The I Hate to Cook Book (16 page)

     CROUTONS     

¼ cup olive oil

1 garlic clove, cut in half

4 slices bread, diced

You put the olive oil in a skillet over low heat, add the garlic, and when the oil is hot, add the bread squares. Stir it so that each square is coated. As a matter of fact, you might as well stand right there and shake that pan, because those bread squares would just as soon burn as look at you. Remove the garlic halves after a bit, and when the bread squares are nicely browned, drain them on absorbent paper. They’ll keep in a covered jar in the refrigerator. Just freshen them for about ten minutes in a 300˚ oven before you use them.

Then there are these two sour-cream dressings, which are good to know about because they’re so easy.

     SOUR CREAM CINCH NO. 1     

Add the juice of half a lemon to a cup of sour cream or plain yoghurt (the yoghurt is cheaper and less fattening and works quite as well here) and salt and pepper it to taste.

If you add ketchup to this, it’s also good with seafood.

     SOUR CREAM CINCH NO. 2     

Just combine

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream or plain yoghurt

½ teaspoon salt

spatter of paprika

1 teaspoon finely minced onion

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

Easiest of all, perhaps, is

     ROQUEFORT DRESSING     

Simply add crumbled Roquefort or blue cheese to your classic vinegar-and-oil dressing. You can also buy good Roquefort dressing ready-made, at your friendly supermarket. Just look around.

Here, too, are three other good vegetable salads, especially handy for guests because you can prepare them well ahead of time.

     FANCY SLICED TOMATOES     

(Fix this a few hours ahead if you can, so the flavor has a chance to burgeon.)

tomatoes

onions

salt

pepper

dried basil

sugar

vinegar

olive oil

Put a layer of sliced unpeeled tomatoes in a shallow pretty bowl about eight or ten inches in diameter, and put a layer of sliced onions (Bermuda, green, or what have you) on top of it. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper around, a pinch of basil, a half a teaspoon of sugar, and one teaspoon each of vinegar and olive oil. Add another layer of tomatoes and onion slices and repeat the seasonings. Keep going in this fashion, depending on how many people you’re serving and how tired you get.

     POSH SALAD