Sunday, October 05, 2008

Scandahoovian Salad

scandahoovian salad

Growing up in a family with a very vocal branch of Norwegianess, I observed my Aunt and Great-Aunts cooking at family events. I soon figured out that if you take some sour cream, mix in a generous amount of dill weed, and put chopped up seafood of any kind in it you have made a Scandanavian dish. It then can become the basis of a salad if you add some more ingredients, or an appetizer if you add others (or not) and top crackers with it (rye preferably!). Yesterday I took a notion of putting some things I already had in the pantry and refrigerator together for the salad variety. I call it "Scandahoovian" as it is is a little mischievous, and a favorite High School English teacher (Mr. Dale) used to tease us by mixing up Scandinavian and hooligans to come up with this word. Our school was rather an interesting mix, mostly a mix of those of Northern European ethnicity attending with the children from a local Indian reservation, Tulalip.

And this dish is a dismal failure for eating locally. A look at the ingredients:

-Sour Cream: left over 'light' Kraft brand, Illinois
-Dill Weed: Whole Foods brand, no origin listed. Company location - Texas
-Crabtastic: Tsurimi product, 'wild caught' and 'Product of Thailand'.
- Lo Mein Noodles: Bought fresh, leftover in the fridge, so origin unknown
-Green Onions: Yes, those I bought the other day - 'Product of Mexico'
-Water chestnuts: Canned, "Product of China"
-Baby Lettuces: "Product of the USA and Mexico", Processed in USA (uh oh)
-Sweet Millions Tomatoes: Produced on my sunny deck :-)

Maybe I should have called this "International Salad, Scandinavian Mood".

4 comments:

Nancy Ewart said...

Maybe you could call it "Viking Salad?" After all, the Vikings roamed all over the known world so it was all local to them. Right?

Zoomie said...

Hey, Anna, get thee to the Marin Farmer's Market at the Civic Center - Sundays and Thursdays - where you can get most of those ingredients but locally grown or made. They are fresher and tastier, too, when they come from the market, plus you get the warm glow from eating locally and from supporting local growers, many of whom are also organic. Plus, it's just plain fun. You can hear music, get a massage, buy craft items and get food all in one delightful hour!

Anna Haight said...

Nancy: I love it! Viking salad!

Zoomie: Yes, you are so right! I used to go every Thursday before making a living got it the way! I may just have to get out of my jammies and get down there today. My Dad loves it too.

Nate @ House of Annie said...

Well, it could still be entered into the "Grow Your Own" roundup!

Re: your comment - mugicha is made from roasted barley, while our barley tea is made with unroasted barley. So it doesn't have those dark, toasty, caramel-ey flavors. But it's still good! Thanks for stopping by our blog.