Who remembers the first salad bars? Chopped iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. Two dressings: 1000 Island and French. When shredded cheese, ham cubes, and croutons were added, a salad became a meal. Then every type of greens and all things purple (think diced pickled beets) and red and orange and yellow were added. Even diced canned peaches and cottage cheese.
As make-it-yourself restaurant meals became popular, we are offered soup and salad bars. We fill bowls with tomato soup, ate it, and then ate a bowl of chicken noodle soup. There’s no limit – all we can eat for one flat price. Start with a spinach and mushroom salad with vinegar and oil dressing and end with fruit and pudding.
Restaurant owners have created serve-yourself bars beyond soup and salad. Potato bars – every topping possible on baked potatoes, not just traditional sour cream and butter. Bacon bits, green onions, sauteed mushrooms are popular. A pasta bar Husband and I recently passed up offered six kinds of pasta and red and white sauces, even a pink one. I wondered if it was a mixture of marinara and alfredo sauces It looked like Pepto Bismol which was a reason to skip the whole pasta bar.
A few years ago, I learned to pronounce charcuterie at the same time I learned which deli meats and cheeses to lay side-by-side. Now, that’s called a Classic Charcuterie Board. An article in a recent Taste of Home magazine is entitled, “32 Best Charcuterie Board Ideas for Every Occasion.” Anything and everything can be placed together on anything and everything – from a dinner-plate size wooden disc to a twelve-person dining room table – and it’s a charcuterie board.
Two of my favorites are a chocolate board and a pancake board. Who wouldn’t like all things chocolate? Hot chocolate, chocolate covered strawberries and cherries and pretzels, chocolate chunk cookies, even homemade chocolate ganache to dip fruits. And all kinds of chocolate: dark, milk, white and salted.
My Grands would probably like the fluffy pancakes I make even better if I served beside banana slices and berries, peanut butter and Nutella, sprinkles, chocolate chips, marshmallow cream, and flavored syrups. And we all like pancakes topped with whipped cream – some like a cherry on top.
A Thanksgiving Board looks interesting, but sliced pears and apples, spiced pecans, olives, and cheese can never replace turkey, cornbread dressing, and giblet gravy.
I don’t keep up with food fads, but I’ve noticed pimento cheese isn’t just for sandwiches and to stuff celery. Last week I ate a hamburger topped with pimento cheese and it was delicious. Have you tried pimento cheese dip or pimento cornbread muffins? How about pimento cheese and ham pizza? Deviled eggs? Breakfast bake?
Surely pimento cheese could be featured on a charcuterie board. Think of the possibilities. With bacon or red onion or toasted pecans or shredded apples. White sharp cheddar cheese. Creamy Velvetta. Even pimento Brie.
And pimento cheese on a salad bar? Why not? It’ll be right beside the celery.
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Susan Writes 