Grandma's Kitchen Table

Good Friends Good Food: Salads with Artichokes - Artichoke Salad

       The week of May 7 in the GFGF theme of Salads, Donna chose Artichokes. Here is the recipe I used for Artichoke Salad if you would like to make it for yourself: click here. 

 

       The ingredients:  artichokes, black olives, grape tomatoes, onion, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, dried oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

 

       As you can see from my photo, I made this recipe into a Pasta Artichoke Salad by following her recipe and then just combining it with cooked rotini pasta. We like cold pasta salads in the summer.  They are easy to grab for lunch or for a side dish with something grilled for dinner.  

 

       The dressing is very good and complimented the ingredients, I doubled the amount as I wasn’t sure how much dressing I would need for the addition of the pasta to the basic artichoke salad.  As it turns out, I didn’t need all of it, but it is nice to have the leftover dressing on hand to use for salads or vegetables. The Balsamic vinegar added a nice depth of flavor, the garlic and red pepper flakes jazzed it all up nicely. I used frozen artichokes instead of the canned ones that she used in the original recipe, they just have a better flavor for me, and likewise I used jarred Kalamata olives in place of the black olives in a can.  I marinated the onions before adding them to the salad as I’ve said before, raw onions just do not agree with us these days, so I marinate them in the dressing overnight before adding to the salad.  This one goes on our Pasta Salad lineup list as it is definitely a repeat. 

 

       To see what the others made with their Salad with Artichokes, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike, Donna, Ellen, and Nancy.

 

       Next up are Salads featuring Spinach, chosen by Peggy, posting date on July 16.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

 

Good Friends Good Food: Salads with Cucumber - Avocado Feta Cucumber Salad

       The week of May 21 found the members at GFGF using the theme of Salads with the ingredient chosen by Nancy:  Cucumbers. Here is the recipe I used for Avocado Feta Cucumber Salad if you would like to make it for yourself: click here. 

 

       The ingredients:  cucumbers, avocado, feta cheese, red onion, extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, dried oregano, salt, and pepper.  (I have fresh Oregano growing in my herb pots so I added a bit of that on top as well.)

 

       Cucumbers are highly underrated in my opinion…they are usually just added to lettuce salads here or sliced to eat with dip on a vegetable platter, so I went in search of a salad recipe that would feature Cucumber as one of the main ingredients, minus it’s best friend here, Lettuce.  This is an easy salad as you just gather everything and assemble it on a plate.  I made the dressing the night before as I wanted to put the thin slices of raw onion into it so that it would marinate and take away some of that pungent onion flavor as neither of us like raw onions these days.  That worked nicely and the onions were nice and soft, just how I like them. The dressing doesn’t pack much of a punch, it’s basically a vinaigrette, Mark thought it was too much of a vinegar taste without much else to compliment it, but I liked it fine…Vinegar Girl that I am and all.  You could switch up the dressing by adding other things to it. All in all, this was a nice salad full of flavor and definitely worth a repeat. 

 

       To see what the others made with their Salad with Cucumbers, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike, Donna, Ellen, and Nancy.

 

       Next up are Salads featuring Spinach, chosen by Peggy, posting date on July 16.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

 

Good Friends Good Food: Salads with Peas - Sweet Peas and Radish Salad

       The week of April 23 started the GFGF theme of Salads…we all chose an ingredient for each bi-weekly post through mid-July and then I promptly fell off the wagon with posting bi-weekly, what can I say…life sometimes gets in the way. I’m hoping to do a bit of rewind and make the ones I missed. The first week Ellen chose Garden Peas.  I happen to love garden peas, so you’d think I would have been right on that…and I was, but I just didn’t get around to posting it.  I knew some of the ladies were making the salad we all think of when we think of Pea Salad…a nice combination of peas, cheese, mayo, etc. so I figured I would just go a different route.  There aren’t a whole lot of Pea Salad recipes that don’t involve peas, cheese, and mayo.  I decided that peas would make a fine addition to a basic lettuce salad and found a recipe that agreed with me.  Here is the recipe I used for Sweet Pea and Radish Salad if you would like to make it for yourself: click here.  

 

       The ingredients:  green garden peas, radishes, hard boiled eggs, Bibb Lettuce, chives, extra virgin olive oil, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, horseradish, Dijon mustard, sea salt.

 

       This is a very simple salad that goes together quickly once you have the eggs boiled (we usually always have hard boiled eggs at the ready in the frig on any given day).  Assembly is easy, I lined the plate with the Bibb Lettuce leaves, mixed the peas and radishes in a little bowl, added some dressing and chives, mixed it up, and put it on the lettuce leaves with the boiled egg wedges on the side. Quick, easy, economical, and delicious.  I’ll be making it again, and the dressing is a good one to have at the ready as well, nice and tangy with just a touch of sweetness and the zing from the horseradish. Definitely a repeat. 

 

       To see what the others made with their Salad with Peas, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike, Donna, Ellen, and Nancy.

 

       Next up are Salads featuring Spinach, chosen by Peggy, posting date on July 16.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

Good Friends Good Food: Salad with Fruit - Apple Cucumber Salad with Feta and Blueberries

       This week we are making Salads with Fruit, chosen by Margaret.  Here is the recipe I used for Apple Cucumber Salad with Feta and Blueberries if you would like to make it for yourself: click here. (The original recipe called for Honeydew Melon but we don’t really care for that as much so I substituted Apples.)

 

       The ingredients:  apples, cucumber, blueberries, feta, fresh mint leaves, honey, white wine vinegar, sea salt, and extra virgin olive oil. 

 

       After I substituted the apples for the honeydew melon, I followed the recipe as it was written with great success.    The dressing is nice and light and compliments the other ingredients.  The combination of the fruit, the cucumber, the cheese, and the mint works great for a simple summer salad, very cool and refreshing. We both loved it.  Definitely a repeat. 

 

       To see what the others made with their Salad with Fruit, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike, Donna, Ellen, and Nancy.

 

       Next up are Salads featuring Spinach, chosen by Peggy, posting date on July 16.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.