Culinary
Discovery: Salad
Days
by Gabriella
True
Stop! Turn off your
oven. Please, it is way too hot to be cooking anything in there.
Only use your grill or your stovetop or you soon will be way too
hot to do a thing, especially cook. Summer is the time to prepare
and eat delicious salads. Salads are easy one-dish meals. Go ahead,
be creative! Scour farmer's markets for fresh herbs and perfectly
ripe vegetables.
Today for lunch I served
egg salad with fresh dill, cucumber salad with sweet onions and
melon ball salad. It was a perfect meal to eat al fresco on our
deck and the best part was; I did not break a sweat standing over
a hot stove! Many salads are so easy that one really needn't follow
a recipe. But the recipes include herein are sure to wet your
appetite on these lazy summer days. You can serve them all tossed
together or if you are having guests over and would like a nice
presentation, simply arrange everything neatly. You can also create
a salad buffet by placing all the ingredients of the salads in
separate bowls so your guests can take as much or as little of
those ingredients as they please.
Portrait of a Lady,
Henry James
"The implements
of the little feast had been disposed upon the lawn of an old
English country-house, in what I should call the perfect middle
of a splendid summer afternoon. Part of the afternoon had waned,
but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and
rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but
the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown
mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They
lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense
of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of
one's enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o'clock
to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such
an occasion as this the interval could be only an eternity of
pleasure."
The Ugly Duckling,
Hans Christian Anderson
"It was so glorious
out in the country; it was summer; the cornfields were yellow,
the oats were green, the hay had been put up in stacks in the
green meadows, and the stork went about on his long red legs,
and chattered Egyptian, for this was the language he had learned
from his good mother."
A Year in Provence,
Peter Mayle
"The routine of our days had changed, and we were living outdoors.
Getting dressed took thirty seconds. There were fresh figs and
melons for breakfast, and errands were done early, before the
warmth of the sun turned to heat in midmorning. The flagstones
around the pool were hot to the touch, the water still cool enough
to bring us up from the first dive with a gasp. We slipped into
the habit of that sensible Mediterranean indulgence, the siesta."
Under the Tuscan
Sun, Frances Mayes
"At home, I plan a menu ahead, though I frequently improvise as
I shop. Here, I only begin to think when I see what's ripe this
week . . . Finally I caught on that what you buy today is ready-picked
or dug this morning at its peak . . . As I unload my cloth sacks,
the kitchen fills with the scents of sunny fruits and vegetables
warmed in the care. Everyone coming home from market must feel
compelled to arrange the tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and enormous
peppers into a still life in the nearest basket."
Consuming Passions,
Michael Lee West
"You'll know it is time
to harvest when the birds circle the vines and the air turns purple.
Tie on a straw hat, one that belonged to your grandmother, and
grab your child's red metal sand bucket. Then step into the garden.
If you go early, you can see bumblebees diving into the clematis;
but it is best to wait until midmorning, when the snakes are sunning
on the rocks. Just to be careful, beat the weeds with a stick."
Recipes:
Lemongrass Beef and Noodle Salad; Insalata Gorgonzola with Chicken;
Lobster Salad, Poached Salmon with Corn Salsa; French Feta Salad;
Tomato, Basil, Olive and Red Onion Salad; Greek Pasta Salad; Roast
Beet Salad with Goat Cheese >>
