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Yesterday, the hubster laid down the law. "We're going to the beach." Now, in case you're not familiar with my distaste of this hell on earth, take a good look at my photo in the upper right corner there. ---->
I'm a redhead with blue eyes and fair skin. I burn under a 60-watt bulb. I've always secretly envied those women who can go to the beach and look more gorgeous leaving than they did when they got there. When I leave the beach after a day in the sun, I look like I've spent thirty days on some deserted island with none of the comforts of home. My baby fine hair whips in the wind until it's a snarled Medusa-like nest around my head. (If I add a hat I get the added benefit of a flat top. And tying it back is like trying to tie down a rabid wolverine with a strip of dental floss.) My skin turns pink and/or blotchy with freckles. I break out from the clogged pores caused by the massive amounts of sunscreen I've applied. And the sun drains me to the point I usually fall asleep in the car on the way home.
The dh, who is of Greek and Italian descent, worships sun, sand, and everything shore-related. As do his children, thanks to the magic of DNA. But it's only mid-July and I've already used up my patience with spending time at the beach (and I have a beach week vacation to "look forward to" in August.) So...yeah. I made a face at the suggestion of spending yesterday in my own private version of Dante's Inner Circle.
Hubster came up with a compromise. If I agreed to the beach trip, we'd go out to dinner when we got home. And not just a quickie chicken sandwich at our local bistro-style chain restaurant, either. A place with ambience and charm, where I could sit and enjoy the furnishings as well as the food. Deal!
Well...Hubster and The Boy had such a fabulous time riding waves, playing ball, and soaking up UV rays that we didn't leave the beach until 5:30. We had to pick up The Girl at work by 6 and there was no way we could do the one hour trip in 30 minutes. So, by the time we packed up, left the parking lot, zipped to The Girl's place of employment and reached Home Sweet Home, it was after 7. And I barely had the energy to shower, much less dress, slap on a face, and go out for a nice dinner. Nor did I feel like cooking. So my Saturday night consisted of Chinese takeout and the movie, 300.
Yippee.
Help me out, readers! Who's got a fabulous recipe for a summer dinner that can be thrown together in a matter of minutes--satisfying and delicious--without using the bbq grill or oven? Send me your recipes by August 1st. Post them here in comments or email me at the Contest link on the right. I'll choose my favorites and award three winners each a free copy of my latest e-release, A Little Slice of Heaven.
Help a poor redhead out!
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Avocado Seafood Salad
1 T lime juice (can substitute key lime, lemon, or kumquat juice)
1 T good vinegar
1 clove minced garlic
1 good shake of pepper sauce
1 three-finger pinch of zest
1 T good olive oil or sunflower oil
Shake all these together in a babyfood jar or other small container for dressing. Or substitute half a cup of good citrusy dressing, if you have some on hand.
1 small can of crab meat
1 small can sliced olives (sliced olives stuffed with jalapenos also work, albeit differently)
1 cup of peeled salad shrimp or leftover cocktail shrimp, coarsely chopped
Stir together with dressing.
1 papaya-sized avocado, or two small ones (get a third if they might be bruised--bruised avocado looks nasty)
Cut avocado in half, stab pit, twist out pit, use knife to cut "meat" down to the peel in tic-tac-toe fashion, then press on middle of avocado from peel side until avocado meat spreads out like french fries poking out of their box. Scrape avocado meat out of peel. Discard peel, plant pit, and chop meat into pieces a little bigger than your shrimp. Immediately stir avocado into seafood mixture; if you wait, it starts looking like used food real quick.
Serve, preferably with ice cream scoop, on individual beds of romaine. Top with sprinkle of sea salt or shaving of parmesan if you like. Surround with plenty of party crackers.
Chicken Salad sandwiches
2 cups or so leftover chicken or turkey bits(or canned chicken or turkey)
1/2 cup or so UNSWEETENED yogurt or sour cream
1/2 tsp or so of curry powder or hot/bitter spice mix of your choice
1 small can (drained) of sliced water chestnut or chopped baby corn, or equivalent amount of leftover garbanzo beans or chopped sunchoke/girasole
1 or 2 minced scallions, green and white part, or equivalent in chives
1 double handful sprouts (I like sunflower sprouts. Bean, alfalfa, or broccoli would also work.)
Dump ingredients into bowl in order listed, stirring well after each addition. Serve on bagels or onion rolls, preferably toasted.
Dessert
Drain a can of pear halves. If you want to get fancy, replace the drained liquid with white wine and let the pears soak this up while the family eats the rest of the food.
At last minute, microwave up a jar of hot fudge sauce.
Serve pears drizzled with hot fudge sauce.
I love a great sandwich or salad. Get some focaccia bread, some zingy sandwich spread of your choice. I like something with dill and or honey mustard. Slice up some avocado, slap some lettuce, tomatoe, onion and put a little muenster or provolone.
It is even better toasted. And it's meatless. No heavy digesting to do. Very Very yummy. I'm getting hungry now.
I don't believe I said half a cup of dressing! No! I just found half a cup of leftover citrusy dressing in my fridge once when I didn't feel like doing much, and I dribbled enough of that into the mix to make it work.
Don't you have the number for Dominoes? hahaha kidding.
Hmmm, how about a quick chicken salad?
Take the canned, all white meat chicken- drain and rinse.
Add onions, pecans, red grapes, and celery, I also add salt pepper and a little garlic.
Mix all of this together with mayo and serve on some really good whole-wheat bread.
Mmmm, yummy.
No sandwiches for your crew! I know exactly what you need:
Pasta Pesto With Shrimp and Asparagus
1 pkg pesto mix
1 pkg linguine or other long thin pasta
1 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 lb fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
1 c baby carrots, sliced in half
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta. Meanwhile, combine all vegetables and par-cook by steaming in microwave. Prepare pesto mix according to directions. When mixture is hot but not yet thickened, add shrimp and vegetables. Continue to cook until shrimp are pink and vegetables are tender. Toss over cooked and drained pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Spicy Tuna Patties a la Kada
1/2 medium onion chopped fine + an equal amount of chopped green onions
3-5 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or italian parsley if you don't like cilantro)
2 tsp sambal oelek/chilli paste. (or to taste)
1 tsp mustard
2 eggs beaten, (or 1 egg and two white, or 4 whites)
2 x 6oz cans tuna in spring water, drained
2 Tbs lemon juice
4 Tbs flour
s and p to taste
Saute onions and garlic in a pan until translucent. Turn off flame
In a bowl add eggs, tuna, lemon juice, sambal, mustard, greens and cumin. Stir until well combined.
Stir in onions and garlic.
Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time. The mixture will be quite sloppy.
Measure out some mixture into a 1/4 cup measure and plop mixture into skillet to cook. Pat down with a spoon or spatula a little.
Makes 8 patties that way. If you like em a little bigger, use 1/3 cup measure. And if the texture's not to your liking.. add a little more flour to the remaining mix.
These are great hot or cold. Very low in fat, even if you do use the whole eggs.
I usually make a quadruple batch and freeze the remainders.
Sorry, it's a little wordy. But, once you get through the blahblahblah, it really is a simple salad to make.
Ingredients:
2 oz carrot, shaved* or grated.
2 oz onion, diced small. (Can use 5-6 green onions if you prefer)
1 Lebanese** cucumber, sliced fine. (or half a stalk of celery, sliced fine)
2oz broccoli florets, cut small then blanched. (Blanching is important brings out flavour of broccoli and stops the slight bitterness.)
3.5 oz marinated artichokes, chopped.
4 oz Roasted red peppers, diced small.
2.5 oz sun dried tomatoes in oil, diced small.
2.5 - 3 cups of cooked pasta shapes.***
Dash of salt.
Dressing:
For this dressing I use some of the oil/vinegar mix from the artichokes, some oil from the sun-dried tomatoes, plus some golden balsamic vinegar to make a vinaigrette. I think I use between 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of dressing, certainly no more than half a cup all up. Don't use brown balsamic as the flavour really is too sweet and heavy for this salad. Definitely don't use malt vinegar either. If you don't have golden balsamic, white vinegar or a wine vinegar would be equally tasty. Not sure about apple cider or rice vinegar though. Have fun, experiment!
Make sure whichever dressing you make, or buy, that the vinaigrette ratio is 1:1 oil and vinegar. You want to balance out the oily, marinated ingredients with slightly more vinegar than would go in a traditional vinaigrette dressing. (usually 2:1 oil and vinegar)
Method:
Chop all vegetables, chuck in a mixing bowl. Once pasta is cooked to your satisfaction, drain and toss through ingredients. Add enough dressing to thoroughly coat everything. Season with a little salt if you like. Set in fridge to chill. Taste before serving and add more vinaigrette if necessary. That's a big mistake a lot of people make (I still do it sometimes too even though I was a chef.) Make it up till it tastes great, forgetting that as it sits in the fridge, the dressing gets absorbed by the pasta and needs to be refreshed just before serving. That's why so many pasta salads can taste blah. Not enough dressing. Or it's been added when the pasta is already cold, so it's got nothing to stick to.
*For pasta salads I like to use the vegetable peeler to shave off long noodle-like slices of carrot, then cut them into approximately baby-carrot-sized lengths. It gives a nice amount of give for the teeth, without being too crunchy. But, by all means if you prefer to grate or cut into thin slices, please do.
**I'm not sure what you call them, but they're the smallish cucumbers with smaller seeds and pale green flesh. Definitely not the long ones that usually come wrapped in plastic, nor the dark-skinned, white-fleshed fat ones with bigger seeds.
***Preferably not elbow macaroni as it's too small, nor penne as they're too big. Shells, bowties, spirals or anything approximately that size are good. Measurements are rough because I tend to go by eye each time. Adding enough to balance without overwhelming the other ingredients in the salad.
My family enjoys both of these:
Pizza Pasta Salad
1 pound tri-colored spiral pasta
1 (14 ounce) jar pizza sauce
1 (8 ounce) package fat free shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 ounces pepperoni, cut into tiny strips
3/4 cup fat free red wine vinegar salad dressing
Cook the pasta in boiling water as directed on the box, about 10 minutes. Rinse in cold water until chilled. Drain well. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, pizza sauce, cheese, green onions, pepperoni and salad dressing and mix well. Serve as is or chill until ready to serve.
Italian Macaroni Salad
2 c. cold cooked shell macaroni, rinsed and drained
1 c. diced fresh tomatoes
1 (2.5 ounce) package Hormel reduced-fat sliced pepperoni
2/3 c. shredded Kraft reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1/4 c. (1 ounce) sliced ripe olives
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1 c. chopped celery
3/4 c. Kraft Fat Free Italian Dressing
1/8 tsp. black pepper
In a large bowl, combine macaroni, tomatoes, pepperoni, cheddar cheese, olives, onion, green pepper, and celery. Add Italian dressing and black pepper. Mix well to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Gently stir again just before serving.
Got some yummy entries (entrees?) here. Keep 'em coming!
Here's a link to a GREAT New York Times article from Summer 2007:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?scp=1&sq=101%20Summer%20Recipes&st=cse
101 Quick Summer Recipes
Under 10 minutes
Simple, yet sometimes elegant and sometimes "slap-your-forehead" obvious.
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