Saturday, March 21, 2009

tacky or not?

Last night we went to some friend's house for dinner. I had offered to bring a salad and dessert. In an email to my sister and mom, I mentioned this and that I had decided to just get a bagged, pre-made salad since salads aren't really my expertise. I was chastised (teasingly of course) by my sister for bringing a store bought item to a friend's house. Here are the emails that transpired. My sister is in blue and I'm in red.

Kelly, make the salad, goof!! It’s not that bad. I have a great recipe for Caesar Salad dressing from Chris’s mom. Very easy. Tonight we had Chicken Caesar Salad for dinner and it was so yummy. But you would just do it without chicken. OR this fabulous pear and bleu cheese one that I posted about. That one is FAST – and you aren’t making the dressing. (Course not for tonight but another time???)

Caesar Salad:
1. Wash lettuce
2. Chop up lettuce
3. Make dressing (dirtying my blender)
4. Put in separate containers (dressing, pears, and salad) so you can assemble it at their house so it doesn't get soggy
5. Assemble at friend's house

Salad Kit:
1. Bring salad bag, bowl, and tongs to friends house
2. Dump contents and eat

hehe :)

Do you feel embarrassed bringing a salad bag to someone’s house?

bagged salad? No. Store bought dessert, I would.

(after thinking it over I sent my last email...) Great, now you have me second guessing my tackiness in bringing a bagged salad you turd.

Here is the dessert I made (Tollhouse Choc. Chip pie). I felt like I put a lot of effort into it and therefore I shouldn't feel badly about the salad (which as we know is NOT the highlight of the meal compared to a dessert!). What do you think? Is homemade always required when you offer to bring something?



p.s. Bonnie, since I know you read my blog, I guess the cat is out of the bag about my salad. :) Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I forgot you were making a dessert- so that does change things. BUT what I think you should do, is if you are going to buy the salad (which is okay) then I think you should put it in a nice bowl and make it LOOK like you made it. Fake 'em out. =)

I guess I envisioned you walking in and tossing a bag of salad on her counter. Seems a tad tacky.

My thinking: The hostess is doing all the work of cleaning her home and making a homemade meal, so you want your part to look like you put a little effort into it - not like you just ran into the grocery store on your way over. Plus then you're using her stuff on top of that - dirtying her salad bowl.

I guess I just think it's nice to make it LOOK like effort went into something, whether it did or not. Think Sandra Lee. =)

Fortunately, Bonnie is such a gracious person that I'm sure she wasn't bothered at all. =)

Jessica said...

I say that the bagged salad isn't tacky because you ALSO brought a homeade dessert. If you had brought both items and they were store bought, I would think it were tacky. I agree with you that a homeade dessert is a highlight :)

Donna Stark said...

I don't think it matters much, but it seems like it wouldn't be any more trouble to put it together before going. Whadaya think?

Jen said...

I like to put the bagged salad in a bowl and add some tomatoes, feta cheese, croussants, etc. to spice it up, like Susan said. I wouldn't bring the actual bag like you said in your e-mail! I would have it looking all nice in the bowl! Hope you had a fun night though!

Kelly said...

In my defense, I did bring the salad in a nice bowl and added more craisins and toasted almonds beforehand. I think I was trying to prove a point to Miss Susan in trying to prove how easy bagged salads were. :)

The Urke Family said...

i honestly wouldn't care or probably even think twice about it if i had someone over and they brought a salad in a bag. but-
depending on whose house we were at i don't think i would bring it over in a bag-i'd be too embarrased. although i would probably still use a bagged salad..just spice it up a bit and stick it in a nice bowl.

Bonnie said...

Well, I thought the salad was delicious, and I don't think it matters that it was "store-bought." In fact, we probably would have bought one ourselves if you hadn't offered to bring anything (by the way, thank you!).

Also, the dessert was spectacular! I agree that that's where the focus should be.

I'm sorry to hear about Cam, but glad it's nothing serious. Hope you had a somewhat restful evening.

the BLAH BLAH BLAHger said...

I do bagged salads a lot...I did it last night, in fact! : )