SOLC Day 18: Caesar Salad Memories

Our Sunday is always filled with meal prep for the week. Part of the dinner plan was Caesar salad and my job was to make the dressing. I took out the blue cutting board and started to peel and chop the garlic. I sprinkled salt on top of the minced pieces and started to press the side of the knife into the garlic and dragged it to create a paste.

The repetitive motion or the strong smell of garlic transported me back 8 years when we were living in our old house. I closed my eyes and I saw myself in our kitchen with the black and white tiled floor with black counter top. I had the same recipe pulled up on my computer screen and my husband was instructing me on how to mince the garlic and anchovies into a paste. He has taught me most things I know about cooking, especially around the power of spice.

The last time I made this dressing, so many things were different. I did not yet have kids, and I was just learning how to take risks in the kitchen.

I kept chopping, lost in thought. I mixed in the mayo, parmesan cheese, Worchester sauce, dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. I chopped up the romaine lettuce and put it in a stained red plastic bowl. Next went the croutons and my Caesar dressing. I put on the lid and rather violently, shook it up.

“Ha! I can’t believe you’re still using that old red bowl” my husband said.

I looked at it, surprised. It is the same red bowl from our old house that I only use for shaking this salad. I can’t believe I found it so easily and did not even think twice before using it.

I wonder if the future me making this salad will think back to this day in awe of my old self and old life.