This (pictured) is what we call 'Grandpa salad' around here. Grandpa salad is packed with onions, peppers, tomatoes and basil. It is a fresh summer salad that is served up often here and has a history. The story about grandpa salad is told to the kids by the grown ups again and again around the dinner table -year after year.
Note: (Micheal is my kid's non-biological grandpa) It goes a little something like this:
Micheal's grandpa was from Italy and sported a very very thick Italian accent. He loved to garden and grew the ingredients to 'Grandpa Salad' every year in his garden.
One day, Micheal (when he was about 17) took his friends round to grandpa's house for salad. Micheal and his friends sat around the table and began to eat the salad all the while breaking off chunks of the crusty bread and dipping it in olive oil.
Grandpa motioned for Micheal to meet him in the kitchen. In the kitchen, Grandpa had a perplexed look on his face and said, "Why your friend, the egg man, no eat his tomatoes?" (Micheal's grandpa could never remember anyone's name but always their job title-in this case, the egg delivery boy)
Micheal replied, "I don't know grandpa, maybe he does not like tomatoes."
Grandpa put his head in his hand, shook his head and his expression grew even more distressed. "Oh no, no..... no. Micheal, donta ever trusta nobahdi no like the tomato."
Good advice. Can you imagine us laughing round the table and raising our wine glasses to Grandpa?
I love how the kids say often, "Grandpa, Grandpa! Tell the story about about your Grandpa and the tomatoes."