Asian Marinated Cucumber Salad.

Adam says that this is "good for a cucumber" salad.

1 seedless cucumber thinly sliced
1 green onion sliced
1 carrot thinly sliced *
1/4 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

In a bowl mix the final 6 ingredients and heat in microwave for 1 minute. When warm add the sliced veggies and mix well. Chill for a couple hours and eat.
Yumm.
*optional.

Citrus and Red Wine Fruit salad

I made this up tonight, it's so good.

I used the fruit I had, I'll list what I used, but I think that anything along with citrus would work.

salad
4 cups cubed watermelon
1 cup blackberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 mango, cubed
2 peaches, sliced
1 cup pineapple, chunked
2 grapefruit, sectioned
2 blood oranges, sectioned
1 orange, sectioned

sauce
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon

I started by making the sauce, mixing the wine, sugar, zest and juice and boiling it.
Then I started on the salad, starting with the mango. After I had cut away what I could from the mango pit, I squeezed it over the red wine sauce, getting the juice from the remaining pulp on the seed. To section the citrus fruits I cut away the skin and white pith, then cut between the sections in the fruit so that it resulted in chunks of fruit with no membranes. Then I squeezed what was left into the sauce after I had removed all of the sections. (there will be some small pieces left and plenty of juice) After I prepared all of the fruit I carefully mixed it, taking care not to crush the watermelon. Then I refrigerated the salad with the sauce in a separate container. To serve drizzle the sauce over a bowl of the salad.
Yum!

Bread Salad

This is my new favorite salad.

serves 1

2 slices of a rustic stale bread (like ciabatta or a baguette) cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tomato, cubed
1/2 a cucumber, cubed
5-6 black olives, whole
1 tablespoon capers
1-2 tablespoons feta (optional)
1-2 tablespoons balsamic (to taste)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil (to taste)

I start with adding the bread to a large bowl, then veggies and stir. When I add the olives and capers I may add a little juice if the bread is really hard, less if it's less stale. I just drizzle the oil and vinegar on the top of it all, to taste. I like it to be a little more vinegary than oily. I tried it with feta, but I though that the salad has enough flavours and the feta competes too much with the capers.
Overall it's a really yummy salad.

Asian Potatoe Salad

Step one.
6 large potatoes
salt to taste
Peel potatoes and boil until tender, but not mushy.
could also use the equivalent in young potatoes which don't need to be peeled.

Step two*.
1 1/2 tablespoons (crushed) roasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
1 large clove of garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I like the Korean kind which don't have the seeds in them)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
6 tablespoons grapeseed oil
Blend together in a food processor

Step three.
After potatoes are cooked, drain and toss with dressing, a little at a time, to taste. Eat warm or let cool.

This salad would be good for picnics becasue there is no mayo to go bad. It's also lighter than a traditional mayoed salad.

The dressing is also good on a green salad also.

*Everything in step two is to taste, this happens to be my taste....