The Cooking Vent: side dishes

A few of my favorite things right now:

1. The idea that fall is just a few weeks away! I'm so ready for fall.... particularly fall in California.

2. "So You Think You Can Dance" - One of the fun parts about summer! My favorites right now are Melanie and Caitlyn - I'm a week behind - so nobody tell me any recent results.

3. Toms - They are super cute, go with everything, comfortable, and best of all - they go towards a really good cause. The fact that they give a pair of shoes to someone in need when you buy a pair makes it truly awesome! These are my newest pair.... they called them "mustard yellow cords" on the web page. I renamed them "grasshopper green".

4. Estate Sales - They.... are... brilliant! I have been looking for a cute vintage bistro set for our back patio for a while, and couldn't find one that wasn't an arm and a leg. Well, just hop on over to your nearest estate sale - on the last day of the sale of course - and what do you know! Cute bistro set, table cloth and fun vintage milk glass dessert plates. And for an AMAZING deal. Way cheaper than I had found anywhere, and they even kept telling me a cheaper price. Think they might have given us stuff if we'd stayed a little longer! (Pardon the picture - it was taken with my iphone).

5. Printable recipes attached to my blog!! Thanks so much for all the feed back on my last post! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond to all of your kind words! It gives me hope that you are using the recipes! :) So, in light of the amazing responses I got... I've added a print recipe feature. I'm going to be playing around with it some to see what works best, so tell me how you like it, and what I can do differently to make it work for you all. For now, the print recipe link is directly under the recipe name below!!! Enjoy!

6. This Potato Salad - Full of flavor! You can have it hot or cold! Microwaveable!!! The whole recipe takes less than 10 minutes. Fantastic! Super yummy and healthy. Hope you love it too.

Fresh Green Bean & Fingerling Potato Salad (From: Better Homes & Gardens):

Print Recipe

ingredients:

1 lb fingerling or new potatoes, halved

1 cup fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

2 Tbsp. white or red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup pitted Nicoise or kalamata olives, halved

preparation:

1. Place halved potatoes into a 2-quart microwave-safe casserole dish. Top with green beans. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover and place in the microwave for 7-9 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring once. Drain.

2. For vinaigrette, in a screw-top jar or cruet, combine oil, chopped shallot, vinegar, parsley, Dijon mustard, pepper and the 1/8 teaspoon salt. Cover and shake well until fully combined.

3. In a small bowl, combine green bean and potato mixture, vinaigrette, and olives; toss gently to coat. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately or chill completely and serve cold. Makes 4 servings.

Summer has officially hit in California. And... it's HOT!

Well, we've had days of heat at least... for California that is. Nothing compared to my hometown counterpart of Charleston, SC where the temperatures have been record high. Can't say I miss that at all.

But the difference.... the BIG difference - is that almost everyone in Charleston has an air conditioner in their house. Sweet, lovely, beautiful air conditioning. Oh, how I miss it. In Northern California - it's a luxury in most houses. Especially when you live in a house built in the 1940's. It is an extremely cute and charming house, but there is no air conditioning. And when you walk into your house after a long day of work, and the thermostat says 93 degrees, you can choose to sit and complain - or make a ice cold fruit smoothie and sit on the back porch till 11:30... I chose option B! ;) okay.. maybe I sat on the back porch, drank a cold fruit smoothie and complained a little bit (a lot) how hot it was.

In the spirit of summer, I thought this yummy blue cheese potato salad was a perfect recipe for an introduction to summer. It makes a perfect dinner all to itself on those days where it's so hot you're not even hungry. It also makes a lovely side dish for those awesome summer barbecues. You can serve it warm or at room temperature, so it makes it great to take with you to a barbecue where it might sit out for a bit. It would be perfect for a July 4th get together.

The bacon, shallots, and blue cheese meld together for the perfect marry of flavors for this! You'll definitely want to give this a try!

Blue Cheese Potato Salad (Adapted From: Simply Classic - Junior League of Seattle)

Ingredients:

Salad

4 pounds small, red new potatoes, unpeeled

1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup heavy cream

12 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

3 tablespoons chives or green onions, minced

Dressing

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

salt and freshly ground pepper

2/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup shallots, minced

2 tablespoons parsley, minced

Preparation

For dressing, mix vinegars, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in oil, then add shallots and parsley.

Steam or boil potatoes until just tender. Cool slightly and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Place in large bowl. Gently mix in 1/2 cup of the vinegar dressing mix into the potatoes.