Salad Nicoise (Page 154)

RECIPE #1071

• Date: Friday, December 18, 2009 -- 1pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our New House!
• Dining Companions: Matty and Phil O
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

I made this salad for lunch a couple weeks go when Phil was visiting us in East Lansing. I started by making the dressing. I blended shallots, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in the blender, then added olive oil, then parsley. I then boiled fingerling potatoes until tender, and drained and peeled them. I boiled green beans until crisp-tender. I tossed the potatoes, green beans, and some strips of green pepper in some of the dressing. I then tossed Boston lettuce in dressing and spread it on a platter. I topped it with the potatoes, green beans, and bell pepper, then topped that with quartered hard-boiled eggs, wedges of tomato, and chunks of tuna (from a can of tuna in oil). I drizzled more dressing on top and sprinkled with olives, capers, and parsley. This salad was awesome! It was huge (indeed it claims to serve six as a main course), but the three of us managed to almost finish it off in one sitting. My special gentleman described it as "Intimidating but delicious." The dressing was lovely, and really complemented the vegetables nicely. There was a great balance of ingredients, and it had so many components that there were many flavors to discover! This was perfect for a lazy lunch with friends.

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Well, tomorrow we will hit the road for California! We are driving from my special gentleman's parents house in Columbus, Ohio out to California. Our ultimate destination is Berkeley (where my special gentleman will live for the next 5 months), but we will head first to Los Angeles where we will visit my brother. It should be a fun (but long!) drive. We are taking a southern route, to avoid bad winter weather as much as possible. We will leave Ohio first thing Sunday morning and aim to arrive in Los Angeles sometime on Friday. Ideally, that will give us enough time to spend a day at the Grand Canyon. Neither of us has ever been there, and many, many people have recommended it to us!

Between me and my special gentleman we have own two cars, neither of which is in sparkling new condition. We took my car out west for our honeymoon but after much deliberation we decided to take my special gentleman's car on this trip. His car is the less reliable of the two however, and it is incredibly uncomfortable for long trips (the seats are painful, there's no cruise control, etc...). We had our reasons for choosing his car over mine, but given its poor condition and less than reliable status, neither of our mothers were too excited about our choice. Indeed, my mother actually insisted that we take her car instead. So we switched cars with her. We left her with my special gentleman's beat up car with a hole in the side, and we are taking her nice, barely driven car out to California. She insisted! So whereas before we were dreading the long hours of being uncomfortable, now the drive seems like a tremendous luxury. Her car has leather seats with seat warmers! Seat warmers!!!

The car is mostly packed, and we are ready to head out first thing tomorrow. I am excited about seeing states I have never been to before (e.g. Arizona and New Mexico), and even more excited about seeing Spencer, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Chris, etc... It should be a fun trip!