Memorial Day is a time to remember and give thanks for the many men and women who died while serving in our country’s armed forces. Because it’s observed on the last Monday in May, it has also come to mark the start of the summer vacation season, and many families use the three-day weekend to spend time together, often culminating in a backyard barbecue.
As I wrote last year, after WWI, poppies became a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died in war. Wearing a poppy on Memorial Day has been a tradition in the U.S. since 1924. With that in mind, I made Poppy Seed Dressing to serve with our Memorial Day dinner. I’ll save the red, white, and blue food for the 4th of July. This recipe for Poppy Seed Dressing comes from the late, great Helen Corbitt’s Cook Book. Helen had an illustrious career as a chef, cookbook author, cooking school instructor and lecturer, and hostess, but she is perhaps most often remembered for her days as manager of the Houston Country Club and the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. Helen died in 1978, but her memory and recipes linger on.
Although Helen was often credited with creating the dressing, she was quick to deny it, but readily admitted to having popularized it. According to her, it’s delicious on any fruit salad, and goes especially well with grapefruit. I think it goes nicely with melon. One of Helen’s most popular salads on her country club buffet was finely shredded red cabbage, sliced avocado, and halved grapes with poppy seed dressing. A recurring theme in Helen’s cookbooks is her concern that “the men” like the food that was served at parties and gatherings, and according to her, men like this dressing — I’m sure you were worried about that. Reportedly, “a few even put it on their potatoes.” 🙂 Why not remember someone with a jar of homemade Poppy Seed Dressing this year?
Mix together sugar, mustard, salt, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Add onion juice and stir until combined. Add oil slowly, beating constantly with an electric beater, and continuing to beat until thick. (Helen advises: "When you think the mixture is thick enough, beat 5 minutes longer.) Stir in poppy seeds. Store in refrigerator.
*To make onion juice, place a medium onion in a mini chopper or blender and puree. Strain puree through a fine-mesh colander set over a small bowl to catch the onion juice.
I found a pair of these glass amaryllis ornaments at an estate sale. Not sure about hanging them on a tree — they’re nearly a foot tall — but I liked all the sparkly detail, and thought I could find some other way to display them — maybe standing up in a pot with some dried moss.
I look forward to having amaryllis bulbs bloom in my house every winter. I usually send one or two to my Dad for him to enjoy too, because he loves them and is the person who first taught me to appreciate their beauty. Last year my Dad and I had something of a competition going with our bulbs. He kept telling me how awesome his bulb was, and how many stalks and buds it was putting out. I told him that my bulb had three stalks with buds, which is something of a rarity for us. He didn’t believe me until I sent him pictures of the bulb in bloom.
Three stalks with buds
This bulb was quite a show-off
What is it about things in threes that’s so special? According to Wikipedia, the “rule of three” is a writing principle that suggests that a trio of things is “inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective” than other multiples of things. Like “snap, crackle, and pop” or “Huey, Dewey, and Louie.” The Latin phrase, “omne trium perfectum“ (everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete) is a variation of the rule of three. Although when it comes to kids, I’m pretty glad we stopped at two.
And so the saying goes that good things come in threes. Perhaps that’s why good fairies and genies grant three wishes. And everyone knows that the third time’s a charm. But there’s another saying that misfortunes never come singly. So if good things come in threes, what multiple do bad things come in? I believe the answer to that question is that bad things come in poopstorms. And I think that this is because when something bad happens in our life, we tend to start looking for all the other bad things surrounding us, and start adding everyday annoyances — like the dishwasher broke, the dog has an ear infection — to the list of bad things. When things are going well, those small matters don’t even register, and we’re more inclined to count our blessings.
Caesar salad is one of my family’s favorite salads. It’s simple enough to make, but keeping with the theme of things in threes that inspired this post, there are three surefire ways to ruin it — a veritable trifecta of no-nos.
No-no number 1 is:
I’m not sure what I’d ever use bottled lemon juice for, but I certainly wouldn’t use it in a fresh salad. Buy a lemon!
No-no number 2 is:
Any resemblance to parmigiano reggiano cheese is purely coincidental, and this product lacks all of the taste and texture of the real stuff. I’m hardly the first person to describe this as sawdust. Perhaps the sawdust-like quality of this product is related to the addition of cellulose powder “to prevent caking.” Cellulose powder is, after all, a product obtained from wood pulp. According to this article from Forbes, Kraft Parmesan Cheese is “far enough from the real thing that Kraft was legally forced to stop selling its cheese labeled Parmesan in Europe.” So why would you want to put it in your salad?
No-no number 3 is:
These are just salt cubes. It’s so easy to make your own delicious croutons, and a great way to use leftover bread — just cube the bread (a baguette or loaf of sourdough bread works great), toss with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, spread out on a cookie sheet, season to taste (we like salt, pepper, and a few red pepper flakes, sometimes a little garlic powder), and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp:
Our family’s version of Caesar Salad is adapted from Anthony’s Caesar Salad, a specialty at Anthony’s, a wonderful Vallone family restaurant that closed a decade ago. Our recipe doesn’t use anchovies, because we think they look like eyebrows, and the salad has enough salty flavors without them, and it also uses half of the unconscionable amount of olive oil. It’s fresh and crisp and lemony, and great any time of the year.
1-1/2 heads romaine lettuce, cleaned, rinsed, and torn into pieces
2 small garlic cloves
1-1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1 small lemon
2-1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
⅔ cup grated parmigiano reggiano or romano cheese
1 cup seasoned croutons
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Dry romaine, and keep chilled in refrigerator until just before serving. Mash garlic with a little kosher salt until it forms a paste. Transfer garlic to a medium mixing bowl and whisk in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and vinegar until smooth. Slowly whisk in olive oil, until smooth. Stir in grated cheese.
Just before serving, place lettuce in a large salad bowl. Pour dressing over, season to taste with black pepper, and toss to combine. Add croutons, toss again, and serve.
