Warm Potato Salad

Today I managed to slip away from the lake early, promising to return for my family around dinner time. It was lovely to come home to a quiet kitchen and a little time to create something yummy for dinner. Frank had said he felt like grinders (a Sunday evening family tradition when he was growing up, even though theirs followed a big midday pasta meal, which we did not do today).

As with all our meals this time of year, my dinner plan needed to center around the bounty of the garden and whatever does not come from our literal backyard, comes from our proverbial backyard – farmers markets or farm stands in our area.

I remembered that I had a bag of rainbow new potatoes, so I started there. The rest just built on itself . The coup de grace was a ladel full of roasted tomatoes and garlic that I had in the oven for about three hours today and tied it all together. If you don't have time to roast tomatoes, add some chopped fresh tomatoes or some sundried tomatoes in oil. I let my roasted tomatoes finish off by turning off the oven and leaving them inside for the rest of the day. They were still very warm when I added them into the potato salad.

Don't forget to be creative. This dish could be delicious with just about anything you have in your garden or in your fridgie. What follows below is merely what I made tonight, not exactly what I'll ever make again.

Here goes:

2# rainbow potatoes cut in a large dice
3-4 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium red onion, diced
1 purple pepper, diced
1 cup cauliflower cut into small flowerets
1 cup broccoli, cut into small flowerets
several leaves of beet greens, green and red, chopped
few basil flowerets finely chopped
1 cup tomatoes roasted in olive oil with garlic
salt and pepper

Parboil the potatoes. Saute garlic, onion and pepper in olive oil for 2 minutes; add cauliflower, saute for another 2-3 minutes; add the parboiled potates, salt and pepper, saute for another 2-3 minutes; add broccoli, saute anohter 2-3 minutes; add greens and basil and saute for another 2-3 minutes; add tomatoes, saute for another 2-3 minutes. Check seasoning, adjust if necessary.

While Frank had a traditional cheese grinder (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles), I served the kids and I sandwiches of fresh tomatoes with an aged camembert-style cow's milk cheese from Capri cheeses of Hubbardston, Massahusetts. We all also enjoyed fresh green beans from the garden, boiled to tenderness then drizzled with olive oil and a little salt.

Cheers!