Cucumber Salad with Tomato, Bell Pepper, and Spicy Thai Lime Vinaigrette
July 28, 2010 by Andrea 
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Filed under Asian, Salads
Juicy cucumbers are one of my favorite summer vegetables, and I like to slice one up and eat it with a bit of salt for an afternoon snack, but using them as a base for salads is my favorite way to eat them. We’ve been on a cucumber salad binge lately, trying different vegetable combinations and vinaigrettes, and this is by far our favorite to date. The Thai vinaigrette gets a little kick from crushed red peppers (pepper flakes), which you can adjust to your taste. Make sure you use an unseasoned rice vinegar because the seasoned kind has added sugar and salt. Read more
Good Bite: Everyday Meals with a Twist (Orzo Salad with Pesto)
July 6, 2010 by Andrea Print This Post
Filed under Announcements, Pasta, Salads
GoodBite.com has a new video series called Everyday Meals with a Twist sponsored by Heinz 57 sauce, and I shared one of our favorite easy recipes for the series. My dish with a twist is Orzo Salad with Pesto, a simple salad that you can serve warm or cold anytime of the year.
We make basic basil pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto with our homegrown basil, but you can also use purchased pesto. Just toss with the cooked orzo, tomatoes, and kalamata olives, sprinkle a little Parmesan on top, and it’s ready to serve.
Potato Salad with Summer Herbs and White Wine Vinaigrette
July 1, 2010 by Andrea Print This Post
Filed under Grow Your Own, Holidays, Salads, Vegetables
For us the Fourth of July is about celebrating our nation’s heritage as well as family, friends, parades, fireworks, and of course the annual Fourth of July cookout. Our cookouts vary somewhat from year to year, but we always have some kind of potato salad for the Fourth, and this potato salad recipe is particularly good for summer cookouts because it has no dairy, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling in the summer heat. Read more
Mango Blueberry Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette
June 15, 2010 by Andrea Print This Post
Filed under Dessert, Grow Your Own, Salads
In 2007 we bought two blueberry bushes, the low bush variety that produces small berries like our favorite wild blueberries from Maine. We almost lost them due to flooding both the first and second year, but somehow they managed to survive, though they haven’t produced berries yet. It takes a few years for blueberry bushes to begin producing, and when they do it’s often small amounts at first, but growing as the bush matures. Read more
Spring Greens Salad with Asparagus, Snow Peas, Radishes, and Honey Dijon Vinaigrette
April 26, 2010 by Andrea Print This Post
Filed under Salads
Our spring garden is not as full as the summer garden, but each year we add a little more with the hope that eventually we will have a large cool weather garden space. This spring we planted snow peas, sugar snap peas, rhubarb, three kinds of radishes, two kinds of radicchio, butterhead and romaine lettuce, red Russian kale, arugula, three kinds of chard, beets, green onions, shallots, dill, and cilantro. I still have a couple new rosemary plants (Arp variety) to put in the ground, but we need to finish prepping their new home first. And then there’s the blueberries which will finally go into their permanent home now that Michael tackled the enormous job of transplanting a dozen rose bushes to make room for the blueberries. Read more
Creamy Grape Salad with Almonds
March 29, 2010 by Andrea Print This Post
Filed under Salads, Summer Favorites
One of my favorite childhood memories is creamy fruit salads made with various combinations of grapes, cherries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, or apples, sometimes with crunchy nuts mixed in. The creamy part also varied, often made with sour cream and cream cheese or whipped topping, but all were sweet and sometimes tasted more like dessert than a dinner side dish. As far as my sweet tooth and I were concerned, creamy fruit salads were as good as it gets.
Don’t judge me. Read more
