Salad Greens

PHILADELPHIA - Standing on the edge of his expansive garden, Umberto Bifulco bent over, curled his long fingers around a cluster of broad-leaved, deep-rooted dandelions, and pulled. "Look at it," he said excitedly, holding up the vegetable. "Look how beautiful it is. I want you to taste it. I'm going to eat it, too. Don't be afraid." Bifulco sliced off the roots with a pocketknife, brushed off the dirt, handed over a stalk, and bit into another. "Now, isn't that good?" Bifulco prompted.

Each day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost-cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick. SUNDAY / Family Prepare your own baked ham for the family today.

In this part of the country, our salad days -- our heyday, our days of youthful exuberance -- are in the spring, before summer heat turns arugula peppery and crisphead lettuces bolt and go to seed. Whether you sowed a row of lettuce seed when the ground was still cool, or buy a bag of mixed greens at a farm stand, or graze through the green bundles under the sprinkler in your supermarket, salad greens should be bright and fresh. Look for lettuces that are crisp and free of tears and browning leaves.

Diane Van Bleikom of Johnstown, Pa., requested a recipe for a Spinning Bowl Salad. "It was a featured item at the Twentieth Century Restaurant in Youngstown, Ohio, which closed about 10 years ago," she wrote. "I'm hoping someone has the recipe, which was fabulous." From Audrey Feldkamp of Marengo, Ill., came the recipe and a touch of its history. Feldkamp wrote, "Actually, this recipe was a longtime trademark of the Blackhawk restaurant in Chicago, and they still make it today at their restaurant in Wheeling, Ill. It has a long speech that goes with it about the number of ingredients ... [and]

* Item: Dole Great Restaurant Salads* What you get: 2 1/2 servings* Cost: About $3* Preparation time: Open bag and serve* Review: I'm definitely a fan of pre-cut salad greens. But I'm not sure these new bagged salads from Dole are worth the price. The Triple Cheese Toss consisted of mixed greens with a small envelope of grated cheese you could just as easily come up with yourself -- even if it was pre-grated from a can in your refrigerator. No other dressing was included. The Mediterranean Marinade offered a similar mix of greens with a dressing spiked with peppers and mushrooms that honestly tasted more like a thick marinade.

Each day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost- cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick.Shopping ListWhat you'll need for this week's menus (consult recipes for exact amounts)

Refreshing and satisfying, this quick dish makes an easy transition from summer into fall - when our great oysters are back in season, yet we're still dealing with the lingering heat. Buying fresh oysters is best. You may ask your fishmonger to shuck the oysters and save the shells for you. (They are great to save and have on hand if you use jarred oysters and need shells for presentation).Serve some hearty bread with the entree salad or bread sticks or crunchy lavosh crackers.For dessert, just indulge in some chocolate ice cream or some frozen yogurt sprinkled with crushed peanut crunch candy bars.

Summer days call for cool salads. You can almost hear the salad tongs clanging against a large bowl generously heaped with refreshing greens.Because I like my greens as fresh as I can get them, a couple of years ago I put in a small raised bed on the hot, sunny, southern side of my house, not really too big, but ample for providing lots of fresh garden goodies. I started out with red oakleaf lettuce and exotic red romaine, then I sowed a few seeds of red chard and feathery mizuna from the mustard family.

There may be no better place than the annual Food Marketing Institute's huge exhibition at Chicago's McCormick Place to ferret out food trends in supermarkets.But 1996 doesn't seem to be the year of bold new directions for supermarket fare.Still in evidence from last year's show were plenty of salsas and flavored coffees (though these trends seem to be fading), nonfat and reduced-fat products (in a holding pattern), bagged fresh salad greens (expanding to single-serve portions with dressing and everything you need to eat them at your desk)