For various reasons, Labor Day weekend pretty much amounts to the last hurrah of summer, which no doubt explains why avid campers abandon suburbia for a final three-day fling in the wilds.
While they’re all off larking about, the rest of us will be hanging around here at home, where chances are good we’ll either host or attend some sort of get-together or gathering – pool party, picnic, cookout or whatever you want to call it.
In which case, and generally speaking, this whatever-you-want-to-call-it celebration will include a salad of one sort or another. By this time of the year, though, especially this particular beastly hot summer, many of us have run through our entire salad repertoires. Sometimes more than once. Twice or three times, even.
Let’s send a big thanks to Camano Island cook Susan Bender, then, for supplying us with a pair of new specialties to try.
“I love to cook and share my recipes,” she says, “so I was glad you asked for some readers to share.
“The summer salad won first place last July at the Camano Island gourmet club. The Camp Denali is my husband’s favorite. He brought it to work once, and all the guys asked him for the recipe. That doesn’t happen too often.”
And just think … Even if you won’t have a chance to try these super sides this weekend, the end of summer means the beginning of fall. All of those potluck and tailgating opportunities, and all yet to come!
Summer salad
1/2cup diced raw bacon
2cans (14 ounces each) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2cans (14 ounces each) hearts of palm, drained and chopped
1/2cup minced green onions
4tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Finely minced fresh garlic to taste
2ounces fresh lemon juice
6ounces canola oil
2cups bite-size pieces roasted chicken, homebaked or from supermarket
8ounces Stilton cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper to taste
2heads romaine lettuce, washed, chilled and torn into bite-size pieces
Fresh nasturtiums, rinsed and drained, or other edible flowers of your choice (see note)
Fry bacon until crisp; drain well, crumble and set aside. In a large salad bowl, combine the chopped artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, green onions and parsley. Add garlic, lemon juice, oil, Stilton cheese, chicken, salt, pepper and reserved bacon. Mix well, cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. To serve, mix chilled ingredients with the romaine lettuce and garnish with nasturtiums.
Note: Nasturtiums add a delicious peppery taste to salads.
Camp Denali bean salad
1cup sliced greens olives (stuffed with pimiento)
3cans garbanzo beans, drained
3cans kidney beans, drained (or substitute other favorite kinds of beans)
1cup minced white onion
1/2cup sliced green onions (sliced on the diagonal)
1cup chopped celery
1/2cup thinly sliced black olives
3cloves garlic, finely minced
3tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
2tablespoons freshly grated lemon peel
6tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2teaspoon cayenne pepper
2/3cup canola oil
Kosher salt and fresh, coarsely ground black pepper to taste
In a large salad bowl, combine green olives, beans, onions, celery, black olives, garlic, parsley, lemon peel, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Blend ingredients together thoroughly, then drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to mix, cover and chill at least 4 hours before serving. Toss again just before serving.
The next Forum will appear in Friday’s Time Out section.
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