When I visited my good friend Rachel and her boyfriend Mike in Florida this past June. Rachel made a salad for one of our many meals we made together that knocked my socks off! She got it from her new Paula Deen cookbook. It's comprised of several simple flavors that just go so well together and tastes amazing!

Rachel had a few variations on the recipe and I added a few more since then as well. Click here to see the original recipe.

I've made the salad now for several barbecue potlucks. Perfect use of this recipe!

Here goes:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

• 2 cups corn, fresh or frozen (I use the frozen, slightly defrosted)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (It's fun to use the colorful heirloom tomatoes!)
• 2 avocados, diced 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp lime zest
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (you really can't use too much of this stuff)
• salt & pepper to taste
• a few dashes of paprika

Begin by tossing the corn into a big bowl. Since I use the frozen corn, I typically defrost it on the counter for about 20 minutes, and then even though it's still slightly frozen, toss it in when I begin putting together the ingredients. As it defrosts, it adds a cool crispness to the recipe.

Now begin to chop the cilantro.

Add the cilantro to the bowl. Really I'm just showing you pictures due to the amazing colors in this recipe. Enjoy the visuals.


Now take your tomatoes and cut them all in half. I used some heirloom tomatoes I bought at Trader Joes and finished it off with some usual cherry tomatoes.


Now it's time to add in the dressing ingredients. No need to mix them in a separate bowl, just toss it all on top of the ingredients. Add the olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, salt, pepper, and paprika. Stir it up well.

The last ingredient to be added is the avocado. If your avocado is perfectly ripe, it'll get to mushy if you add it earlier due to stirring in the dressing. It should be added last so that it stays somewhat in it's shapes. I would cut nice little bite size pieces of the avocado so that it mixes well.

Give it one last stir, and you're done! Enjoy!

For a Labor day barbecue potluck we were forewarned of the presence of vegetarians and the preponderance of meat among the other guests contributions. One of our answers to this call for veggies was this Greek inspired main course which requires preparation and assembly before the barbecue but then can be easily transported and quickly grilled.
2-3 large red peppers (depends on the extent of your affection for roasted red pepper)
2 larger eggplants
smoked mozzarella (feel free to substitute regular mozzarella or provolone)



Sauce:
1 cup Greek yogurt (full fat is best but others are acceptable)
1 head garlic
oregano (1 tsp)
lemon juice (2 tbsp)

Directions:

1. Roast red peppers and garlic: There many different methods that can be used here. My favorite is to cut the peppers in to four pieces, as flat as possible, cover in a little olive oil and roast on baking sheet at 400 degrees until the the tops are partially blackened. The garlic can be roasted in the same oven whole in a ceramic garlic roaster or in tin foil covered in a little olive oil and salt. It should take about 20 minutes. When the roasted red pepper comes out of the oven transfer the peices to a plastic bag. Let them sit in a plastic bag for ten minutes. Peal the blackened skins off of them taking care to maintain the integrity of the pieces. The skins should peal off easily because of the effect of the steam in the bag.
   
2. Blanch 1/4 inch pieces of eggplant: Boil water in large pot and add a generous amount of salt. Slice the eggplant into long quarter inch slices. Put eggplant in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, stirring to make sure all pieces are exposed to the water. Remove eggplant from water and drain thoroughly. This process both precooks the eggplant for quick grilling and removes some of the eggplants bitter flavor.
   
3. Assemble sandwiches: To assemble a sandwich place a piece of roasted red pepper and a thin slice of smoked mozzarella between two similarly sized pieces of eggplant. Sandwiches will keep in this state for several hours before being grilled.
4. Mix sauce: Peal roasted garlic. Either mash it or put it in a blender with a bit of olive oil and the oregano. Mince fresh oregano (or use the dry stuff). Mix garlic and oregano into Greek yogurt. The best part about bringing this sauce to a barbecue is that it is awesome on everything: hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, grilled veggies...
5. Grill eggplant sandwiches on high for about 3 minutes a side. Because they are already cooked the goal of cooking is to get those nice tasty grill marks and to melt the cheese.
   
6. Serve smothered in Greek garlic sauce. Invite quests to experiment with Greek garlic sauce as a condiment for other dishes.

Notes: If you are into creative burgers you can serve these on top of a burger between buns smothered in a generous helping of the sauce.

A few weeks ago, I made reservations at Nicola's, one of my favorite restaurants in Cincinnati. The restaurant is owned by Nicola & Maureen Pietoso and operated by chef Christian Pietoso. It was Downtown Cincinnati's Restaurant week so the usual extremely expensive (but well worth it) prices were down to $35 for a three course meal.

Last October, my mother brought Justin and I here for my birthday dinner. Probably one of the best meals I've ever eaten. It was also very expensive! This restaurant makes you feel so special, the service is to die for! With three people eating, three servers brought out each plate, and synchronized the placement of the plates onto the table. They place the napkins on your lap for you and refill your sparkling water every two minutes. The servers are courteous and friendly.

Unfortunately Justin wasn't able to attend the planned date for restaurant week, so I invited my mother who also loves this restaurant! You can find her blog here.

Now for the meal:

The first thing to hit the table was their always impressive bread basket. You can see some that are cooked with a slice of zucchini or tomatoes, and a really long skinny one sticking out of the side. There was two of those, but I ate one. ;) The first time we came here, the waiter (who happened to be our waiter again this evening) joked about how the first course wouldn't come until we'd eaten all of the bread in the bread basket. He was very humorous!


My mother and I both had the same first course. A caprese salad with buffalo mozzarella, a delicious garlicky crostini, and locally grown cherry tomatoes and basil. The olive oil that was drizzled on top was SO green and so delicious. That's another thing I love about this place, they use a lot of local ingredients, not everything, but what they can.


For the second course, my mother had pork tenderloin wrapped in pancetta with potatoes, fava beans, and a white wine pork jus. She seemed to enjoy it!


My second course was the house made Maine lobster and ricotta ravioli with peas and pancetta. I'm not exactly sure what the sauce was, it was creamy and green...any ideas? Either way, it was incredibly delicious!


For the third course, my mother had the crème brulee with fresh berries. It was delicous! I had to work her down to let me have a small taste. She wasn't going to part with any morsel of this dish. The top of it crackled perfectly!


And I finished things off with their tiramisu with espresso crème anglaise and zabione gelato. This dish was absolute heaven. Every single bite was pure pleasure. The whole thing appeared as a piece of toast. The lady finger type bread was almost like pudding, and it surrounds the white creamy stuff in the center. The brown liquid it was sitting in is the espresso. The little swirls in the dish were a raspberry sauce, which added a great contrast to the dish!


My mother and I also both had a nice glass of Chianti with our meals, which pushed the price up a bit, but we had a good time! We were both very full and kinda tipsy in the end.

• 1 baby eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use store bought Italian style)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (use a micro plane preferably)
  
• dash of paprika
  
• dash of chipotle
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried savory
• olive oil spray
• salt & pepper to taste