Potato Salad with Peas, Onions and Roasted Peppers

Today is my company picnic, and I am making this lovely French style potato salad to bring. This is a departure from the mayonnaise or sour cream based potato salads that you usually see, and I love it.

Roast a red bell pepper. I do it in the oven. Just place it whole under the broiler and turn it occasionally until all the skin looks black. Then take it out, seal it in a plastic bag and let it sit for a good 20 minutes. Then peel it, discard the peel and dice the yummy roasted flesh. You don't have to be persnickety like me and roast it yourself. Alternatively, just buy some roasted red peppers in a jar--they are really easy to find and work well for this salad.



Take one dry quart of little red skin potatoes and chunk them up. Put them in water and cook them until they're tender.



Thaw a cup of frozen peas. Let's reflect on frozen peas, shall we? You simply should not be without them. They are an invaluable ingredient in your kitchen, they are wicked cheap, and they taste nearly as good as fresh picked. Plus, if you have had oral surgery and need an ice pack for your face, a bag of frozen peas is the ideal thing to use.



Take about half a medium purple onion and slice it very thin.

Those are the main ingredients, now the dressing:



Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and whole grain mustard. I don't measure, but in this picture there's about 1/4 cup of olive oil and about a tablespoon of everything else.

Whisk it together. You'll find that the maple syrup and mustard are fabulous emulsifiers, and the dressing stays nicely blended.

While the taties are still warm, toss everything together. I love to eat this at room temperature, but you can chill it and let the flavors meld for a while.

This is our harvest.

I haven't got much to brag about in the gardening department! Just one lone roma tomato and a deformed jalapeno. Maybe I have enough here to make a bowl of salsa for my Barbie doll.

Tomato Time

Is there anything quite like a tomato sandwich in the summer? On lightly toasted bread? With thick slices of sweet flavorful fresh tomato? And the juice sort of runs down to your elbows when you take a big hungry bite of it?

I stopped at this little produce shack on Highway 301 on my way back to Richmond today. She had bushels of tomatoes out in front, but just one bushel of tomatoes by the checkout in the back that were about a dollar more per pound. I asked what the difference was and she told me the cheaper ones are from South Carolina and brought up here on a refrigerated truck. Wrong! Mustn't refrigerate tomatoes. Kills the flavor.
So I paid more for the local ones and dwelt on my little lesson learned. Just because it's by the side of a country road, sitting in a basket in the sun, doesn't mean it's local or fresh.

I'm going to bake a loaf of bread this weekend and we are going to eat tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. Actually, I like to eat this stuff called Vegenaise. It is every bit as fattening as mayonnaise, but it's made of vegetable fat. It tastes fantastic! And no cholesterol. But lots of delicious calories.



It's more expensive than mayonnaise, but you're supposed to make up for that by using it in moderation. I know--hilarious, right?

Calgon, Take Me Away.

This morning was the beginning of two weeks of theatre camp, way out in the country at Historic Hanover Tavern, the original home of Barksdale Theatre. We spent two hours (which felt like 10) winging it with the 20 kids because a storm last night had knocked out the electricity. I sure hope it's fixed by tomorrow, because I might have to poke my eyes out if it's not.



The kids are very cute. This is little Sean, going into second grade in the fall. Doesn't he look like a pistol?

Black Bean Lasagna

My cute and funny friend, Georgia Farmer, gave me this recipe for Black Bean Lasagne. It's supposed to be made with lasagne noodles, but we have this huge stack of wheat tortillas, so we're using those instead. We tweaked the sauce a little, too, by adding a spicy salsa. This lasagna was so damn delicious. This really should make 6 servings, but we went for the more popular four glutton sized servings. I'm taking leftovers for lunch tomorrow and I'm living for the moment.

Preheat the oven to 350.

4 burrito-size tortillas

Sauce
Roast:
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
Cool, peel, and dice.

*If you can't be bothered by all that, you can buy roasted red peppers in a jar, and you can use canned jalapenos, but it won't taste as good. The smoky taste of the roasted peppers is a key element.

Saute:
1 medium purple onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Drain and dice one 28-oz. can of plum tomatoes. Heat in a medium saucepan. Add one 7-oz. can of Herdez Salsa Mexicana. Add the previously mentioned roasted and sauteed ingredients along with:

2 1/2 cups cooked black beans
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
zest of one lime
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander

Heat the sauce through and set aside.

Make the cheese filling:

8 oz. grated extra sharp cheddar
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/3 cup of Crema Mexicana ( this is like Creme Fraiche. You can substitute sour cream if you can't find Crema Mexicana).
Mix this all together.

Assemble:

Spray an 8" x 8" square pan with olive oil spray.
Sread 1/5 of sauce on the bottom.
Layer like this:
tortilla (cut it up to make it fit), cheese mixture, sauce
Do this 3 more times, then top with 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Bake for about 45 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes if you can stand to wait (we couldn't).

Our Athletic Prowess

My 49th birthday is next week. Good gravy. How did this happen?



My excellent boyfriend got me a new bicycle and gave it to me early. I'm pretty jazzed about it. It has more speeds than I know what to do with! And it's a lovely pearly yellow color that just happens to match my backpack. And my dining room. Matchy Matchy Poo Poo.

So now Andy's riding my old bike--the one that keeps getting a flat rear tire. Yesterday we went on what we considered to be a colossal bike ride. We rode 22 miles--all the way to Midlothian and back. Well, at least I made it back. Andy got a flat tire, of course. I forged ahead alone, and came back in the car to rescue poor Andy, whom I found wandering along Forest Hill Avenue with a blank expression on his very pink face, poor dear.

We both felt a great feeling of accomplishment for our feat of strength and endurance. I was a piece of rubber for the rest of the day! The only thing I could summon the strength for was to lift a glass of chardonnay.

I'm too tired to give this post a clever headline

Why am I so tired, you ask? My cat Maggie has this new thing she does; when she's bringing an animal into the house, she does this whimper-meow sort of noise that she doesn't make any other time. So I always know when she's bringing in the kill, and her little announcements can cut right through a sound sleep.

Last night it was a mouse, and it wasn't dead yet. It wriggled out of her jaws and darted under a piece of furniture in the living room. A piece too big to move. I tried to scare it out with a broom, opened the front door so it could run to freedom, tried everything I could think of at 3:45 a.m. No mousie. So I went back to bed, figuring one of the cats would catch it, and I'd deal with it in the morning.

As soon as I was nodding off to sleep again, Gilda (other kitty)jumped up into my bed with the mouse and started to chase it around ON MY BED. I managed to trap the poor thing under a dishtowel and scoop it up and fling it to safety outdoors. Jesus.

I'm switching the pet door to the "out only" setting tonight. They'll be able to go out but not come back in. Then the Merry Murderesses will just have to play with their victims outdoors whilst I catch up on my sleep.