Greek Salad: Is It a Gift from Hestia, Greek Goddess of the Hearth?
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The Goddess of Salads
Greek Salad can be many things. I have included a recipe for the 'traditional' Greek salad, but that isn't the one I make. Don't get me wrong. I am more than happy to go to a Greek restaurant and get a traditional salad. It is healthy, delicious and filling. Add some chewy bread and there is a meal that I could eat every night and be satisfied with glowing skin!
From MasterCook *
Traditional Greek Salad
Recipe By : Cooking Live Show #CL8918
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Cooking Live Import
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 ripe medium tomatoes -- cored and quartered 1
cucumber -- cut into 1/4-inch
-- slices
1/2 cup kalamata olives
6 ounces feta cheese -- crumbled
1/2 red onion -- thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano -- crumbled
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Decoratively arrange the tomatoes, cucumber, olives, feta cheese and
red onion on a platter. In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar,
oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and
serve.
Yield: 2 to 3 servings
A Tale of Two Friends and My Greek Salad
I have these two friends. Lovely women, both of them. Good cooks too. Yet I am always the one asked to make the salad.The first one, I will call her Mabel. She offers to bring salad, but then I see a bowl of lettuce, usually ice berg, and I want to send her to the dictionary. I also want to cry because a meal without a salad, a real salad, isn't a meal.
Then there is, I will call her Gert, who puts lots of stuff in her salad, she knows what salad means, except everything is in such small diced pieces that she might as well puree it all. You can't taste anything.
Everyone loves my salad, big chunks of lots of stuff that can be seen and tasted with a texture that the mouth can luxuriate in.
I always made salads this way, but it wasn't until I had my first Greek salad, a traditional one, that my creativity and popularity blossomed.
So What Makes This a Greek Salad? Its All in the Olive Oil
I have read that your recipe is only as good as your ingredients. Makes sense. But there is nowhere where this is truer than with a salad. Raw ingredients must be fresh, crisp and just right.I don't buy tomatoes that don't smell like tomatoes. Its getting harder and harder to find good ones. In the winter, the long skinny Roma tomatoes have the best flavor and are actually the least expensive.
To me the most important part of the salad is the vinegar and oil. When I am in a restaurant, I don't order a salad until I am assured that I can get pure olive oil. Be careful, many restaurants and bottled dressings use olive oil that is mixed with other oils.
At home, there is more control, and I haven't bought salad dressing in years. I haven't made any either. I put the salad in the bowl, use a cruet to put on the olive oil, same with the vinegar or lemon juice and toss. That is the only way to dress a salad. I repeat, That is the only way to dress a salad, it bears repeating, that is the only way to dress a salad. Got it?
You must still be careful at home. Make sure it is virgin at the least, extra or extra extra virgin is the best. (Extra virgin? How can that be? Get your mind out of the gutter!) The extra, extra virgin comes from the very first pressing. Its that simple, the next pressing can still be called virgin, but it isn't. Extra virgin is fruitier, it actually tastes of olive. Oh, and go for the cold pressed as heating isn't a good thing for oils.
Vinegar is a personal matter, but if you use cheap apple cider, you won't get a good salad. I use either high grade red wine vinegar, or Balsamic, something the is fuller, a little oily tasting.
Again, put oil on salad, add vinegar and toss.
Its All in the Olive Oil
Columela Extra Virgin Olive Oil From Spain , 17-Ounce Bottle (Pack of 2)
Amazon Price: $34.33 (as of 12/26/2009) 
Mantova Organic Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 12/26/2009)
Olio Verde Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2008 Harvest (Italy)
Amazon Price: $36.39 (as of 12/26/2009)
Aria Extra Virgin Olive Oil NASFT Winner! - 2 bottles
Amazon Price: $32.99 (as of 12/26/2009)
Throw Away the Butter!
No need for butter here and don't even think about that less healthy than butter, margarine.
There is nothing like a chewy bread with Greek Salad. It could be Italian, French or the All American Sour Dough. But you don't have to make the meal less healthy by putting butter on it.
I love to drizzle olive oil on bread. But when you are having Greek salad, you can have flavored olive oil, and really easy. Just dip your bread in your salad, or along the side of your salad bowl! Excuse me, I have to stop typing and go make a salad!
Get Creative With Your Greek Salad
You can be pretty creative with your Greek Salad and still call it a Greek Salad.
I add lots of things. I always try to put in raw sting beans and will put in radishes when I have some really nice ones.
So here is the list of things I have put in a Greek Salad. I am going to list anchovies because they are traditional, but you won't find them in a salad of mine!
Romaine Lettuce
Fresh and crisp, its the best. If you use somethi more...1 point
Calimari Olives
Although, frankly, I like the pitted black olives more...1 point
Mung Bean Sprouts
Ya, I know, its a little California, but they are more...0 points
Lessons on Tomato Slicing for the Greek Salad
How to Prepare a Greek Feta Cheese Salad : Cut Tomatoes for a Greek Feta Salad
Tips for cutting tomatoes for a Greek feta cheese salad; learn this culinary skill and more in this free recipe video clip. Expert: Richard Buccola Bio: Richard Buccola is an entrepreneur and investor. He is also the owner of several popular food & spirits establishments in Queens, NY, including the former PJ's Bar & Grill, and The Ivy Room. Filmmaker: Buccola Richard
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0 Comments:
curated content from YouTube
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Hestia: Goddess of Home and Hospitality
Scholars often refer to the goddess Hestia as "the forgotten goddess". Because of the her association with hospitality, the word Hestia can mostly be heard today used in the names of inns and restaurants, making some people wonder if "Hestia" is the name of a franchise.
She is little talked about, but then the hostess has historically be in the background. Martha Stewart could have taught her a thing or two.
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Let Me Know If You Enjoyed This Lens....and the Salad
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Reply
- ftuley ftuley May 27, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
- Nice lens. 5 from me! Really informative. Nicely detailed.
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Reply
- papawu papawu May 14, 2009 @ 6:12 pm
- I'm a huge fan of all the olives and I adore the pungent feta cheese, so this is right up my alley. I'm not that big on tomatoes though. I don't know why but they always give me heartburn.lol.
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Reply
- spirituality spirituality Apr 30, 2009 @ 11:14 am
- Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
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Reply
- AppalachianCountry AppalachianCountry Apr 27, 2009 @ 8:06 am
- Great lens. We are just now getting into feta cheese, so thank-you for the recipe.
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Reply
- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Dec 10, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
- There's nothing better than a good salad and your Greek salad looks yummy.
Great lens
Lizzy
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Show You Love For Greek Salad
The Vinegar Can Be As Important as the Olive Oil
Valpolicella Wine Vinegar by Hazan & Allegrini
Amazon Price: (as of 12/26/2009)
Banyuls Wine Vinegar - Imported From France, 16.9-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 3)
Amazon Price: $82.13 (as of 12/26/2009)
Columela 50 Year Old Sherry Vinegar - 8.5 oz bottle
Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 12/26/2009)
La Piana 20 Years Aged Balsamic Vinegar, 8.4 Fl Oz
Amazon Price: $29.99 (as of 12/26/2009)
Acetum Balsamic Vinegar (Fiaschetta) - 4 Leaf Rating - 8.8 oz bottle
Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 12/26/2009)
Don't Forget the Presentation
Chef's Planet 5 oz Glass Cruet
Amazon Price: $12.45 (as of 12/26/2009)
Cuisinox Oil Dispenser - Conical - 1 L
Amazon Price: (as of 12/26/2009)
Lipper Dark Cherry Finished 7-Piece Salad Set with Large Bowl, 4 Small Bowls and Servers
Amazon Price: (as of 12/26/2009)
Mountain Woods 14 inch Cherry Rim Salad Bowl
Amazon Price: $48.95 (as of 12/26/2009)
Lipper 3 Piece - Dark Cherry Salad Serving Bowl with Salad Hands Set
Amazon Price: $49.99 (as of 12/26/2009)
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Feed Your Cells Pure Food
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Lensmaster Margo_Arrowsmith has been a member since June 21 2008, has rated 2,018 lenses, favorited 121, and has created 129 lenses from scratch. Margo Arrowsmith donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "Heifer International: The Pay It Foward Entrepreneurial Charity". See all my lenses
My Bio
For Arrowsmith Printing 9/22/08
I was born into a small business, I believe that small business and entrepreneurs are the backbone of America and what has made us great. They are what made us great and will save us in these unsure times. I have never wanted to have a great job. Well, better a great one, than a boring dead end one, and I have had both. But I have never really wanted a job at all.
Don't get me wrong, I am a hard worker. I have worked a full-time job, a part time job and a private practice all at the same time for a lot of years in my past. It isn't the work, its the working for someone else. Never wanted to do that, and I don't understand those who want to do that.
When I was six months old my parents bought their first small town weekly newspaper in Iowa. This was back in the day, back when small town newspapers were not just advertising sheets. Perhaps there are still some of them that are real, I hope so.
So I came by this perverse nature naturally. My path to self employment has been different than theirs, but it has always been my path, my direction.
Growing up in Iowa, in the fifties, I also grew up politically conservative. By the time I was 30 I was radically left. Today? I am proudly liberal and what that means will be clearer as we progress.
However, I have had conflicts about 'taking advantage of people'. I now know that employing people is not automatically taking advantage of them, but it took a while for me to learn that nothing is intrinsically good or bad. Well, almost nothing.
I have educated myself in business, I have a small business and I have used EFT and other energy clearing methods to help me clarify the old conflicts and move forward.
My mission here is to provide a forum for people who want to work independently through one person businesses or through employing others and for whom the betterment of human kind is an important value. My lenses are about offering good products, teaching people about betting their lives, and using the money they make for their pleasure and the benefit of others.
That is how I see business and if you have a similar vision I invite you to my blog www.creatingbusinessenergy.com
Margo Arrowsmith
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