Monday, May 23, 2011

My friend, YOU are the salad spinner. Go, and be that.

Tonight, we hosted our leadership team here for dinner and a meeting after. My friend Sarah was helping me finish all the dinner preparations, and was making the salad. As she was washing the lettuce, she asked if we had a salad spinner. You know, those thingies. It's like a colander inside a bowl, and you crank the handle and it spin dries the lettuce?

I don't have one. It makes me feel like less of a woman.

Not really. But it IS one of those things that I never think about buying until I need one and don't have it. And then I'm like, "Dang it! How will I ever get this lettuce to dry?" Other things in this category for me at the moment: new dental floss, clothespins, and conditioner. People should really start making lists of things they need from the store, so that when they go, they can just check the list. Why doesn't anyone ever do that?

My life is very difficult and painful at times.

But then Sarah changed my life. And now I'm about to change yours.

She said that she heard somewhere that if you put your washed lettuce inside a clean pillowcase, and then swung the pillowcase around, that it would have the same effect as a salad spinner. "Seriously?" I asked. Sarah hadn't ever tried it before, so she decided to give it a go.

And y'all, it WORKED. So AWESOMELY. And all you do is just what I wrote before: wash your lettuce, put it inside a clean pillowcase, step outside if possible (this is kinda important unless you want a floor sprayed with lettuce water) and swing your arm around in circles. If you knew about this, why hadn't you told me?

Sarah saved our salad and saved the day! Do you think this is how pioneer women used to dry their lettuce? I mean, before salad spinners were invented and all? Those prairie women had to be resourceful, you know. And now, I feel so much closer to them. Me and Ma Ingalls, joined across the centuries.

You may not feel like I've just changed your life, but I really have. It may just take a day or two to sink in.

11 comments:

  1. You only had to ask.... I have one for future occasions, in case all the pillow cases are in action!

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  2. Wait--you KNEW about this? Am I not in the secret club or something?

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  3. Amy, you are so funny! Once a friend told me how to clean the sand off of fresh turnip greens. She said, or so I remembered, to run them through the gentle cycle in the washing machine with no soap. So, I tried it and lo and behold the greens were pulverized into microscopic pieces that came out in every load of laundry for months. When I asked my friend about the process, she said," Oh I meant the dishwasher." Lessons learned. Yes, I think the pillow case slinger. Is a better idea.

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  4. Amy, it's best to use a really high thread count pillowcase and I prefer Egyptian cotton. Also, of course, in the southern hemisphere you swing it counter clockwise...I think y'all say "anti-clockwise", doncha?

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  5. Ha! Mom, I love that story! Too funny. And dad, now you're starting to freak me out.

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  6. Whoa. That is a giant step for mankind.

    And get this, a mom at Hank's school told me the other day that she has one salad spinner for salad and one that she keeps just for the kids to do spin art.

    Humph.

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  7. I meant I had a bona fide salad spinner you could have borrowed! But hey, your way is much more healthy and energetic. Maybe you could start a new zumba type craze!

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  8. I remember reading about this some time ago (lettuce in pillowcase in washing maching to spin) but never dared do it because of possibly what happened to your mum's washing happening to mine and also the thought of lettuce in my washingn machine was too icky! I just wasn't clever enough as Sarah to think I could spin it with my hands, duh! So, I just drain mine on good ole paper towel now till it's almost dry!

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  9. @Jules...got it now, sorry! I am a little slow, as you are aware.
    @ Becky...oh good grief, a salad spinner devoted to spin art? I'd have never thought of that. I 'spose you could try a pillowcase for that too?
    @joyfulmum, putting them in the washing machine is WAY too labor intensive. I'd rather have soggy lettuce!

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  10. Yep, you just changed my life. I owe you some tim tams.

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  11. That is some kind of Laura Ingalls trick right there. However, just on the remote chance that you should ever decide to actually invest in one of the new-fangled variety of spinners, please take advantage of my extensive testing of same and go straight to the Oxo: do not veer into lesser territory, do collect Egyptian cotton sheet set, do not pass Go.

    I'm reading Bryson's Australia book right now & thought of you recently! xo Amy Up Over in Va

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