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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summertime Salads and Veggies

It’s summer time at the F&P, and if you’ve been reading Grenville’s posts you already know that means HOT and HUMID weather – not good for indoor cooking and especially using the oven. Sadly, we won’t be baking bread for awhile, but donations always welcome (hint, hint, Lois).

On Sunday, Grenville picked our first fresh produce of the season – green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers and cukes. Dinner will be grilled this week and served with salads.
This morning, I made a couple of our favorites – pasta salad and green bean and kidney salad. Ingredient measurements are subject to personal choice. My method was to check the fridge for whatever we had + use veggies Grenville picked. Use as many or as few veggies as you like (or have available). But, of course, fresh ones work and taste best. As with lots of recipes, some measurements are to your taste as in “some of this” and “more of that” so the rule here is what I’m calling the S&S rule – (keep it) simple and sample (often) especially when adding herbs and spices. (Grenville came up with this shortened name cause he liked my simple and sample statement.)

Tri-Color Pasta Salad

2 C tri-color rotini, cooked al dente 
pasta salad prep (2)Italian dressing 


3-4 tbsp McCormick Salad Supreme® or your own mix

Toss with assorted cut up vegetables, your choice – as many as desired or available. Here’s some of what went into my pasta salad:
  • broccoli, cut up florets
  • carrots
  • zucchini and yellow squash
  • cucumber
  • celery
  • green pepper
  • scallions (green tops)
  • cherry tomatoes or cut up larger tomatoes
Serve cold. It’s best to stir a couple of times and you may have to add more Italian dressing or substitute olive oil. 

F&P NOTE: There’s usually apasta salad done (3) bottle of Salad Supreme® in the F&P pantry, but I use less and add fresh or dried herbs like oregano, basil and parsley plus grated cheese.  FYI - Salad Supreme® Ingredients include grated Romano cheese, salt, sesame and poppy seed, paprika, celery seed, garlic, black and red pepper, NO MSG (but stuff like silicon dioxide, which is best left out).




Green Bean and Kidney Bean Salad
If you have lots of green beans, canned kidney beans, mustard, olive oil and herbs you can mix together this salad. Substitutions always encouraged. This is NOT a traditional 3-bean salad. Happily, there’s no vinegar involved and it doesn’t even have 3 types of beans. bean salad prep (1)
  • 1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
  • 1/2 lb (or more) of fresh green beans
  • 1/4 C Dijon mustard
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Fresh chopped parsley and basil (if available; dry herbs if not)
Trim and parboil green beans. Rinse and cool and half if too large. Mix with kidney beans, herbs, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Whisk together mustard and olive oil and add to beans. Delicious served cold, just toss before eating.
bean salad done (2)
Our friend, Possum, joined us for dinner last night and we enjoyed these salads, grilled Santa Fe Chicken, and some freshly brewed iced tea. Later on, Grenville and I shared chocolate ice cream (don’t tell Possum she missed out on that).


Summertime and the cooking is SO easy

6 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

Oh, wow, it all looks so good! Yes, I would be right over with fresh bread if we were just closer. Yum! I would even send some, but it wouldn't be any good by the time it got there or anywhere else, either. I don't use any preservatives so "eat it today or give it to the birds tomorrow." But, today it is pretty darned good. Thanks for including your recipes. I'm taking notes!

possum said...

I HEARD THAT! OK, maybe I read that, but i think I heard it, too....
On the other hand, I really can't eat ice cream, sooooooooo, it is just one of those things I dream about.
But thanks for dinner! It was great and I didn't have to cook anything! Or do dishes!
You guys want some more corn????

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Yes. Lois, it tasted even better too. I am SURE your freshly baked bread does too and the birds will most likely agree...you don't have it ALL gone before they get some? These recipes are really easy cause you can add lots of things to the pasta salad. I'm sure we will have more variations as the summer goes on.

Hi Possum, glad you enjoyed dinner and we enjoyed the company too. And when you can have some ice cream (whenever that will be???) you are more than welcome to some here. Thanks for the offer of the fresh corn but we're grilling zucchini tonite with burgers - you might have heard that we LOTS of zukes already!

Unknown said...

Oh man... fresh veggies. I am SO jealous!!! I might just have to bake break next weekend just because fresh veggies are a long way off around here!!!

Montanagirl said...

Your salads look really yummy!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Yes, Krista, the fresh veggies are as delicious in the salads as they looked in the prep stages. When you bake the fresh bread maybe we can talk about a trade...hmm Grenville probably already mentioned that cause we both love fresh baked bread but it's way too HOT to attempt any now.

Thanks MG as I have been telling everyone, the salads tasted even BETTER than they looked and I also think they looked their best for the photo shoot!