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Greens Have A Floral Flavor In The West

Rick Bonino Food Editor

When it comes to salads, we Westerners are a bunch of pansies.

In fact, we’re twice as big a bunch of pansies as people in the rest of the country, according to a recent salad survey by Heinz Vinegar.

A full 13 percent of the people polled in the West placed pansies among their favorite salad ingredients, compared to a national average of 7 percent.

Then again, maybe it’s just our adventurous spirit. Westerners were also more likely than the rest of the nation to say that everything else listed in the Heinz survey was among their favorite salad ingredients, from alfalfa sprouts to anchovies to arugula.

In fact, there’s only one ingredient Westerners use less often in their salads: iceberg lettuce. We’re the only region where Romaine rules, besting iceberg by 91 percent to 87 percent. Adventurous, and sophisticated.

Make that adventurous, sophisticated and health-conscious. Westerners also are more likely than their compatriots to prefer their salad dressing on the side, 18 percent to 13 percent.

Search and enjoy

Trying to figure out what to make for dinner with the motley collection of leftover odds and ends in your refrigerator?

If you have access to the Internet, there are a pair of new World Wide Web sites designed to make your meal planning a little easier.

At the Campbell’s Creative Kitchen (www.campbellsoup.com), you can check off what general categories of ingredients you have on hand and search for a recipe using them.

It’s far from foolproof. As expected, “fish/pasta/stuffing” didn’t generate any results; neither, to my surprise, did “fish/mixed vegetables.” But “fish/rice” produced a halfdozen hits.

At the National Broiler Council’s site (www.eatchicken.com), you can type in a specific ingredient, along with whatever chicken part(s) you’re interested in, and do a recipe search.

I had no luck with alfalfa sprouts, anchovies or arugula. But “avocado” came up with a couple of tasty-sounding options: Chicken Avocado Melt, and Yucatan Chicken With Peach-Avocado Salsa.

Berry interesting

With berry season beginning to ripen, a stamp is all it takes to get a collection of recipes from the North American Blueberry Council, from No-Bake Blueberry Pie to Minted Blueberry-Fruit Salad to Blueberry-Apple Tortillas.

For a free copy, send a stamped, self-addressed, business-sized envelope to: Celebrate Blueberries, North American Blueberry Council, 4995 Golden Foothill Parkway, Suite 2, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762.

, DataTimes MEMO: We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.

We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.