Nicoise Salad

Don't you just love having salads in the summer time?  I love a good salad for lunch with all sorts of fresh goodness from the garden.  This salad, is a great way to use up leftover salmon.  It is a hearty salad, with the potato, salmon and eggs in it but it is a beautiful meal to have on a hot summer evening with an ice cold glass of vino......

Nicoise salad


2 handfuls of green beans, trimmed
10-15 baby new potatoes
1 1/2 cups roasted salmon or tuna, (or canned would be fine)
2 roma tomatoes, cut into wedges or chunks
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
1/2 cup black olives, pitted
1 large handful of arugula (optional, but its sooo good!)

Dressing:
in a jar or salad container combine:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar, cider vinegar is fine
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Shake well and keep refrigerated

Boil potatoes until fork tender, drain and put them in a bowl with very cold water or an ice bath.  Do the same with the beans.  Cook the beans only a few minutes and quickly transfer them to an ice bath.  Boil your eggs, peel them and then chill. (These ingredients call all be done the day before you'd like to serve this dish to make less work for you on salad day!)

To serve this salad, assemble every item in rows on a shallow platter, it looks so beautiful when it's done.  Drizzle with all the dressing.

You're going to love this one......

Baked, Not Fried!

The kids go on these kicks.  They ate a cheese string every day in their lunch for months.  They won't touch them anymore.  It happened just after I purchased a costco sized pack of cheese strings, of course.  So I was wondering how to use up the pack, and thought about making mozza sticks.  I love mozza sticks as an appetizer when we go to a restaurant.  So I did some research and found that I just made my own little concoction and they were a hit!

Baked Mozza Sticks With Marinara Sauce

20 Cheese strings
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
2 TBSP corn starch
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup corn flake crumbs
1 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil


Get three large shallow bowls.  In one bowl place the eggs.  In another bowl place flour, corn starch and seasoning salt, and in the last bowl place bread crumbs, corn flakes and herbs.

Step 1: roll cheese string in egg, shake off any excess
Step 2: roll cheese string in flour mixture
Step 3: roll cheese string in egg mixture
Step 4: roll cheese string in bread mixture

line each cheese string on a parchment lined baking sheet.

All this rolling will ensure a very crispy cheese string.  At this point you need to freeze the prepaired cheese strings for 2 hours and up to two days.

When you are ready to bake them, preheat your oven to broil.  Place cheese strings on top rack for 4 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn each cheese string.  Place in oven again for 4 more minutes or longer if you want them more crispy. (just be careful not to over bake them or the cheese will begin to ooze out)

Serve warm with a bowl of warmed marinara sauce.

Marinara sauce:

1 TBSP olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic
1 cup of tomato puree (crushed tomatoes, or diced)
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of sugar

In a small pot heat your oil. add chopped garlic and turn in the pan for about 10 seconds.  add tomatoes.  Cook on low heat for about 20 minutes.  Add salt and pepper, and pinch of sugar.

These were a hit today, and guess who loved the most.......the same kids who refused to eat cheese strings!!

Have a great day,
Lucia