Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A rainbow of salad yumminess.

OK. I think I have mentioned this before and if not, I know that I am not going to tell most of you anything you didn't already know.







She just does. I can only dream that one day I could write or photograph like her. I am nowhere near....

BUT - earlier this week I needed to catch up on her blog and found this amazing looking salad.

OMG!!! So beautiful. And full of yummy peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and onions and feta. My 2nd niece's dream meal. She does love veggies...what 3 year old do you know who loves peppers and cucumbers?? She insists that I am growing tomatoes just for her to eat. Honestly, she can have anything she wants. As can her sisters and brother. I am her aunt, afterall.
She ate it tonight - as did her father. They both liked it. My mom - she, as I suspected, prefers no onion.

But I digress.

I had to make this. I bought everything needed - in 3 trips, as I forgot the feta (hello!! key ingredient!!) and the tomatoes (umm...hi??).

Honestly, this is an easy recipe. No cooking. Beautiful presentation. Perfect summer food and a great way to use that which fills your garden. The hardest part??? The chopping.

Chopping cheese. Not so hard, really.













Chopping onions.











Chopping tomatoes.












Chopping red peppers.

Chopping orange peppers.










Chopping yellow peppers.

You get the picture.

But gosh - was it worth it!!! Yummo!!!










My only suggestion - watch the salt. She suggests salt in the vinegrette and then adding to taste at the end. The feta is also salty. So...maybe hold back a little on the dressing and on the ending seasoning and do some tasting. Oh for shame. Tasting.
















And I made mine Tuesday night and ate it for lunch on Wednesday. It was still fairly crunchy - and really so tasty. So it CAN be made ahead of time.

Thing I learned - the marinading of the red onion really did mellow the flavor. I am amazed.











So so yummy. Go make it now. Go make it for your 4th of July parties. Go make it for dinner.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Ummm...is this thing on???







Hi.



I know. It's been a long, long time. I got married, then the holidays, then this and that and blah, blah, blah. I'm now back and hoping to do a better job of updating on a more regular basis. Please forgive me. Especially my brother-in-law.



Tonight our friends Jen and Greg came over. We grilled out and talked and caught up - it was good. Such a gorgeous night out - got dark for like 10 minutes but otherwise, perfect...great breezes, etc. And it got scary when Jen went inside and got a phone call from her house saying there were tornado warnings. We turned on the TV to find that indeed a mere 20 miles north of us...tornados!! crazy!!



Anyway...I introduced Jen to rhubarb for dessert. For those who have never seen...smittenkitchen is a foodie website to die for. Perfect yummy things all the time. Tonight, I made her Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. To. Die. For. Absolutely.










Rhubarb is so pretty...especially with strawberries. Pinks and Greens and Reds.






I don't have a finished picture. We dug in and put it with some ice cream and it happened before the picture. I will take one tomorrow....of what is left.
If any makes it through the night. MMMM - was this good!!!!
Go try it as soon as you can...easy, tasty, tart and sweet and so darn good.
more soon, I promise.