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.

1/2 pound farfalle or other bite-size pasta 1 teaspoon salt, divided 1/2 pound tomatoes, cored, halved, and seeded 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thin strips 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1/2 cup chopped red onion 1/4 pound sharp provolone, cut into ¼-inch cubes 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 ounces olive oil 1/2 cup basil leaves, loosely packed 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)...

IT WOULD HAVE been an expense-account report to make my editors and the new millionaire owners (how you doing, guys?) very happy. I wanted to take U.S. Rep. Bob Brady out to dinner Wednesday night after his return from Washington, and it wouldn't cost a cent for him. Brady would not eat because he's on the weeklong Greater Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge, organized by the Coalition Against Hunger and the Jewish Federation. The gimmick: Enlist celebrities to help illustrate how hard it is for the poor (including children, elders, the disabled)

Zest and juice from 2 oranges 8 teaspoons imitation (kosher- for-Passover) mustard 4 teaspoons honey 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar ½ teaspoon fine sea salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 4 large carrots, peeled and  julienned 2 daikon radishes (the size of a medium carrot) peeled and julienned 2 English hothouse cucumbers,  unpeeled, seeded, and  julienned 4 (11-ounce) cans mandarin oranges, drained; or 6 small fresh tangerines, peeled and broken into segments 2 heads Bibb lettuce, separated  into individual leaves 1. In a small bowl, whisk the orange zest, juice, mustard, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper.

1 pound sugar snap peas 2 small cucumbers, unpeeled, thinly sliced (Persian if you can find them) 1 cup (about 1/2 pint ) cherry or grape tomatoes, halved 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil Grated zest of 1 large lemon 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from one large lemon) 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 (14.75-ounce) can of boneless, skinless pink salmon, drained 1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat.

There's a good reason Northern Libertarians adore Cafe La Maude. With its chic tiled look, swing-open windows, cozy banquette, and big fresh salads, it has the feel of a Parisian pocket nook. "Get the De Maison salad," a friend whispers on his way past me. And I'm tempted. But I love this smart little breakfast-bruncher best for its Middle Eastern flair - a natural for Lebanese owner Nathalie Richan. I'm talking about kibbe and tabbouleh, tawook-style marinated chicken and buttery baklava.

1 cup fresh bread crumbs 2 cloves garlic, split in half lengthwise 1 teaspoon lemon zest Olive oil Salt 1 pound kale 4 teaspoons lemon juice 1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, ? grated or shaved with a vegetable peeler   1. To toast the bread crumbs, combine them in a small saucepan with the garlic, lemon zest, and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Stir to coat well. There should be only a light trace of oil in the bottom of the pan. Season with a pinch of salt and place over medium-high heat.

An excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen. " From the first time I discovered it in the south of France, Salade Nicoise has held favored-nation status in my world of salads. My first encounter, as a 20-year-old college student traveling abroad, was an introduction met with sheer gratitude. I was a not-too-adventurous eater, trying to get by on a meager budget, and was thrilled to find something made of ingredients I actually recognized. Tuna, hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, olives, onions, tomatoes.

No matter how delicious a Caesar salad is, chilly temperatures tend to be a turnoff for things leafy and green. So I decided to tinker with the basics of this classic, bulking it up with roasted cubes of butternut squash. Add some freshly made croutons and it's a perfect vegetarian dinner.   Butternut Caesar Salad Makes 4 servings For the squash: 20-ounces peeled and cubed butternut squash 1 tablespoon olive oil Salt and ground black pepper For the croutons: 10 ounces rustic bread, cut into croutons (about 4 cups)

The salad is named Hen of the Woods, after the warm mushrooms that adorn the plate, but it's the mix of broad, snappy red oak, green leaf, lola rosa, and red romaine that steal the show. Inspired by a salad that chef Brian Lofink of Fishtown's Kraftwork had in Germany this past fall, he began adding balancing components like roasted walnuts and sheets of Bianco Sardo sheep's milk cheese to those killer 'shrooms and greens. What brings it all together - and should be a lesson to all truffle abusing chefs - is the whisper of truffle oil Lofink adds to a creamy, egg-based dressing, a recipe he learned from Chris Scarduzio during his Brasserie Perrier days.

Growing up in a meat-and-potatoes Midwestern family, my familiarity with greens was limited mainly to lettuce, spinach, and brussels sprouts, and those tiny cabbages became fodder for long-running dinner feuds with my father. Many a night, he'd order me to sit and finish the bitter, mushy, boiled knobs that I despised. Usually, my mother would rescue me by stealthily swiping most of the sprouts off my plate and making me eat only the remaining few. That was before I (or my mother)