Rinse the chicken and remove excess fat. Place the chicken in large Dutch oven, add the vegetables, and add enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 90 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove the chicken. (You may debone the chicken and return the meat to the soup if you wish.) Serve steaming hot, garnished with parsley and ground pepper. Serves 6.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast.
—Psalms 63:5
All Dressed Up and Ready to GO
Move over Paul Newman, The Madge has arrived. Blender in hand, he is ready to give you a whirr for your money. Not to say Newman's Own™ salad dressings are shabby—far from it; they are the best you can buy. In the introduction to Newman's Own Cookbook, the tale is told:
For years, Paul Newman and his longtime buddy A. E. Hotchner filled old wine bottles with their homemade salad dressing to give to friends as Christmas gifts.…A smashing success, Newman's Own products have generated more than $100 million in after-tax profits, all of which have been donated to charitable and educational causes.
Every cent.
The Madge, a.k.a. former pizza baron and self-styled kitchen god Mark Englund, has promised to give me all after-tax profits of every recipe of Madge's Own I make and give away. What a scam! I'll never see a cent, but the dressing, which can be used in place of (and I quote) “any cheap old salad dressing,” tastes priceless.
Madge's Own Salad Dressing
2 cups red wine vinegar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup warm water
1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1½ teaspoons sugar
1½ teaspoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon green onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and torch! Makes a bit more than a bottle of Newman's Own. Adorn your favorite salad and enjoy!
Some people have sexual dreams,but I dream about salad.
—Paul Newman, Newman's Own Cookbook
Give ‘Em a Helluva Salad, Oscar
Why certain foods hit the superlotto taste bud jackpot in some men and barely affect, if not deflect, others is a perpetually unfolding mystery. Tastes developed from what your momma made, what your childhood feel-good favorites were, and what you used to live on (like tuna fish salad-potato chip sandwiches) when you first left home.
Did you grow up in a northern climate, southern atmosphere, or in another culture altogether, like New Orleans? What regional, ethnic, or local influences were sprinkled into your meals? One man may dream of hot hushpuppies and their toasty taste, while another gets wistful when he thinks of that apple pie his old girlfriend used to bake.
An all-time favorite of President Harry Truman was Waldorf salad. The original Waldorf, a blend of apples, celery, and mayonnaise, was dreamed up in 1893 by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel's maître d'hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, a.k.a. Oscar of the Waldorf. As time passed, cooks “tainted” the original recipe with all sorts of improvisations—walnuts, raisins, pecans, and grapes. This is truly a salad worth tasting, but may Oscar forgive me.…I messed with it even more. What the hell, the buck stops here.
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
—Harry Truman
With-It Waldorf Salad
A favorite of President Harry Truman
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ pound cooked turkey, cubed
¾ teaspoon Madras curry powder
3 large, crisp apples, cored and diced
Juice from a wedge of lemon
4 medium stalks celery, diced
1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
½ cup white raisins
¾ cup mayonnaise (Hellmann's™ or Best Foods™, the only kind)
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
Salt to taste
1 small head Boston lettuce, washed and dried
Fresh parsley sprigs
Pecan halves, lightly toasted
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Sprinkle curry powder over the turkey and sear in the hot oil for a minute or two. Set aside. In the meanwhile, place all the pecans (separate the halves from the pieces) on a baking sheet and toast in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes, until golden.
Place the apples in a large bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Fold in celery, chopped pecans, and raisins. Spoon the mayonnaise over this mixture and sprinkle with nutmeg, pepper, and salt; fold in. Add the seared turkey pieces and toss lightly. Refrigerate the salad mixture for 1 hour.
Arrange lettuce on salad plates and spoon the salad onto the lettuce. Garnish with parsley and pecans. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
Hail to the Caesar
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,
That he is grown so great?—Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
I know, I know. The first Caesar salad had nothing to do with the great Roman emperor (although I still like the idea of Cleopatra, queen-of-Egypt-and-goddess-by-proxy, conquering Caesar's heart and empire by simply purring, “If you give me your armies and their general, I'll make you a killer Caesar salad”).
This hands-down all-time men's favorite superstar salad was tossed by a man—an Italian man, Caesar
