"Dora" > wrote:

>Serene Vannoy wrote:
>>
>> I feel like my salad spinner is one of my best and most useful
>> kitchen
>> purchases. It cost maybe $5 and it's GREAT. I've heard good things
>> about the OXO, but my cheapo one is good, too. Just look at a few
>> and
>> get the one you like best.
>>
>> Serene
>
>Agreed. I had a cheapo then bought the OXO for about $25 or 30
>because I felt it would do a great job. The cheapo got the greens
>much drier. YMMV.

If you place your lettuce in a colander and let it drain in the sink
for a few minutes, then place the colander with the lettuce in a bowl
and place it in your frost free fridge, uncovered, an hour later the
fridge will extract all the extraneous water... a salad spinner is
pure silliness... no professional kitchens have them. I prepare a
huge salad most every week, fills my 24 cup stainless steel bowl to
capacity. I prepare my salad in the AM and by dinner time it's dry
(it's dry by noon). That salad lasts me 3-4 days and is just as fresh
first bite to last... I toss it with the juice of a lemon or lime,
never failed yet.

I usually have two kinds of lettuce, nappa cabbage, broccoli, celery,
bell peppers, carrot curls, cuke slices, zuke matchsticks, radish
slices, whatever is going... all dries in my fridge. My bowl has a
plastic lid that once the salad is dry I put on askew so it's vented.

Today I prepared a salad dressing with the 1/3 quart jar of mayo was
in my fridge, added a 6 oz can tomato paste, a can of water, a half
can of vinegar, lots of black pepper, a big pinch 'talian herb blend,
a good shake granulated garlic, 2 Tbls sugar, and a few glugs evoo...
this time I added a couple ounces juice from a half gallon jar of
three bean salad I bought at Sam's Club-good stuff... screw the lid
down and shake the bejeesus outta it. Voila, poifect, needed no
adjustments.

I never once considered a silly salad spinner.