Lately I’ve discovered salads don’t have to be dull or ordinary or follow any certain recipe.
Dawn Kessinger/The Lima News
The frozen pizza had been baking about half the minutes required before being done when I heard a loud “Pop!” The oven had blinked off. After restoring the blown breaker, the stove read “F1,” which I understood as code for the error being a “Fatal1.”
Apart from losing the half-frozen pizza, I felt sad at the loss of the stove where countless recipes old and new were tried, practiced or made almost automatically since I’d fixed them so often. This stove had been where I cooked “before” finding my brain tumor, and it was where I gradually and more confidently began cooking again “after” my tumor and surgery. I wouldn’t say I was attached to it, but I was used to it.
If friendly, patient customer service is anywhere on your “yes, please” list when shopping for home appliances, I recommend visiting Henry at Tracy’s Appliances, which is located at 4064 Elida Road. You won’t be disappointed with his stellar service.
In a former job, Henry spent 17 years serving delicious food (with a fun flair for the dessert cart) at the now-closed Casa Lu Al.
“I believe my days as a server are over,” he said with a smile when I asked him if he’d return to the new Casa Lu Al when it opens.
I had to smile in response; serving others may have been in Henry’s past, but I saw proof that it’s also a big part of his present. Henry has his own special, practiced and perfected recipe for effectively serving others, whether it be a good meal or a successful, less terrifying experience buying a major appliance. I didn’t have to leave a tip, though he probably deserves more than these written words of appreciation.
My new stove has been ordered, but until it arrives, I’ve been making a lot of salads. I’ve always thought salads were kind of boring. Healthy, sure. Exciting, no. But lately I’ve discovered salads don’t have to be dull or ordinary or follow any certain recipe. Try adding different ingredients — the less conventional or traditional, the better.
If you’re going to make a good salad, give yourself a little time to make it. You’d think not having to cook anything, it would be super quick, but if you don’t take a little time to pull out your favorite ingredients or to cut the cucumber or hard-boiled eggs, your salad won’t be as fun or rewarding to eat. Following is one version of my favorite salad; I’ve eaten one every day that I’ve been stove-less.
Stove-less Salad
Ingredients:
• 32 oz (or any size) bag of garden salad (includes iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots and red cabbage)
• Broccoli florets
• 1 hardboiled egg, cut into sections
• 2 tablespoons cilantro salsa
• 1 mini cucumber, sliced
• 1 spoonful sliced salad olives (whole olives work fine, too – green or black)
• 1 Go Snacks! Toppers (fully cooked chicken breast bites)
• Handful nuts (including almonds, pistachios)
• Light sprinkling of Salad Topper (includes edamame, cranberries, cashews and sunflower seeds)
• 1-2 tablespoons Ranch dressing
• Shredded cheese (mild cheddar)
• Approximately 6 Fritos Scoops! chips
Take two to three handfuls of the garden salad mix and arrange on the bottom of a large plate (or bowl). Break up some broccoli florets and scatter them along the outer edge of the salad. Slice the cucumber and add to the salad. Next add 2 tablespoons of salsa. Scatter some sliced olives into the salad. Cut the hard-boiled egg and add the pieces to the salad. Sprinkle the nuts and salad topper; break up the chicken breast bites and put them in the salad. Add dressing and shredded cheese, then crumble the Fritos Scoops! and sprinkle them on top of the salad.
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