I tried meatless family dinners when they were growing up. For them, it just didn't feel like dinner without meat.

Makes 4 cups of chicken salad or 6 sandwiches For the chicken salad: 1 whole chicken, approximately    3   pounds Diamond Crystal kosher salt 4 scallions, finely chopped 3 stalks celery, finely    chopped 1 cup mayonnaise Freshly ground black pepper For the sandwich: Schmaltz 12 slices challah Gribenes Cucumber pickles Pickled cherry peppers 1. Make the chicken salad:...

Makes 4 servings 1 romaine lettuce heart, core    removed, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 2 large celery ribs, leaves    trimmed, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 2 ripe avocados, peeled,pitted, cut in    1/2-inch pieces 1 can (14 oz.) hearts of palm,    drained, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 2 ripe tomatoes, cored, cut in    1/2-inch pieces 1 cup canned    chickpeas, drained 1 teaspoon fine sea salt,    plus more to taste 1/4 teaspoon freshly    ground black pepper Juice of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons extra virgin    olive oil 1/4 cup finely chopped    fresh    cilantro   (optional)

Classic stuffed flounder is reimagined with a meatier fish, cod, and served with a salad of crab, corn, scallions, and pineapple.   Cod With Corn, Crab, and Pineapple Salad 4 servings For the salad:   5 ounces chopped, cored pineapple 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon sugar Salt Fresh black...

Company description: Grilled chicken, hearth-roasted apples, candied pistachios, dried cranberries, feta, mixed greens and caramel vinaigrette. Chain: Cosi. Calories: 515, with 26 grams of fat, 27 grams of protein and 597 mgs of salt. Location: 833 Chestnut St. Order time: A few minutes. Price: $7.99. Review: It takes a lot to get the Chain Gang to not order a Cosi thin crust flatbread pizza. But we always like to try their specials, too, and the Autumn Apple Chicken Salad is a winner.

'Michael Smerconish made a comment today [on the radio] about Newman's Own, saying . . . he is suspicious about how much money really goes to charity. We want to reassure Michael - and his listeners - that 100% of the profits and royalties from the Newman's Own products go to charity. That was the case when Paul Newman started the company in 1982, and it continues today: All profits to charity. " Me and my big mouth. That e-mail came to me recently after I said I loved the quality of Newman's Own coffee, pasta sauce, and salad dressing, but wondered about the charitable giving.

Let's just say it. The Jersey Shore has never been known for its imaginative gardens. But you can kind of understand why: It's the ocean, stupid. Still, it gets pretty boring, those endless loops of hydrangeas and hedges, evergreens and petunias, and no one's more bored than Cyrus Gordon. Yet he's dumbfounded every time someone stops to stare at his garden, which is nothing like your typical beach-town flower bed. Two weeks after 120 visitors came to see it on the Ventnor City Garden Tour, he still doesn't get why he was even included.