Memorial Day Weekend Salads

Planning a picnic or barbecue this holiday weekend? Don’t forget the salad! And by salad, I don’t mean an afterthought of boring lettuce and bottled dressing. Save that for another time. Or, never. This is the unofficial beginning of summer – it deserves something a little special. Something fresh and seasonal, simple and delicious.
Here are [...]

Vegetarian Niçoise Salad

For purists, this might be an abomination. Can a Niçoise salad without tuna still be called Niçoise salad? I argue yes. Yes it can. And further, I’ll say that it’s quite tasty. It’s got authentic Niçoise olives, green beans, potatoes and a Dijon mustard and tarragon dressing, so really, why not?
The recipe I adapted [...]

Radish Salad with Parsley and Feta

The big, pretty bunch of radishes I picked up at the farmer’s market last week were slated to be made into a creamy dip, as was a block of feta cheese and a bunch of parsley. But with a fridge overflowing with cheese and hot, sticky weather draining my will to live, let alone cook, [...]

Walnut-Citrus Spinach and Quinoa Salad

I’m usually a leftovers-for-lunch type of girl, but sometimes a lovely salad is a nice change of pace. This one is super easy to assemble and oh-so tasty. The walnut-citrus combination is one of my new favorites, and I’ve doubled up on it here with toasted walnuts and sliced kumquats, and a dressing of walnut [...]

Spring Vegetable Cracked Wheat Salad

Spring vegetable and grain salads are popping up all over the place:
Spinach and Orzo Salad from Simply Recipes
Meyer Lemon Grain Salad with Asparagus, Almonds and Goat Cheese from The Kitchn
Spring Tabbouleh from 101 Cookbooks
Are you drooling yet?
You know, the Midwest is a really frustrating place to live this time of year, particularly if you are [...]

Blue Cheese Coleslaw

I’d been meaning to try this Barefoot Contessa coleslaw recipe for a while, and a picnic this weekend was the perfect opportunity. When I first did a search for it on the Food Network web site, I didn’t get any matches, but I knew it had to be there. And I remembered Ina Garten made [...]

Eggplant Salad, or How I Didn’t Conform to the Nonconforming Eggplant

OK, so all this nonconforming is not quite as punk rock as it sounds, if it sounds punk rock at all.
See, there was this story in the New York Times, by Melissa Clark, about the mushy eggplant salads she’s made for years and how she recently broke the mold by adding some crunchy vegetables and [...]

Arugula, Avocado and Fennel Salad: Simply Delicioso

I have a love/hate relationship with the Food Network. I can spend hours watching show after show on a lazy Saturday or Sunday, particularly those hosted by Ina Garten, Mario Batali, Nigella Lawson, Bobby Flay, Michael Chiarello and, of course, Giada De Laurentis. Love her. (Although not so much in these pictures – ew.)
On the [...]

Fingerling Potato Salad with Cornichons

I used to hate potato salad. As a kid, going to picnics and potluck dinners, I was turned off by huge bowls of the mushy concoction that smelled like eggs. There were always plenty of other things that looked much more appealing.
Plus, I decided, cold potatoes were gross.
I think it wasn’t until I was in [...]

The Sopranos Farewell Dinner

Before last night’s final episode of The Sopranos, I was sure one more hour was not going to be enough. Whatever happened, there was no way I was going to be satisfied. And I was fairly certain most of the people watching with me would feel the same. But I figured that if we couldn’t [...]