Salad Nicoise by bookseller

Or you could you know just to a big take-off on salade nicoise. Boil the potatoes, poach the shrimp, either grill the zukes or leave'em raw, chunk up the tomatoes, throw in some good olives and, really, anything else that might be in the fridge or the garden -- any kind of lettuce, beans, Cucumbers (you wanna be fancy, you could salt and drain them first), onions (those I really WOULD soak and salt, to make them less overpowering, or you'll be eating onion salad), a couple hard-boiled eggs, slivered peppers (or mmmmm roasted, even better) -- and make a garlicky vinaigrette with anchovies and lots of olive oil and lemon.

Oooh, yeah artichoke hearts would be good, too. Also some canned white beans or chickpeas. Pour me a glass of white wine, please, and shove over on the bench.

...classic salade nicoise is those thin little green beans, tomatoes, canned tuna, black nicoise olives, hard boiled egg, and boiled potatoes (though some people apparently raise their eyebrows at this). You mash acouple of anchovies with a clove or two of garlic and coarse salt to you have a paste, dilute it with a little lemon juice, and then work in olive oil until you have a nice creamy-textured vinaigrette.

Anyway, that's the classic recipe, but you can add just about anything you might find in the summer in the Mediterranean, and it will taste good. I've had it made with fresh, seared tuna, and I don't think it's an improvement -- the texture's wrong. But I've also had it with shrimp and white beans subbing for the tuna and potatoes, and that was lovely.

Zucchini Fritters by Sicut Cervus

2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp baking powder
1/2 teasp oregano OR 1/2 tablesp chopped fresh basil


Fold all ingredients together. Fry in hot oil and butter. Serve with lemon wedges OR with thick sweet tomato sauce (1/2 c tomato paste, 1/3 cup water, some chopped basil, a pat of butter, salt & pepper to taste)

Pasta Salad by bibbety

Orzo: let's say 2 cups dry pasta cooked and drained to make what, 3-4 cups cooked?

Slivered sundried tomatoes in oil (you can chop them yourself or buy them in the jar already done) 1 cup

About 1 cup of moroccan oil-cured olives pitted and chopped,

1 tub of pearl bocconcini, drained (I think they are about 1 cup or so)

Dressing:

The zest of 1 lemon.

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 to 2 cloves of crushed garlic

1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil (to your taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything about an hour before the meal and add some freshly chopped basil and adjust seasonings just before serving.

Peanut Sauce by liz_isabella

Had a nice dinner of greens and peanut sauce. The peanut sauce was so easy I'm going to put it on everything. It was a quarter cup of peanut butter, a quarter up of boiling water, two tbsp soya sauce, two tbsp lemon juice, garlic and ginger to taste. The only thing I'd do differently is put less lemon juice. I had to compensate for that with more garlic and ginger.

Whipped Carrots by Li

Simmer three medium carrots in chicken stock with one garlic clove for 12-14 minutes, put in food processor with three tablespoons of heavy cream and one teaspoon unsalted butter, process until light and smooth. YUM and really easy. Kid refused to eat it but damn, I'm all over it.