SALADS AND SLAWS

LET'S start this "salad and slaws" section right off with the controversy over cut or torn greens even tho' the tossed salad is the only one of the infinite varieties. Let anyone, who will argue the merits of tearing the spinach or lettuce of whatever, I don't care if the greens are torn or cut as long as they end up in BITE-SIZED pieces.

Any detailed recipes for the ubiquitous tossed version are quite unnecessary, I think. This applies, too, to potato salad, a universal favorite and the one which everyone knows you boil the potatoes in their skins, peel and dice still warm the better to absorb whatever dressing you use? I thought so.

But I must mention Barbara's treatment. She dices the potatoes in one half inch cubes, uses mayonnaise sparingly, adds finely diced onion, celery and generous amounts of dill pickle. it's deliciously different.

I cut my potatoes in fairly small pieces, add chopped pepper, onion, celery, sliced hard cooked eggs and finely cut pimento and use mayonnaise more generously. Betsy goes my route but adds shredded carrots and is always asked to make hers for July Fourth celebrations.

The Meadow Brook vegetable salad (named for the golf club where it starred at Saturday night get -togethers) is almost purple, a color which could and has turned from people off until they tasted it and became immediate converts. This is often requested.

Even with stratospheric cost, Dodie's molded crab meat salad is worth making. An ardent golfer, Dodie is such a good cook, she was frequently drafted from the fairways to take charge of the several ladies' guest day luncheons. Her salad was a top favorite on these occasions and always with me.

You don't need a recipe for this but I bet you've never had roast pork salad. I prefer it to the chicken offering and even buy a larger pork roast than needed just to assure sufficient leftovers for the making. Do with the pork just as would with the chicken.

There was a fish market in town where I grew up that I think was patronized by every single inhabitant. This was the fish next best to catching your own. Later, the market expanded and offered fish plates accompanied a cole slaw that was quite unusual and equally elusive in determining the dressing. Simple as ABC, as you'll see when you try Rockport Slaw.

No recipe is called for here but it was such a nice touch to a luncheon I had in an ocean-side tea room. The tomato stuffed with turkey salad was attractively cut, nestled in the crispest lettuce and the little extra was halved white grapes tucked on and around the salad. Little things add lots!

Let's get on then with these and other salads and slaws!

DOBIE'S CRAB MEAT SALAD

I've mentioned Dodie previously and that was a prime favorite of mine. Suffice to say then that she served this salad on the crispiest lettuce, garnished with black and green olives.

Serve piping, hot buttery rolls for a delicious summer luncheon.

Peppermint stick ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce and accompanied by tiny sugar wafers climaxed Dodie's golf luncheon menu winner.

• 1 can tomato soup
• 3 small packages of cream cheese
• 1 envelope plain gelatin
• 1 can crab meat
• 1 cup celery
• 1/3 cup green pepper
• 1/3 cup onion
• 1 cup mayonnaise (use the best here)

Dice all raw vegetables finely.

Heat soup with gelatin, which should be completely dissolved.

Add cream cheese, which you've had a room temperature to soften.

Mix well and add remaining ingredients.

Makes eight individual salads or you the salad may be put in a lightly oiled square pan and cut into eights.

Serve with a pretty sauce dish and additional mayonnaise thinned with light cream and garnished with chopped parsley or chives.

ROCKPORT SLAW

No, not named for Rockport, Mass, the artist habitat, but the fish market in town, I told you about. It reallyis quite different from most slaws and compliment winning when served.

(Editor's note: photo of the fish market)

Shred as much cabbage as the occasion demands. Shred one third as much green pepper. Finely dice a small onion, preferably red. Mix all ingredients.

For small amounts make this quantity of dressing. Just double or triple the ingredients for a more bountiful amount.

• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• Dash of salt
• 2 drops of Tabasco

Mix all together and add to vegetables. I've been known to chop the cabbage, green pepper and onion reasonably finely. But shred or chop . . . it's delicious.

MYSTERY SALAD

So called, because there has yet to be a person who can even begin to guess how this refreshing salad is put together They may not be able to identify but they consume it with relish and so very often ask for the recipe.

It's such a nice red that it should be combined with less vividly hued entree . . . chicken or fish, maybe . . . certainly not rare roast beef. But use your own color and food sense.

• 3 regular-sized packages raspberry gelatin
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 3 one-pound cans stewed tomatoes (preferably the type that includes onion, celery peppers, etc.)
• 6 drops Tabasco

Dissolve the raspberry gelatin in 1 1/4 cups hot water.

Break up the tomatoes into smaller pieces and add to gelatin mixture.

Add Tabasco. pour into a lightly oiled 12-cup ring mold and chill until really firm.

Unmold on your choice of greens.

Hopefully you have a footed dish that will fit the center of the mold to hold the following dressing.

Using the dish, you see, will prevent the dressing from spreading onto the salad making for a messy leftover (if there should be any, that is). Serves 12 to 18.

Add 1 tablespoon creamed horseradish, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. sugar to one pint commercial sour cream. Mix well and chill in the footed dish you've selected before centering it in your mystery ring salad.

SPROUT SALAD

I found the cleverest sprout kits at Sunny Green Gardens in Haverhill, Mass. and fell in love with the recipes that come with them. This won the popularity poll in a family salad contest.

• 2 cups salad sprout mix
• 1/2 lb. spinach
• 1 head lettuce
• 3 carrots grated
• 3/4 cup raisins (plumped previously in water and then drained)

For an unusual and piquant dressing to add to the above  . . .combine one cup vegetable oil, 8 tsps. cider vinegar or lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. celery seed, 2 tbsps. sugar, one small onion finely chopped, and salt and pepper to taste. Add to the salad bowl ingredients and toss thoroughly. Folks will come back for seconds!

CUKES AND GREEN PEPPER SALAD

As any home gardener knows, cucumbers usually provide a bountiful crop. So new ways with this vegetable are always welcome. By the way, did you ever just slice and saute them in butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper?

Delectable, but I'm getting away from the recipe at hand.

• 2 large cucumbers pared. Run a fork down the skin lengthwise for a fluted effect
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 medium green pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 medium and mild onion
• 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp. salad oil
• 1/2 tsp. dill weed.

Slice cucumbers into a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt and let stand for an hour at least.

Pour off liquid, rinse and drain well. Slice green pepper into thin strips and combine with cucumbers.

Sprinkle with parsley.

Combine and mix remaining ingredients and pour over vegetables.

Cover and chill at least two hours, mixing occasionally.

Overnight chilling is even better.

Serve as salad on top of crisp lettuce.

SUPER CUKES

Here's another way with cucumbers taht overrun home gardens. Some folks call this a relish. Others serve them mounded on greens and garnished with a thin slice of red onion or maybe a shiny black olive.

This is from my cousin Mabel, who got it from her friend Florence, many moons ago.

This is not a hard and fast specific recipe, but rather it's a "use your head and taste as you go," and estimate the quantity of the staple by the number you plan to serve.

8 medium cucumbers, sliced thin, and I mean thin.

Put some in a colander, cover with a plate to fit and weight down with anything conveniently at hand that will serve to extract the juices. Allow 3 to 4 hours.

Press out the remaining juices and discard.

Put cukes in a bowl.

Here's where your culinary cunning comes into play.

Add light cream with a light hand and mix well. You want the cukes well coated but not juicy.

Add vinegar very sparingly -- you want a hint, not an overpowering vinegary taste.

Salt and pepper (freshly ground of course!)

These can be served immediately, but i think at least two hours refrigeration adds that extra something to an already delicious dish. I'd serve four with these amounts. Enjoy!

DAISY'S DRESSING

My mother and all her friends were good cooks. One group had been together from childhood and were still going strong after 50 years of meeting at each others homes and occasionally taking trips.

Another group was her bridge club whose game was debatable, but whose refreshments were elegant.

A third was the church circle and these ladies often did wedding receptions in the church parlor to earn money for the treasury and ultimate contribution to the church's coffers.

Daisy was a member of the latter two groups and a fine cook. She used to serve this dressing on a lettuce wedge for the simplest of salads. if memory serves, my mother used to serve it when we had steak.

• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 1/2 cup of salad oil
• 3/4 cup of vinegar
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. mustard
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 2 tsp. grated onion
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Put in a jar, cover and shake well.

Simple to make, simply delicious.

MEADOW BROOK SALAD

As I mentioned previously, this has a purple hue, what else from beets?

It was a most popular item served many, many years ago at Saturday night bean suppers at Meadow Brook Golf Club.

Simplicity itself. I put it together in minutes when Betsy and I decided to have a grill roasted steak at her Hidden Valley retreat.

We also roasted lavishly buttered foil wrapped large onions sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Foil wrapped garlic bread completed the al fresco meal as we ate at the edge of the pond gazing across at the majestic mountains. All was well with our world!

Cook, drain and chill a small package of frozen mixed vegetables.

Add a medium can of julienne beets (if you can't find these, julienne some sliced beets).

Add finely diced red onions to suit your tast and add to mixed vegetables.

Add three or four drops of Tabasco.

Bind with sufficient mayonnaise to make cohesive but not runny. Serve on lettuce if you wish, or plain without if you don't.

RAW MUSHROOM SALAD,

Absolutely nothing glamorous about the name, RAW MUSHROOM SALAD, doesn't even whet the taste

buds, but wait until you try it, and please do.

And we'll wager not a person who eats this will realize that the mushroom are RAW! It goes like this . . .

SLICE one pound of mushrooms paper thin. (Of course, you've wiped them clean and dry first and nipped off the end of the stems!) Your efforts should result in little umbrella shaped slices.

SPRINKLE the slices with two tbsp. fresh lemon juice to prevent discoloration. (You can grate the lemon first and sprinkle 1/2 tsp. over the slices, too.)

COMBINE 1/2 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. celery seed, 1 tbsp. chopped parsley and a small  dash of garlic salt with 1 cup heavy cream.

POUR this over the mushrooms and MIX well but gently.

REFRIGERATE for at least two hours.

MIX three or four times during the chilling period.

SERVE on bibb lettuce or romaine.

GARNISH as your fancy dictates, possible with a black olive on top and a tomato wedge on the side.

Serves four rather generously and very deliciously.

TIPPERARY RICE SALAD

I would never have read this recipe and hastened to try it, which have been my loss. Rather, I had it at a

favorite gourmet friend's home and she had culled it from her favorite gourmet magazine, which attributed it to a restaurant in County Tipperary.

Herein, it is repeated verbatim with the exception of my gourmet friend's addition finely diced onion. And I omit the peas. Do with it what you will -- but I guarantee it will be put in your "winning recipe" file.

In a bowl combine 3 cups cold cooked rice, 1/2 cup each of cooked peas and cooked corn, 1/3 cup sultana raisins,, 1/4 cup each of diced green and sweet red peppers, 4 slices of bacon sauteed until crisp, drained and crumpled, salt and pepper to taste.

Here's where you decide if you want to add 1/8 cup of finely diced red onion. I do!

Toss the mixture with 1/3 cup olive oil and chill the salad for at least 12 hours.

ORANGE PINEAPPLE MOLD

There I was on a lazy Sunday afternoon, again at Betsy's, alternately watching the water skiers, the pond lapping at the shore, the distance mountains, Brandy (her Schnauzer) sniffing for frogs and reading the Sunday paper food pages.

This recipe caught my eye and I'm glad it did. I've made often since.The first time I was quite alone and ate THE WHOLE THING! (Not all at once, of course!)

• 1 package (6 oz.) orange-flavored gelatin
• 1 can (medium) crushed pineapple
• 1/2 large container non-dairy frozen whipping cream

Drain pineapple and add enough water to make two cups.

Heat to a boil and pour over gelatin. Add crushed pineapple.

When it cools add cream and put into a mold.

Chill until hard.