Food and Friends = Salad Luncheon

In a small community like ours, a gathering of women friends who may invite another group of women friends often includes a salad luncheon. Everyone brings their favorite salad whether it's a chicken salad in a pineapple, potato (at least 3 varieties), or some combination of Cool Whip with marshmallows and fruit.

Today was our church's annual Spring Salad Luncheon, many salads and many friends. It's a good time to visit with friends from other churches, taste new and old favorite recipes and even hear a good program. Today's program celebrated Kansas history with a talk about flour sacks - those cloth bags that flour was sold in before we only bought it in paper sacks of 5 pounds at a time. The speaker's collection of flour sacks from Kansas mills was a tribute to Kansas' heritage as the wheat state and to the thriftiness of our earlier homemakers. Not only did these women frequently buy flour in quantities that would take most of us months to use now, they reused the cloth sacks to sew clothing for their family. Imagine wearing underwear made of scratchy woven cotton or a dress with XXX Mill across the back!

Today is also Cinco de Mayo, so it seemed appropriate that the salad I took was a Mexican flavored Cornbread Salad. It's one of my favorite salad recipes, but one I save for salad luncheons because it makes a very large salad. As you layer the ingredients, if you find you have more salad than bowl, just use part of the second half of the ingredients on the second round of layers. You can always save the extra for tacos or other preparations. I sprinkled more grated cheese on top for garnish.

Cornbread Salad

1 package (8 ½-oz) cornbread muffin mix

1 envelope (1-oz) ranch salad dressing mix

1 carton (8-oz) sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

3 large tomatoes, chopped

½ cup red bell pepper, chopped

½ cup green bell pepper, chopped

½ cup green onions, chopped

2 cans (16-oz) pinto beans, drained

2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded

8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cans (15 ¼-oz) corn, drained

1.     Prepare and bake cornbread muffins or pan of cornbread according to package directions; cool.

2.     Stir together salad dressing mix, sour cream, and mayonnaise until blended; set aside.

3.     Combine chopped tomatoes, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and green onions; gently toss.

4.     Crumble half of cornbread into a 3-quart trifle bowl or large salad bowl. Top with half each of beans, tomato mixture, cheese, bacon, corn, and dressing mixture; repeat layers.

5.     Cover and chill 3 hours.