Quinoa Summer Salad

(Makes about 6 cups)

• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup quinoa
• 4 cups vegetables or fruits (e.g. cucumber, tomato, peppers, mushroom, broccoli, zuchini, beans, peas, corn, squash
• 1/2 cup red onion, minced
• 2 TB lemon juice (not)
• 1 TB wine vinegar
• 3 1/2 TB olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 3 TB sliced almonds toasted
• 1/2 cup parsley or cilantro

Cook quinoa then put the other stuff in.

Carrie's Black Bean Salad

½ c. olive oil

2-5 lg garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp oregano

3 c. frozen corn

½ c. water

1 tsp salt

1 ½ c. frozen peas

2 -3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 c. halved cherry or grape tomatoes

½ c. scallions, sliced

1/3 c. cilantro

1 T Dijon mustard

½ tsp ground black pepper

¼ c. lemon juice

Sauté 1^st 3 spices in olive oil in large pot. Add corn, water, and salt. Remove from heat and mix well . Add peas through scallions and stir.  Mix dressing (mustard, pepper and lemon juice) thoroughly and pour onto salad. Mix well. Refrigerate for 6 hours before serving.

Asian Ham Salad

Just the title alone should not turn you off of this recipe!  Yes, it sounds a little weird.  Looking at the list of ingredients may also make you question my sanity (and the sanity of my sister and mother, who made me this recipe last week when we were all together in Texas).  It's delicious though, and I bet you could try this with either cooked chicken or beef to give it a different twist.  It was still good the next day straight out of the refrigerator.

For the life of me I can't remember what my mom served as a side dish, so when I made it for Corey last night I just told him to hush when he asked what else we were having.  He quieted down when he tasted the salad, and the two of us devoured this entire recipe in one sitting.  We figured that the ice cream cones we had for dessert got us the dairy food group to make it a complete meal.  Yes, there are a lot of asterisks after the ingredients, but the recipe was pretty vague and I wanted to let you know how I interpreted each instruction.  The original recipe called for only one cup of rice, but my mom and I thought that was too skimpy.  It was also my idea to add the cilantro to the recipe because I'm pretty sure just about every recipe could be improved with cilantro.  Okay, maybe not brownies, but you get the idea.

Here is a photo of the salad as we made it at my mom's house.  Those are her gorgeous granite countertops -- not mine!

Asian Ham Salad

Salad:
2 cups brown rice, cooked*
1 cup shelled and cooked edamame**
1 cup chopped ham steak***
6 sliced radishes****
2 thinly sliced green onions
handful of cilantro leaves*****
crushed peanuts******

Dressing:
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes*******
salt and pepper to taste

Cool the rice and edamame to room temperature.  Whisk the dressing ingredients together.  Just before serving, toss the salad ingredients with the dressing.

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* This means to have about 2 cups AFTER cooking.  If you cooked 2 cups of uncooked rice, you would have 4 cups of cooked rice and that would just craziness.

** I steamed my edamame in the shells and then shelled them, but my mom boiled already shelled edamame, I think.  Both tasted great.  Yes, I hate beans but like edamame.  I have to pretend they are not beans.  Please don't tell me I'm wrong.  DON'T SPOIL THE ONLY FORM OF LEGUME I WILL VOLUNTARILY EAT, OKAY?

*** I got this near the cold cuts, but I bet it would be even better if you got it from the butcher and chopped it yourself.  I also want to try this with chicken or beef, because I bet it would be awesome.

**** I chopped up about 4 radishes because they're not my favorite veggie.  I really couldn't taste them in the salad, but Corey said he could.  They add a nice crunch if they're sliced instead of chopped, which is how my mom made it.  Next time I make this, I want to add sliced celery, because I bet it would be terrific.

***** I chopped my leaves, but I bet they would be good whole, too.

****** The recipe didn't specify how much of these, so I crushed about a half cup of dry roasted peanuts (I probably should have used regular old peanuts, but I wanted to have better-tasting ones left over for snacks!).

******* I used red cayenne pepper because that's all I had and I wasn't sure how it was different.  I also probably used more like 1/8 of a teaspoon because I'm a huge wimp when it comes to spicy things, but I don't think the salad was spicy when my mom made it with the properly-measured amount.

Mom's Italian Corn Salad

This salad is so good and pretty that you won't ever bring anything else along to a potluck. I brought this to my friend, Kym's house last weekend and got rave reviews. I got the recipe from my mom, and goodness knows where she got it. The original recipe called for balsamic vinegar. I used that when I made it last weekend, but this weekend I wanted to try it with white wine vinegar instead (I'm not a huge fan of balsamic vinegar, and it stained the mozzarella in an unappealing way). It turned out great. I also added a touch of lime juice because I think everything tastes better with lime juice. Except for cereal, I guess. Here is the recipe with all of my alterations.

MOM'S ITALIAN CORN SALAD

2 ears of corn, cut from the cob*

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

5 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs. white wine vinegar

sea salt (to taste)

black pepper (to taste)

lime juice (to taste -- maybe about a teaspoon or two)

1. Combine corn, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil in a bowl.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently.

3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then add more salt and pepper if necessary before serving.

* I used this super hilarious OXO Good Grips Corn Stripper. My mom bought it for my husband because she knows he loves his corn cut OFF the cob.

Avocado and tomato salad

Maybe this isn't a great recipe to post this late in the summer. I know good tomatoes and avocados are harder to find, but file this one away for next summer if you're not willing to use hothouse or out of season produce. I made this for my mom, aunt, and cousins a couple of weeks ago and everyone loved it. I modified a recipe I found in a book whose title rhymes with "Looking for Mummies". I bought that book a few years back but never have used it to its full potential. After finding this salad in it, I think I need to sacrifice a bit of my precious evening sit-like-a-zombie-in-front-of-the-television time and make plans to try a few more recipes.

Avocado and Tomato Salad

2 ripe avocados (not too squishy though!)

4 ripe plum tomatoes

2 hard-boiled eggs (whites only), peeled and quartered

1/2 very small red onion, very thinly sliced and then roughly chopped

1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1. Halve and pit the avocados. Peel away the skin and cut each half into 4 lengthwise slices and then across into large cubes.

2. Core the tomatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes.

3. Toss all ingredients EXCEPT the avocados together and keep chilled until time to serve. Add the avocados at the last minute and very gently stir them in.

Grilled Romaine Salad

It sounds downright bizarre -- grilling lettuce? Putting half a heart of romaine directly on the grill? Really? When my sister-in-law told me about it, I thought she was nuts. I searched online and found bunches of recipes with rave reviews. There are many many different variations on this, and a quick search of "grilled romaine salad" will get you all sorts of ideas on how to dress it up. Here's a basic recipe that makes enough for two people.

GRILLED ROMAINE SALAD

1 heart of romaine lettuce

Extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and/or lemon juice

1. Preheat a grill to medium high.

2. Rinse and pat dry the lettuce. Cut it in half lengthwise. Brush the entire surface (the cut side and the uncut side) of the lettuce lightly with the olive oil.

3. Place the lettuce on the grill and turn it over every minute or so for about 4-5 minutes total. The lettuce should be a little charred, but not burnt. Some of the leaves at the end will be a little wilted.

4. Slice across the width of the lettuce and put it on a plate. Sprinkle with just a tiny bit of sea salt (and/or drizzle a little lemon juice over the leaves) and serve warm.

We grilled up some chicken breasts that were only sprinkled with a little bit of seasoned salt and put slices of that on top of the salad along with some shaved parmesan-romano cheese curls. It was EXCELLENT. The salad didn't need any sort of dressing at all. The original recipe we followed had instructions for a citrus vinaigrette to put on top, but I think that would have hidden the yummy smoky flavor. This would also be excellent with grilled steak, shrimp, or pork, I bet. Some recipes called for grilled vegetables to be added as well. Ooh -- I bet grilled corn on the cob would be delicious to cut off and sprinkle on top! I'm all pumped to try this again with all sorts of different variations.

Here is the salad before I devoured it in about 20 seconds flat:

Here is the lovely man who did the vast majority of the cooking of this meal:

Aaaaand here are my knucklehead children who wouldn't even try a bite of the salad. I think Petey ate a bit of the chicken, but I can't be entirely sure. I was too busy exclaiming over our culinary brilliance and stuffing my face to notice what he was doing.

Garden Rice Salad

I admit this recipe sounds odd. My mother-in-law is always trying to come up with recipes for foods I will actually eat when I'm at her house and she knows that wild rice and cucumbers are high on my list of favorites. Who knows where she found this, but it was amazing. I made it with peanuts for a picnic we're having tonight that includes vegetarians, but it is also yummy with chicken. (Erin -- I know you're going to barf when you see wild rice as one of the ingredients, but I bet you could substitute plain white rice or even brown rice.)

GARDEN RICE SALAD

Lettuce*

1 package/box long grain & wild rice mix

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup sliced celery

1 cup quartered cherry/grape tomatoes

1/2 cup diced cucumbers (I peeled it first.)

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts OR 1/2 cup cooked cubed chicken

Seasoned salt and pepper to taste

All you have to do is cook the rice and cool it down. You could even do this the day before if you are as organized as my mother-in-law. If you're like me, you make it at the last possible minute and then chill it in the freezer to help speed the cooling process along. Anyway, mix all the ingredients together in one large bowl and viola! Chill it until you serve it.

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* I used sliced hearts of romaine, but the recipe didn't specify type. The recipe also doesn't specify how much lettuce to use, so I just used one romaine heart thing and it turned out great.

Summery Pasta Salad

Salad:

6 oz. tortellini, cooked and cooled

1 cup broccoli cooked and cooled*

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed*

3/4 cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (you may want to have extra to sprinkle over the top when serving)

1/2 cup Italian dressing

Dressing:

2/3 cup mayo

2 tsp spicy brown mustard

1/2 tsp dill weed

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all salad ingredients together. *I find the easiest way to cook the peas and the brocoli is to throw them in for the last 2-3 minutes with the tortellini. Chill for 15 - 30 minutes. Mix together the ingredients for the dressing and gently stir in to salad. Chill for at least two more hours.