You could say this is something like the spinach dip you can find at lots of grocery stores these days. The kind that’s made with full-fat sour cream and mayo. Whereas this one is made with yogurt; with the exception of the little bit of olive oil drizzled over the top, there isn’t any other fat in it. And it’s delicious – maybe even better than the store-bought stuff. This version has mint, and some crumbled walnuts on top.

Slowly over the last month or two I’ve been trying to make some of the contest winners over at Food52. Every single one of them has been a winner. And this one was no exception. If you haven’t browsed recipes there, you should. This one was not difficult to make, and in actuality, it didn’t take all that much time, either. However, you do need to blanch the baby spinach (leaving it in boiling-hot water for a minute), which is a bit of a nuisance. Other than that, it’s pretty easy to stir together the other ingredients in this.

One little detour must be explained – the recipe calls for dried mint – an item I don’t have in my pantry. I just never use it. Period. Once you plant mint in a California garden, you’ll have mint forever. It jumps barriers, spreading its little vines. But I use ample mint in my cooking. So anyway, I didn’t have dried mint, which the recipe inventor here insisted should be used for its woodsy flavor. Instead, I put fresh mint IN the dip, not sprinkled on top. Maybe one day I’ll have to try the other version. I also added more garlic because I had just two garlic cloves left and we like garlic.

The dip contains simple ingredients – full fat Greek yogurt, the spinach, garlic, a little tiny bit of olive oil, then walnuts are sprinkled on top and you drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on top too. I served it with sangak bread, that wonderful, yeasty Iranian bread I’ve mentioned numerous times before. Lavash would work or any kind of very thin, fresh flatbread. Even toasted pita bread would work well too. The spinach flavor is certainly there. Make this, okay?

What I liked: well, half a recipe disappeared in a flash when our son, his wife and their son came to visit. In fact they scraped the last of it out of the bowl after dinner was over with – they liked it that much. Does that tell you anything?

What I didn’t like: gosh, not a single thing. Loved it. Will make it again for sure.

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If you have some pizza dough on hand, and a package of prosciutto, some fresh mozzie and fresh tomatoes, a pizza marriage can be made. Especially with the arugula salad on top and decorated with more Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, but I can remember the first time I had  pizza with a salad on top – it was at California Pizza Kitchen, and it was surely 25 years ago, or more. What a combo, I thought. And I’ve ordered it many times since. And I’ve made it in a few variations. Most recently it was the Pioneer Woman’s version with prosciutto and figs. I’ve also made an artichoke & zucchini focaccia pizza too, and because I love the salad aspect, I’ve added it onto the other pizzas I’ve made too, like  my all-time favorite one, chicken, red onion and kalamata olive pizza.

This one had an arugula salad on top. Truth be known – I love-love arugula. It’s the peppery-lemony biting flavor of it that I like so much. In this case it’s tossed in a light olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Nothing fancy at all – I didn’t even measure, although the recipe does give you amounts.

The recipe came from yet another cooking class with Phillis Carey. What a wonder woman she is. Five different dishes at this last class, and five winners. You’ll see them all here eventually. This was the first one I made from the class. And I’ll tell you right now – my DH Dave and our dinner guest Irene both nearly levitated off their chairs they loved this pizza so much. Dave even ate my little pieces of crust I’d left on my plate. If you can’t find or can’t get fresh mozzarella, you can use regular mozzie. It won’t have the same taste, but it’ll be good. And if you want to try a little something different, add some goat cheese to the mixture. That will make it good too.

One of the features of home made pizza is creating individual sizes – a one pound ball of pizza (which I bought at Trader Joe’s a week or so ago) can be divided to make 2 to 4 pizzas, or even 8 if you want small ones. I divided it into thirds, which was just right for us. Bigger appetites, maybe not enough. One of the secrets to working with raw pizza dough is giving the dough enough time – in between stretching it out – to rest and relax the gluten. In the past when I’ve been in a hurry and just jammed and pushed and pulled to try to get the pizza dough to stretch out into a big enough shape, and I’d get so frustrated. I knew it needed to rest, but I was in a gosh-darned hurry and didn’t have time for the blasted dough to give me trouble. But it will let you manipulate it if you just let it rest.

What I did was cut the dough into thirds. I put those blobs onto a rimmed baking sheet. Then I drizzled my hands with olive oil (actually it was grapeseed oil) and pressed out the dough some. Whatever you do, DON’T oil the entire ball of dough as then it won’t stick to the pan. It’ll just slide right back into a blob after every pushing/stretching session. As I began gathering up the ingredients for the pizza, I’d give the pizza dough another stretch, then I’d wash my hands again and go do something else for 10 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes to get the rest of the dinner together, and by then the dough was perfectly pliable and I was able to stretch it easily into sort of oval shapes.

Then the toppings begin. Because I’d oiled my hands as I molded the dough, I didn’t need to put oil on the top of each pizza. You choice, though. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch and shape the dough if you don’t like getting your hands icky. Phillis used fresh oregano. Well, I didn’t have any fresh,so I just used dried. That went on first. Then half of the Parmesan cheese, sprinkled all over the dough.  Then the fresh Mozzie went on, along with the strips of prosciutto. More Parmesan went on with a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes (the recipe calls for plum tomatoes) and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

They’re baked in a hot oven and once removed it’s so much easier to go ahead and slice the pizza right then and there, THEN dress the arugula, pile the salad on top. I slid the pizzas onto plates, then topped each with the salad. Then you sprinkle on the last bit of Parmesan and toasted pine nuts.

What I liked: well, it’s easy to make, especially if you buy the raw pizza dough. Just have all the ingredients ready and it’s quick to put together. The toughest part is stretching the dough into place. The tastes in this are just fantastic.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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Like parsley? Like garlic? Well then, you’ll like chimichurri sauce, an Argentinian jewel to accompany grilled meats. VERY simple to make!

It was about 20 years ago that I first heard of chimichurri sauce. We went to a Brazilian restaurant in our area and were entertained with the very elaborate and dramatic meal containing several courses and the long sword of grilled meat they delicately sliced off at the table, right onto your plate. Each person had his/her own little bowl of chimichurri to use on the meat, or you could dip bites into it. I liked it enough that I asked for seconds, and asked the waiter for more information about what was in it. We’ve been served it several times in the interim at other restaurants that have some kind of grilled meat.

Actually chimichurri is an Argentinian invention, and as I did some research about it I’ve discovered that variations abound, like any other culture/country related dish. As an example Italian Bolognese sauce (or Sunday Sauce, as it’s often called), even Mexican salsa, or the British favorite, lemon curd. So it is with chimichurri. One I found from an Argentinian, said that they never add oil to their sauce. Hmmm. I’ve only had it with oil. Many others add tomatoes – to some it’s an essential part of the dish. I didn’t add them, preferring to make it more green only. So, you see, you can make it your own if you wish. This recipe may not be authentic at all, but I’ll just say one thing – it’s fabulous!

My hubby and I are still taste-testing grass fed beef, and am happy to report that we found a local purveyor we really like. Before I tell you about it/them, I want to try the steak another time. You know that adage, first time’s a charm? We’ll make certain the second steak is equally good before I share. So we grilled the said ribeye steak in our time-honored method (see Grilled Ribeyes with Amazing Glaze) but didn’t do the Amazing Glaze this time because I was making the chimichurri sauce.

Not having a favorite recipe for it, I looked up several before deciding what to do. Eventually I made it simple on myself and used the food processor. I took ingredients from several recipes and made my own combination. I whizzed it up just a tad too long – you really want to have some parsley texture – the parsley got a little lost when I pureed it. Read the instructions before making this – read it all the way through. I also used lemon juice in mine because I didn’t have any limes on hand. But lime is the preferred citrus for chimichurri.

With just half a recipe I still have nearly a cup left after the one dinner. So you might not want to make the whole thing unless you’re feeding a crowd. I think garlic loses its pungency too, after it sits in the refrigerator for even a day, let alone a week! Probably wouldn’t keep that long anyway.

What I liked: the potent garlic and parsley flavors. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. It has powerful flavors – you need to love garlic and parsley for sure! It’s also VERY easy to make.

What I didn’t like: nothing really – just don’t over-process it- leave some texture.

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Talk about simple. And delicious. Actually I bought a kale salad mix (in a bag) from Trader Joe’s, then added halved fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes and my old standby favorite salad dressing. If push came to shove, I think I could just eat this salad for dinner with nothing else! It was wonderful with a chicken dinner, though.

I swear, sometimes the simplest of things are the best. I made a Thomas Keller roast chicken the other night and since we’d been out of town for 5 days, we needed a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up, and I went along (usually Dave does the grocery shopping for me, with a list in hand). And I noticed the kale mix at Trader Joe’s. We love kale. And here it was, already chopped up and ready for a quick salad. (It does come with its own little bag of dressing too, but I didn’t use it.) I did chop it a bit more because some of the pieces were too large, but it only took a few quick whacks. Then I added some heirloom cherry tomatoes (amazingly good for so early in the season). And because I have way too much on hand, I also added some small chunks of Feta cheese (sheep’s milk, my favorite).

Every few months I make one of my old standby salad dressing recipes – this time it was my all-time favorite salad dressing – a kind of blue cheese vinaigrette. But way back when I named it a Creamy Garlic Dressing. Yes, it has garlic in it, but the blue cheese is probably more predominant than the garlic. And there’s no cream or mayo in it. But if you whiz up this dressing in the blender until it’s smooth, it looks like a cream type dressing. This time I made it more like a vinaigrette. See the small chunks of blue cheese (actually I used Gorgonzola this time)?

So had I thought it through, I wouldn’t have added Feta to the salad – because I already had Gorgonzola in the dressing – but it was already in the salad, so oh well! Surprise? It tasted wonderful, although I couldn’t exactly pick out the flavors as well. But it was delicious nonetheless. If you haven’t made this dressing, you should go look at my old post about it. The recipe below doesn’t include all the ingredients for the dressing – just go find it from the above link. You could also use whatever dressing you’d prefer too. I just happen to like home made dressings and rarely buy anything store-bought.

What I liked: it’s a healthy salad – well, as healthy as any salad is with an oil-based dressing on it. Loved the chewy texture of the kale – AND the delicious heirloom tomatoes. All of it was good.

What I didn’t like: gee whiz – nothing. It was all good.

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If I were to tell you that this dish is super-easy, would you believe me? Most of Thomas Keller’s recipes are long and arduous. Not this one. And to me, there’s really nothing quite so tasty as a freshly roasted whole chicken hot out of the oven. Read on.

After being away for a few days (attending our oldest grandson’s high school graduation – see Logan, right) and after having numerous rich (and very enjoyable) meals, some in, some out, we were ready for a more simple, less caloric dinner once we got home. I picked up a nice big, fat 6 pound chicken at Trader Joe’s – a whole chicken.

Then, I was reading through some other people’s blog posts and learned about the Amateur Gourmet – have you ever read his blog? He won Saveur’s #1 rating for best overall blog. The magazine’s list of blogs is long. Really long, although some are categorized. Most of them I’d never heard of. Oh my, I’m in trouble . . . I already follow about 60 food blogs. How am I ever, ever going to keep up? But I had to go back through some older posts on the first ones I looked at. Anyway, on someone’s blog there was a link to watch a youtube video of Thomas Keller making one of his many chicken recipes. This one from Bouchon, the eponymous restaurant in Napa Valley.

The video was really interesting. And it looked so EASY! So I scribbled down the simple directions and did it – with only minor modifications. I let the roasting chicken I’d bought sit out at room temp for about an hour to get it closer to room temp. To the inside cavity I added a thyme sprig and salt and pepper. Then I prepared all the vegetables (I used onions, celery, carrots and later on during the baking time added about a pound of sweet potato chopped up). You can use your own choice of veggies. Those were lightly drizzled and tossed with olive oil and put in the bottom of a roasting pan. I used a Teflon-coated 9×13 pan and loosely covered the bottom with the veggies.

Next you truss the bird so the wings and legs are tight up against the body (I didn’t do this one step cuz I was lazy), then rub it all over with some olive oil and sprinkle liberally (really liberally) with salt, pepper and I added some dried thyme. The birdie is placed on top of the veggies and popped into the oven. Keller’s 3-4 pound bird roasted in a 450° oven and was done in about 45 minutes. My chicken at 6 pounds took about 80+ minutes. I also lowered the temp by 25° too because the bird was so big. You want to get chicken to an internal temp of about 165°.

Once out of the oven I removed the chicken to a grooved cutting board and let her sit with a little dome of foil over her to keep her warm. Also covered the roasting pan with all the veggies in it – and they were pooled in a lovely liquid of juices and fat. Talk about tasty! I tasted one piece of sweet potato (to make sure it was cooked through – it was) and could hardly keep my fork out of the pan.

The veggies went onto the plate along with pieces of the dripping, juicy chicken. With a salad, that was dinner. Fantastic is about the only word to describe!

What I liked: first, how EASY it was. Secondly, the flavor – oh yes – the salt really made a difference. It was extra-specially juicy. And the veggies – I had to talk to myself about not eating the entire pan full of veggies all by myself. They were that good.

What I didn’t like: gosh, nothing. It was magnificent. Worth doing again and again.

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Okay, listen up, folks. If you like risotto, this one’s a winner. It’s going onto my “favorites” list, if that gives you a clue as to how delicious it is! It’s the lime juice and lemon juice that “make” this, in my opinion.

We had invited friends over for dinner a week or so ago, so I decided to fix this new recipe I’d acquired at a cooking class recently. I took photos of it at the time, intending to share it here, but then accidentally deleted all the photos. Duh! So I just had to make it sooner rather than later, that’s all.

This recipe does take a bit of prep, but once you have everything ready to go, it’s easy enough to start the risotto itself. You can do all that prep a few hours ahead. I made the marinade but didn’t put the shrimp in it until it was near to dinnertime. I’d prepped all the salsa mixture and I cut up the avocado too. One of the quick tricks Phillis Carey shared with us was about rinsing avocado in water. I guess I’d not heard that one before – if you rinse avocado in cold water, it will sit for a few hours without turning brown. Very simple, eh?

The risotto on its own, without the salsa part is fairly bland. But you add in the tomatoes, green onions, avocado pieces AND the lime juice (a must) it transforms this rice dish to spectacular. The Parmigiano doesn’t hurt, either. The raw shrimp slumber in a citrus marinade for about an hour, then are briefly grilled (you could do this on a stovetop grill too – or even do it in a frying pan if that’s easier). The risotto is like lots of other recipes – uses chicken broth, stirred a lot, then at the very end, when the Arborio rice is almost done (al dente is how you want it – with just a little bit of bite) you add in the colorful stuff – the tomatoes, avocado (and I added in some corn cut off the cob because I had some and remembered how good another of Phillis’ recipes was that included corn in a risotto). I added just a little more lime juice because I loved the tartness of it – be careful and don’t use too much.

Once it’s ready, have everything in place to portion out, garnish and serve before it gets cold. You’ll hear raves at the table, I promise. Even my DH commented to me the next morning how delicious this was. Phillis also said the recipe works equally well with salmon, halibut or sea bass instead of shrimp. I loved the shrimp, though.

Our friends brought a very simple baby arugula salad with a sweet lemon juice dressing that was a perfect foil to the risotto. And just because it was so good, I’m also showing you a photo of the dessert I made – it’s already on my blog – a very special dessert since plums are in season these days. This dessert, Purple Plum Torte,  is on my favorites list too – an all-time, highly-requested recipe from the New York Times. If you haven’t made this dessert yet after reading my blog about it, you’re missing a great addition to any menu. I served it with almond-flavored whipped cream.

What I liked: the piquant taste in the risotto (from the lemon and lime juices, I’d guess). I love everything in it and about it.

What I didn’t like: gracious . . . nothing at all. So worth making.

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This is a post about the late M.F.K. Fisher, a renowned food writer of the first order. If you’re not interested in the biographical part, skip down to the bottom and at least read the indented paragraphs, quoted from one of her books, about How To Un-Seduce [a man]. I found the quote very witty.

Some of you who are considerably younger than I may not have ever heard of M.F.K. Fisher. Her full name was Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, and just “Fisher” to her friends. She was born in 1908 and died in 1992 from Parkinson’s Disease. What she was, was a venerable food writer of a couple of generations back. I own most of her food related books (well, almost all her books are food related but there are some I don’t own and a few that aren’t really essays about food). She was more a writer than a cook, although she certainly was a good cook in her own right. Photo credit unknown.

M.F.K. Fisher didn’t work in restaurants, but wrote books for herself (including an English translation of Brillat-Savarin’s tome), for magazines (both food and travel) and lived in many places around the world – mostly France – before finally, in her later years, settling in Glen Ellen, California (wine country, a few miles north of Sonoma). She was married three times. The first time (Al Fisher) to a man who, some years later, developed intimacy issues (both physical and relationship types, so she was quoted as saying many years later), so when she had an affair with someone else he was hurt, but he couldn’t do or say much about it. She divorced him and married the other man (Dillwyn Parrish). They had many good years together, but while living in France he developed a very debilitating illness and eventually commit suicide in 1941. She wrote more books and some movie dramas. In 1944 she had a child and never revealed the father’s name. Later on she met and after a whirlwind romance married yet another man (Donald Friede), but that marriage didn’t last. She spent the rest of her days without any further husbands, but I suspect she wasn’t lonely for companionship. She continued to write clear into her 80’s. I tried to research anything I could about her daughter, but didn’t find sufficient info.

In the late 1980’s I recall reading an article in one of the food magazines (either Gourmet or Bon Appetit) about Fisher’s retirement. I’d read a couple of her books at that time and really liked her writing style. About then I began looking for her books in used book stores. She writes prose but with a lot of food relationship stories and with lots of food jargon thrown in. Her essays graced the pages of numerous magazines, many of them not food related. Sometimes her essays included a recipe; sometimes not. In any case, as I looked at the 1980’s photos of her in this article, in her charming-looking little house in Glen Ellen, I remember the writer was particularly taken with Fisher, and happily shared a light lunch with her. And particularly how he savored the fresh fruit she served for dessert (one of her favorite things for dessert anytime). I wished that I could have met her – especially since she died just a few years later.

So, you wonder where this story is going? Well, I got an email from one of my readers (thank you, Donna) who told me about a marinade she has used for years, but originally was from M.F.K. Fisher. (More on that in another post – I’m going to have to try it and then I’ll tell that story.)  She told me which book, and I was surprised to find that I did have the book, but had never read it. In doing so – after reading the chapter about the marinade – I kept going. And came across such a hilarious couple of paragraphs I decided I should share it with all of you.

It’s in her book, An Alphabet for Gourmets. Or, if you’re interested in the book, you might try reading the 5 best of M.F.K. Fisher, contained in the compendium The Art of Eating (the other 4 books are: How to Cook a Wolf, Consider the Oyster, Serve it Forth, The Gastronomical Me). Used copies are very inexpensive if you’re so inclined. Anyway, in the Alphabet book she writes in her chapter called W is for Wanton, about the art of using food for seduction. And she tells one story after another, including one about what she would serve if she were trying to seduce a man. But the one that tickled my funny bone was the section about what she would serve to a man if she were trying to stem, or totally deflate desire (she suggests among others to serve kidneys, okra or avocado, for example), or as she suggests the title at the end of it, HOW TO UN-SEDUCE. Here it is:

[This is the preface to this small bit of the essay, which you need to read to set the stage for the paragraphs that follow]: I myself, imagining one man I would like to woo, can easily invent a menu that would floor him like a stunned ox, and turn him, no matter how unwittingly on his part, into a slumberous lump of masculine inactivity. It is based on what I already know of his physical reactions, as any such plan must be.

I would serve one too many martinis, that is, about three. Then while his appetite raged, thus whipped with alcohol, I would have generous, rich, salty Italian hors d’oeuvres: prosciutto, little chilled marinated shrimps, olives stuffed with anchovy, spiced and pickled tomatoes – things that would lead him on. Next would come something he no longer wanted, but could not resist, something like a ragout of venison, or squabs stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, and plenty of red wine, sure danger after the cocktails and the highly salted appetizers. I would waste no time on a salad, unless perhaps a freakish rich one treacherously containing truffles and new potatoes. The dessert would be cold, superficially refreshing and tempting, but venomous: a chilled bowl of figs soaked in kirsch, with heavy cream. There would be a small bottle of a Sauterne, sly and icy, or a judicious bit of champagne, and then a small cup of coffee so black and bitter that my victim could not down it, even therapeutically.

All of this would be beautiful fare in itself and in another part of time and space. Here and now it would be sure poison – given the right man. I would, to put it mildly, rest inviolate.

What a hideous plan [she writes]. . . . . M.F.K. Fisher in The Alphabet for Gourmets

Can you see why I enjoy reading her words? She had a true gift of writing, a delightful wit, a gift of story-telling, a gift for the turn of phrase and particularly the judicious use of words. Most of the above biographical information about M.F.K. Fisher came from wikipedia. Another source I used (from Harvard University) had some different information, including a different birth date of her daughter which said she was Friede’s. The daughter had several children, so hopefully the author’s gene will have been preserved and will reappear sometime. And again, the image I used at top, obviously one taken at her home in Glen Ellen in her library or maybe her living room, has no credit because I couldn’t find one, although I saw similar images on the web credited to the New York Times. Over the years I’ve learned something about myself – that when I read a book (and enjoy/love it) I’m intrigued with the how and why. How did the author come to write it, why did he/she write it. Where did he/she write it. You know, that kind of thing. So finding the different birth date of her daughter and the fact that her birth certificate did not include Friede’s name was intriguing. More factlets worth pursuing if I were a true researcher. Anyway, to sum up, I’m a great admirer of M.F.K. Fisher and I need to read all of her most well-known books for sure!

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Summertime is about the only time when I’ll make potato salad. And when we’re having a big group over to our house to help eat it up. I enjoy it very much, but know that it’s probably not the healthiest thing to eat these days. But oh, if you like P.S. then you’ll love the addition of chipotle and corn in this version.

Did you know that chipotle (cheh-powt-leh) is a smoked jalapeno? That’s all it is – but chipotle has deep-grained character, umami, and will add something to nearly any savory dish. I have dried chipotles in my pantry and I have powdered chipotle. And I have canned chipotle, which is the same thing except the manufacturers can it with some tomato type sauce – and when it’s processed it, the sauce is just as hot as the peppers. So it goes a looooong way. In this dish, you’ll only want to use a couple of teaspoons of it – maybe 3 if you like it very spicy. But it adds so MUCH flavor – you’ll be amazed!

The rest of this potato salad is like many others – except it has some lime juice, cilantro, CORN, and pickled jalapenos. Well, you’ll want those pickled jalapenos to add to this salad. They’ll keep forever and ever, I’m certain. The recipe is from my favorite food guru, Phillis Carey.

What I liked: the chipotle flavor, obviously. It’s subtle, but adds just a little bit of heat. And I loved the addition of corn to this.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all – if you’re a potato salad fan, you’ll love this version.

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A fool – mostly it’s whipped cream and fruit. This one has white chocolate in the creamy part and some crème de cassis in the blackberries. It’s very easy to make. Photo from the Food Network.

A fool is a British concoction. Sorta, kinda, like Eton Mess, except it doesn’t have any meringues crumbled up in it, nor does it have ice cream. The Brits are experts at these kind of creamy, fruity desserts, and this one is no exception. I got it at a cooking class with Phillis Carey, but it looks like it’s from Bobbie Flay, on the Food Network. And their photo was ever so much better than mine, so I’ve used theirs.

How easy is this? You whip up heavy cream with sugar. Meanwhile you melt some white chocolate and add that into the whipped cream (once it cools). The fruit – the blackberries – are mixed with sugar and crème de cassis and allowed to macerate, which brings out the juice. A few hours before you’re ready to serve it, you’ll just spoon layers of this into serving dishes and garnish with chopped almonds and fresh mint. Bobbie Flay used hazelnuts instead of almonds – that’s the only difference. Chill this a bit and serve. Very delicious.

What I liked: the combo of the creamy layers and the blackberry layers. Very soothing dessert. Easy too. Just make sure you’ve got good blackberries to start with.

What I didn’t like: gee, nothing, really.

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In our markets lately there have been bunches of fresh mangos, and they’re very inexpensive. They make a wonderful combo with black beans, lime juice, and sheep’s milk Feta. Serve it alongside a lovely piece of grilled meat – chicken, fish, pork chop or lamb even.

The photo was taken with my little point-and-shoot camera. It’s just not quite as bright or clear to me than using my big honkin’ Canon DSLR. I’ll have to make this and take another photo. Make it I will because it’s so delicious. Perfect for a barbecue. Here in Southern California we’ve been having some lovely, warm days. Most mornings it’s May Gray lately – I heard the term the other day. Usually in CA we have June gloom but I’d not heard of May Gray before. But anyway, we’ve been eating dinner on our patio every night for the last several. Along with the baby flies that have hatched and are very anxious to share my dinner. They drove me crazy this evening.

Anyway, back to the recipe – it was from a cooking class with Phillis Carey. And it’s just perfect – I mean perfect – with a piece of barbecued fish, or a lamb chop, pork chop, even a grill chicken breast. Any of the above. Even some grilled sausages. The ingredient list is short: mangos, black beans, red onion, cilantro, serrano chile, garlic, sugar, lime juice, olive oil and sheep’s milk Feta. That’s it. You need to make this – it’s nothing but tossing those ingredients together. I used canned black beans. Phillis did too, and she explained that if you want to buy really black-black beans, buy what’s called turtle beans. They’re blacker than some of the canned black beans out there. Anyway, you just combine all those items in a bowl and chill for a few hours. Serve. How’s that for easy?

What I liked: the lime juice just accents all the flavors in the salad – and I love sheep’s milk Feta (I buy the little tub of sheep’s milk Feta from Trader Joe’s all the time). Cilantro is another favorite for me – can hardly get enough of it. Make this, okay?

What I didn’t like: nada, nothing at all. I wrote “fabulous” on the recipe. Does that tell you anything?

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