My family moved to Long Island because I loved pickles. Really. It was an early spring day when we loaded into my dad's vinyl topped caddy and headed out to Massapequa from Brooklyn. The white shoed realtor with the bouffant hair and spearmint gum showed us a couple of ranches and splitlevels, and then my family went to the Massapequa diner to nosh. The waitress handed us each a 5 pound menu. A busboy placed a gargantuan silver bowl of kosher dills and pickled tomatoes on the formica table. Oh man, boy oh boy, my fave... Pickles! I didn't even have to steal a pickle from Heidi's plate or wait for the 90 year old waitress to bring my lunch to eat as many crunchy briny green things as I wanted. As I was floating off to pickle land my parents asked me and Heids how we liked the ranch house, the one with the green rug. Crunch. Crunch. Green? I like pickles, so I guess a green rug would be okay. How far is the house from this diner, Mom? And so it was decided. Six months later we packed up our Flatbush apartment and moved to the house with the green rug. Over the years I ate a lot of pickles and drank a lot of diner coffee but I could never really relish leaving my beloved Brooklyn.
For years I eschewed (did not chew) pickles because I would wake up looking like cabbage patch doll. Sodium is very mean that way. A couple of weeks ago I risked this possible bloated metamorphosis so I could bring you a special sodium recipe.
Marcia Marolt one of the grand winners of the "Sodium is Your Friend" Contest managed to get this winning shot of me after I devoured half a jar of Bubbies. Below is Marcia's winning photo. Congrats Marcia.
Homage to a Diner- Staple Mock Tuna Salad
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
1.5 stalks of celery minced
1 scallion minced
2 Bubbie's (they are the best) pickles chopped
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1tsp brown mustard
2 T vegenaise
1tsp sea salt
1 tsp kelp granules
1T gomasio (is a mixture of sesame seeds, sea salt, sea vegetables ,dulse and nori)
1T fresh or dried dill
Put drained, rinsed chick peas in bowl and mash with potato masher and or fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Serve on bed of lettuce or on rye with tomato and lettuce.
you'd have to be fatser than the speed of light to steel a "diner" pickle from my plate!!! love the blog(ofcourse) fond memories!!..BTW..it was a green (pickle like) 1966 f85 Oldsmobile..the Caddoooo came later..
ReplyDeleteI eat so much sodium i generally look like Burgis Meredith or a tall ,slim asian in the morning..tea bags help that!!!
Dear Heidi-What do you mean fatter thatn the speed of light and you are quite right it was the snot green olds. I thought you were a tall slim- which is why I always thought you were adopted, maybe that's not what they meant by Heidi's "special".
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