After nearly two weeks in the cool North Woods of Wisconsin, returning to this hot (and recently – very dusty!) desert is a bit of a shock to the system.  An oven-free meal is called for!  The old standby, rotisserie chicken, is my savior today.

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The cobb salad was created nearly 80 years ago at the famous Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and has been an American favorite ever since. I prefer to serve it as individual salads as opposed to presenting on a large platter.  That way it looks lovely for each guest. If served on a platter, it looks great for the first guest or two, but by the end of the line, all the “goodies” on top are either gone or mashed into a nasty looking mess.

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The 4th of July weekend is here and here is a festive, fun, and tasty watermelon flag bowl perfect for that fruit salad you need to bring to the party. The recipe for the actual salad and dressing is way down at the bottom of the post.  Leading up to it are step-by-step pictures to help you make the patriot melon.  Here we go….

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Sometimes my friends and neighbors comment that a few of my recipes are too complicated or time-consuming. For you lovey ladies, I offer this…

On my quest to use up a bunch of cubed peaches left over from cooking classes, I stumbled upon a cole slaw “kit” in the produce department at my neighborhood Safeway. It not only included the usual julienned carrot and shredded red and green cabbages, but also a little packet of “sweet & creamy” dressing.  I added in some diced red bell pepper for color and crunch, my peaches, and then dressed up the dressing with a little Dijon and had the perfect easy breezy side dish.

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So much for my Meatless Monday postings over each weekend.  I think that lasted all of 2 or 3 weeks. I’ll keep trying to get up at least one meatless option each week, but scheduling it on a specific day seems to be useless for me.  Of course, you could make this salad meatless just by leaving off the bacon, but the dramatic visual effect of the whole thing would be lost without the bacon jetting out of the ring.

For the julienned carrots, I used a new and really effective little tool I found at Sur La Table called the Kinpira Julienne Peeler.  It is pictured below in case you want to run out and buy one, or you can order it online HERE.

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Hello everyone. Linda’s daughter, Marissa, here – reporting with your recipe for today.  As part of my Mother’s Day gift to my mom, I told her I would photograph and write blog posts for the two recipes my dad and I (but mostly me) made her last night for dinner.  My dad was in charge of keeping the cucumber martinis coming, which was also a very important job.  The first recipe is a delicious, fruity summer salad that my mom saw on the menu at Cave Creek Coffee Company, where she and my dad went the morning after their anniversary last week.

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Whenever I’m in Costco, I check to see what fresh fish is available and if I see ahi tuna, I can’t pass it up. Seared ahi is light and refreshing, so is this salad. It was too hot to use the grill the other day when I made it, so I used the grill pan instead, but if weather permits, use your grill outside and eat al fresco!

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I want to provide you with a bit of a “heads up” about not only this particular post, but the coming weekend as well. I’ve wanted to post this recipe for a couple of weeks but the picture taken, when I made the dish in a cooking class, is so out of focus that I’ve been putting it off.  Putting it off until I could make the meal again and take a decent photo.  I now just have to admit to myself, and to you, that that is not going to happen. So, please squint your eyes when you are viewing said picture and try to get it to come into focus on your own. (Oh, and good luck with that!) As for the upcoming Saturday and Sunday… just letting you know now, there will be no posts. No way, no how!  So don’t even waste your time coming back to see if I slipped one in, it won’t be happening! Sorry, hoping for a better week beginning on Monday!  Have a beautiful weekend.  xoxo

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Today we come to the end of our “Cook Once – Eat All Week” use of the Prime Rib.  I call this salad “bicicleta” because the way you arrange it on a platter is made to resemble the spokes of a bicycle wheel.  It’s a pretty salad when it’s laid out that way and even after it’s tossed, so bright and colorful.

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I failed to mention while posting the asparagus soup a couple days ago, that the main reason Sharon asked for the recipe was because asparagus is a smoking deal at Bashas’ grocery stores this week. Gorgeous pencil thin bunches for .99 a pound! You only have today and tomorrow to run out and pick it up before the sale ends… hurry – grab your keys and leave now – get it before it’s gone! And in case you are like me, and can’t let a good deal pass you by and you pick up a couple more pounds than needed for the soup… here’s another healthy recipe using asparagus.

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