Instructions For the young Bride-To-Be

Instructions For the young Bride-To-Be:   How to Dry Lettuce Leaves

It was the late 1960's, before the days when everyone owned salad spinners, and Marash Girl had been told a wonderful kitchen secret -- to wit: how to dry lettuce leaves quickly by placing the freshly washed leaves in an old pillowcase, tying a knot at the opening of the pillowcase, and swinging that pillowcase in circles above your head.  The centrifugal force will force the water off of the lettuce leaves and the water will be absorbed by the cotton of the pillow case (and beyond, as Marash Girl soon learned).  What she was NOT told was that the whole process should be done out of doors and with a newish pillow case rather than an older one.  This is what happened.

Marash Girl was visiting her soon to be in-laws on Dearborn Street in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Assigned to make the salad, she decided to try her new lettuce leaf drying trick, so she asked for an old pillow case.  Her soon to be sister-in-law dutifully brought her an old pillowcase into which Marash Girl placed a pile of freshly washed lettuce leaves.  Marash Girl knotted the pillowcase and went into the brightly lit living room (it was cold outside, and dark), and started swinging the pillowcase in circles above her head.  Within moments, water droplets began to splash all over the antique wallpaper on the living room walls, soon to be followed by lettuce leaves which had broken their way through the weakened cotton of the old pillowcase and now, (after bouncing off the walls) were all over the antique oriental rug and the beautifully cushioned living room furniture.  Marash Girl didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, but she still remembers the incident to this day!  

Marash Girl has yet to try to dry lettuce in a new pillow case out of doors, but you could!