5 levels

 I like those videos that explain a musical concept on 5 levels.  Here are my 5 levels of salad.

1. Buy a pre-washed lettuce container and top the lettuce with a salad dressing out of a bottle. Eat. 

2. Add other toppings out of a jar or package. Croutons, capers, artichoke hearts, olives. place on top of greens. Top with dressing. Eat. 

3. Elevate at least one dimension of the salad. A more interesting mix of greens. Or some vegetables not out of a jar (cucumbers, red onions). Some proteins, if the salad is going to be the main meal. Hard boiled eggs or yesterday's salmon work fine, or rotisserie chicken.  A simple homemade dressing. Eat, but also serve to guests. 

4. Make a salad that has a particular purpose in mind: a chef's salad, a Salade Niçoise, A Greek salad. Follow a recipe and give your salad a particular identity. Eat it with your guests. 

5. Create your own recipe. Everything must be balanced and coordinated now. You can still use olives or capers from a jar, or even bottled dressing. This more elevated salad may have fewer ingredients that your everyday salad, which for me is more or #3.  

I don't really like salad when it is a chore to eat, with mostly lettuce and other raw veggies. Remember a salad needs salt, that's what the name means. I don't add literal salt, but derive it from savory toppings instead. Also, don't add every ingredient you have to every salad. Then it becomes cluttered and a chore to eat. 

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It strikes me that we can do the same with the sandwich, the soup, and the stew. Elevate sandwich by using better bread, by grilling it, by better ingredients and condiments. None of this requires any cooking skill per se. The soup, stew, or chili can be cooked in the crock pot, with no the most basic culinary skills if that. Once again, I don't really like sandwiches per se, with mediocre bread and/or cold.  

Now, find one or two recipes that are more or less foolproof for each of the following;  pasta, casseroles, fish, chicken and pork. I cook either following a recipe deliberately from the New York Times, or else making a staple dish that I can just reinvent every time (Greek salad, chili, stew, grilled cheese sandwich, pasta sauce.)