Perfect Potato and Tomato Salad by Marika

So this is my friend Marika's photo of her amazing potato salad found at http://ediblediaries.blogspot.com/2009/06/recipe-potato-salad-la-nicoise.html. Her photo is much better than mine which is in a crowd with two other salads I made one evening below, all posted somewhere here.  The dressing is very versatile and I will often double the recipe and save it for a quinoa or kamut salad.



You will need:


2 pounds of baby nugget potatoes
2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes
3/4 to 1 cup mixed olives
4 poached eggs (optional)
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons chopped chives





Save this dressing as a perfect go to for quinoa, rice, lentil, kamut salads. Keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks and the recipe is easy to double. If you don't have a food processor drizzle the oil slowly into the rest of the ingredients to blend the oil well with the vinegar.


Dressing:
1 tablespoon dijon mustard, grainy or smooth
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves
5 fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste

Servings: 4

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add potatoes and cook 10-15 minutes or until done.
Remove and drain in a colander. Put in a large salad bowl with tomatoes.
Add all dressing ingredients into a food processor. Blend well.
Pour dressing over warm potatoes and tomatoes. Plate and top with olives, chives and shallots.

Optional: Place poached egg on top so yolk acts like a gooey warm sauce on top of potatoes.

Grilled Wild Salmon w/ Heather's Quinoa & Fresh Tomato Salads

Cookbooks101 is a fantastic site where I first found this quinoa salad recipe http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/heathers-quinoa-recipe.html.

I marinaded the salmon in a tasty mustard vinaigrette and served it with cherry tomatoes, basil, feta, olive oil and fresh cracked pepper and rock salt.

The salmon had the skin on the bottom which is perfect when grilling on the BBQ- just remove the skin before serving, or not, and make sure the salmon is NOT overcooked. Tender and still pink in the middle is perfect.

Salmon marinade
2 cloves garlic
2t dijon (or another mustard)
2t whole grain mustard
3/4 t fresh/dried rosemary
3/4 t fresh/dried thyme
1 T wine or white wine vinegar

Grilled Vegetable Balsamic Pasta w/ Basil

There is something so easy about grilling a selection of veggies on the grill and then putting them in everything from lasagna to pasta to sandwiches.  They are so tasty and easy to please most palates.  When grilling peppers you don't always have to go the road that means you have to peel them.  You can cook them till softened and then slice.  Blackening the skin is more time consuming and the flavor is richer but if you don't have the time the other method will work well.  These left over veggies were put in with left over spagetti drizzled with olive oil and balsamic making a nice room temperature pasta salad for lunch.

Cooked pasta/ spagetti

a few handfuls of spinach

grilled peppers (or any kind of veggie you like)

a few T. of feta cheese

a few T. of chopped basil

fresh cracked salt and pepper

balsamic reduction and olive oil to taste

Summer Pasta in the winter

Brave the rain and cold and get out there and BBQ!

Wheat free Spagetti or regular- cooked al dente
A combination of grilled veggies-or just
     Grilled Asparagus - lightly oiled and salted
     Roasted red pepper- blackened part peeled off
Halved cherry tomatoes
Cubed avocadoes
Chopped basil
Shredded asiago
Drizzel of olive oil
1 garlic minced

Use the BBQed veggies from my other post and add them to cooked pasta. Serve cold or a touch warm.