Crowd Coming? Fix This Giant Green Salad

Erma, only you could make a Daiquiri a DIET Drink. Are you sure about the calories, or lack of? Why hasn’t someone marketed these for the Low Calorie Crowd? Serve these in the office and not only do you serve a Good-For-You diet drink, but as a bonus, with a few of these under the belt, the stress level would drop as well.

I’m sending along a copy of the recipe I have used several times when feeding a large group, such as your Rehearsal Dinner. It is a basic tossed salad with the addition of sugared nuts and dried cranberries. I think it most useful as a guideline for how much to prepare. You know, you put out a giant bowl and say to yourself, how much stuff do I need to feed 100 people

Giant Green Salad for a Crowd:

5 bunches of romaine lettuce, torn
20 cups of torn leaf and iceberg lettuces
6 cups dried cranberries
3 sweet yellow peppers
3 sweet green peppers
3 sweet red peppers
4 cups walnut halves
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar

In a heavy skillet, melt the butter. Add the walnuts and cook over medium heat until the nuts are toasted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle on the sugar and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes until the sugar is melted. At once spread the nuts on a foil lined jelly roll pan to cool. This part can be done several days ahead.

Chop the peppers coarsely in a food processor.

In a large serving bowl, like the Retro Oval Serving Bowl, or several smaller bowls, mix the lettuces, cranberries and peppers. Make the Dressing below at least a day ahead and refrigerate.

Just before serving, sprinkle on the sugared walnuts and drizzle on the Dressing. Toss the salad so that all the lettuce is coated.

Serves 100.

Dressing:

4 envelops Italian salad dressing mix
2 cups vegetable oil or olive oil
1 cup red wine vinegar

Place all ingredients in jar or container with a tight fitting lid and shake well.

As I sat here sending this e-mail, I heard that Rosie O’Donnell is considered to have the inside track to replace Bob Barker on The Price Is Right. That should kill the show fast. I never saw her on The View (who has the time?), but I did catch her other show a couple of times. She is NOT funny. She is crude, and unrefined, and definitely not a lady. How she manages to stay on television, and popular, is beyond me.