Soups and Salads, The Foods of Nightmares

Okay so, in an effort to make this more organized, I will be linking several blogs off to the side with different categories of food. The main blog will still be dedicated to family members, friends and recipes and any of my thoughts that jump into my head that need expressing. So yes we have the Soup and Salad category, there will be an appetizer, main dish, side dish and of course, dessert!

Now.. Soups and Salads.... 2 words that were NOT part of my childhood vocabulary. I admit it now, I hated soup, I hated salad even more! Whereas my brother was quite the opposite... the man was a bunny! He could of made a whole meal out of a salad and/or soup. Me.. no... I would be found making a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or a TV dinner is soup was the main meal on the menu that evening. I don't know when the transition happened, One day at Grandma's house out in Indiana, she was making Chicken Soup. I love my grandmother dearly but I would of rather wanted to hear that she was making Chop Suey! Anyway, somehow in my mind I remember thinking, maybe if Granny showed me how she made her soup, I understood the process, maybe.. just maybe mind you... I would at least appreciate it. After all for years people raved on and on about her soup. Now that im sitting here thinking about soup, I will say, the only person on the planet at the time who could get me to eat soup was Grandma Otten, she made Chicken Noodle Soup with homemade noodles... yum! And I still remember her Beef Soup to this day as well. Sadly, I never got a recipe off of her due to my parents getting divorced, and our relationship faltered into nothingness, que sera sera. The only recipes I have from Grandma Otten are her Chop Suey, A delectable Pistachio Pudding Dessert, that i always requested for my birthday along with her fried chicken. I also have her Summer Salad and homemade Chili Sauce recipe. OKay I seriously have to laugh here, the other night i was racking my brain as to what meals I would request from my mother for my birthday. You know what... I hardly ever did.. she either took me out to dinner, we ordered out, or we would be by one of the grandparents!! But I digress, back to that fateful day at the ranch... well she showed me how she made soup, and i tried it that evening, and voila.. I started to like soup! Now, I have a slight confession to make, up until I went to culinary school, despite my best efforts, I COULD NOT MAKE SOUP!! OMG!! The Nightmares!! My broth kept vanishing, the vegetables got overcooked and then I had to dump more water in and well, most of the soups I made were a disaster. Well somehow going through an entire unit in culinary school healed me of all that. After making Cream of Broccoli Soup, Consomme( which I failed at miserably, dont make consomme unless you really want to.. damn egg white raft... grrr) and a Chilled Melon Soup, plus a few others over the next few lab days, my soups now in general turn out quite good. As for Chicken Soup turning out, mom dragged me into the kitchen one day and said Son, you are making this way too difficult! Here... and again.. presto! Recently, I've seen my brother Joe make soup and he has seen me make soup. Its 2 different things! Its 2 different styles. He does not like my way of doing it because some veggies get sacrificed to the garbage gods in the name of making the broth first. In my eyes, his soup needs to be less chunkier and could the vegetables be a little less over cooked, but we both enjoy the final products of both,,, so....

Now Salad, still not a word that is in my vocabulary. I hate potato salad, macaroni salad, in fact almost any mayo based salad, unless I've made it, and there is usually a spin on it like Blue Cheese Coleslaw, I despise Salad Nicoise, the concept of having cold fish, let alone any cold meat in a salad never appealed to my senses, and a hard boiled egg... forget it! Canned or cold chicken in a salad... Gag me, gag me quickly! Im a little brat when it comes to salads now a days,I still enjoy your typical Garden Salad (no tomatoes please), or making a simple vinaigrette and tossing some nice greens with it. One of my favorite Salad recipes comes from Barefoot Contessa that has a Champagne Vinaigrette in it. I will be posting my mother's famous potato salad recipe, that several humans have gone absolutely nuts over, over the years. Sorry mom, mayo, relish, mustard and hard boiled eggs in the same bowl.. yuck! I really did miss the family's genetics when it comes to Salads and Sandwiches.
In my opinion, having a salad as a main course for a luncheon is a dangerous move. Especially if you plan to serve meat in it, eggs, nuts or what have you... unless you know the people REALLY well, do not assume everyone is going to think your Chicken Cesar Salad is delightful. I've seen many luncheon/dinner parties go to wreck and ruin because of this. And I guess what I mean by that, I remember one in particular, the well intentioned hostess wanted to serve a Salad Nicoise.. okay... its french... being adults we sat there , ate what was on the plate ( I kept looking for a dog or creature to give the Salmon to) It was one of those grin and bear it experiences for me, and to find out later, for several other people at the table. We complimented the hostess on her well thought out salad and how good the dressing was... she did not even serve dessert, strike 2 in my book, LOL!!! Anyway at the end of the night we all left together and after the hostess closed the door and we were several steps away from it, we all sorta looked at each other like, is anyone still hungry? We all wound up at the Irish Pub downing beers and ordering multiple appetizers! Now THAT was fun! But Case in point, do not make a salad your center star of a dinner/lunch party. If you know the people, and you know they will enjoy it by all means go right ahead. If you do not know everyone, serve something that first of all you have made several times with great success , now is not the time to be testing out new recipes. ( Yes, I myself need to follow my own words of wisdom on that one!) And now enough ranting, and on to the recipes starting with some soup du jour's with extra jour on the side! =P