Marked: salads and beginnings

One thing about being in the southern hemisphere is that those talented northerners keep posting delicious summer dishes when there’s snow on the hills around us. It’s tantalising: I love salads, but I know I’ll never find these brilliant suggestions again once summer comes back to us, so I’ve marked them here, along with some interesting new writers from our much-loved WordPress community (there are a couple of stories the children might enjoy).

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Recipes: salads

There are so many creative cooks. The warm weather must have really started this week, because we’ve had a stream of delicious looking salads. A couple are warm, but when it’s minus 3 outside, you need hot food. I think I might be waiting for spring to try some of these, or a holiday to Queensland.

Seven tasty salads for summer

Lentils and everything

Did I say how much I love salad? Mademoiselle Gourmande’s Fresh summer lentil salad has everything I could want: lentils and green leafy things, with a few delicious extras for a flavoursome surprise.

Annie’s Arugula and Pear Salad also looks great, and we have so much rocket (aragula) growing in the garden. Neither neglect nor love kills that plant; I’m starting to think that stuff is so tough it could survive a nuclear blast.

Even healthier potato salad

I already have a vegan potato salad that’s pretty popular around here, but Allison of Spontaneous Tomato has taken it one step further: no mayo at all. Her Whole-Grain Dijon Mustard Potato Salad looks amazing. I can’t wait for the next summer barbecue to give it a try.

Quinoa and corn

For something different, we have Ocean View Kitchen’s Grilled corn, tomato and feta quinoa salad with citrus vinaigrette. We’ve gone through quinoa phases, but they’ve never really lasted. i suspect it’s because we’ve never really found something that grabs everyone’s attention. This might be it!

For something warm

And to give us southerners a salad option now (did I say how much I love salad?),two kind cooks gave us:

• Claire’s Warm winter salad
• Shredded kale and Brussels sprout winter salad

And Jing’s Spicy Shredded Chicken Salad has a gorgeous twist with her congee. I’m sure this could satisfy in the depths of winter. Keeping the chicken warm could only add to it.

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Some star writers

The WordPress weekly writing challenge seems to bring out some wonderful writers. Some bring with them a sense of optimism that begs to be savoured with a hot cup of tea (or coffee) in hand. Some are just old-fashioned good fun. They deserve to be in a list of favourites for the week.

This latest challenge was based on the idea of beginnings. There were some interesting ideas on the origins of some famous dishes, plus more. They’re marked because they were worth a read and are worth reading again.

Some lovely stories you could read with your children:

• Joie De Vivre | Rock Paper Scissors
• Chryt | Phnom Penh
• Just Be V | Once Upon a Time the Earth was Rich and Full
• Thoughts of a Young Scholar | In the beginning… (story to follow)

Some theories of food:

• Mad Meandering Me | Weekly Writing Challenge: In the Beginning – Haggis…
• The Finicky Cynic | In the Beginning… (The Legend of Spam Musubi)
• chey being | How Coffee Became a Morning Addiction (A creation myth)

Some poetry:

• Life’s Unfiltered Ramblings | In the Beginning
• y | in the stillness of

Some stories, two especially thought provoking:

• Dandelion’s Den | I got ‘hit’
• Human Relationships | Fresh of the Boat
• The Quirky Life of P | In The Beginning There Was No Football….
• In my world | In the beginning there were Fifty words
• Haiverer | In The Beginning