lettuce

I love salad. Especially ones with a lot of "stuff" on them. I recently taught a class on salad greens to try and encourage people to get away from just buying iceberg and romaine. I bought 15 different kinds of lettuce and had the class try to identify them by sight only. See how well you would do:

Answers: Iceberg, Romaine, Green Leaf, Escarole, Radicchio, Arugula, Red Leaf, Watercress, Butter, Mache (Lamb's Tongue), Frisee, Spinach, Belgian Endive

Here are some interesting facts about lettuce:

The ancient Greeks believed that lettuce induced sleep, so they served it at the end of the meal. The Romans continued the custom. However, the dictatorial Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) served it at the beginning of his feasts, so he could torture his guests by forcing them to stay awake in the presence of the Emperor.

Iceberg lettuce got it's name from the fact that California growers started shipping it covered with heaps of crushed ice in the 1920s. It had previously been called Crisphead lettuce.

And here is a great recipe using ones of my favorites, arugula:

Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Arugula and Chutney
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
2 tablespoons light mayonnaise, divided
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons mango chutney, divided (I buy the Mango-Ginger kind from Trader Joe’s)
4 (1-oz) slices sourdough bread
2 cups arugula
1. Prepare grill
2. Sprinkle chicken with ½ tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper. Coat both sides of each chicken breast half with 1 ½ tsp mayonnaise. Place chicken on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill for 3 minutes on each side or until done. Brush 1 ½ tsp chutney over each chicken breast half. Place bread slices on grill rack, and grill for 1 minute on each side or until golden. Spread 1 tablespoon chutney onto each of 4 bread slices, and top each serving with ½ cup arugula and 1 chicken breast half.
-If I don’t have a lot of time, sometimes I just toast my bread in the toaster, put on some rotisserie chicken or chicken slices from a previous meal, and then top with the chutney and arugula. It only takes a few minutes to make this way.