Poor Golf and Nicoise Salad. Happy Summer!

Carter had a birthday a week or so ago.  He likes to golf so I got a sitter and made a tee time.  Nice, right?  I'm not all about me.  Except that I hadn't been golfing since the month after the twins were born, which is closing in on SEVEN years.  Mymymy.  My grasp on my LPGA card is sliding.

At least someone was happy...

So yes, I was confident I would be great.  Good one.  Thankfully, the course was empty so I had only one witness of my poor shots, of which there were many.  It was also a course that had just opened the back nine after clearing the debris from this spring's tornado, so some holes looked like you were playing the apocalypse course.  Trees 12 feet in diameter were uprooted like a pulled beet.  The destruction was wild.  

I recalled the day I'd played in Carter's work outing in Chicago.  We were at the turn on the 10th hole, right by the clubhouse, where a lot of people were eating lunch on an outside patio.  I can't reaffirm how important it was that there were a number of people eating lunch on the outside patio.  It haunts me to this day.  

Carter hit his tee shot and it was nice.  Just about where he wanted it to go.  Then I proceeded to tee off from the women's tees because why wouldn't I?  I'm a woman after all.  And I shanked the shank of all shanks.  My drive, from a driver, hit a steel bridge about 30 feet away.  It sounded like a gunshot and had an echo worthy of a car backfiring in the Grand Canyon.  ALL heads turned and I froze like a deer in headlights.  At which time Carter hit the pedal on the golf cart and started to drive away.  Without me.  He got as far as the bridge before he reversed and we both collapsed in laughter.  We often come back to the phrase, "At least you came back."

Happy Birthday to my friend who came back.

Right after his birthday we left for Minnesota and some family time.  It was great.  It was bloody hot.  It was also full of heavy meals.  Well, maybe not heavy meals, but just full of meal-to-meal time, which I feel happens a lot when visiting family.  When we host people in Ann Arbor it's the same thing.  Meals become a ground zero from which all is built.  What is that?  I feel like maybe we're establishing an equalization between hosting and feeding?  That's up for further discussion.  

What's up for discussion now is the Nicoise salad.  Yes, I know there's one of those accents in the 'C' of Nicoise, but I don't know how to do that on blogger.  So we'll go without.  But we'd been fed very well in Minnesota and we need to begin our cut-backs (i.e. no more ribs of any kind.) We're full into salad mode as of now.  

So I present the gorgeous lettuce from our yard.  It's called a spotted something (I don't remember) and it is quite good.  

Spotted lovely lettuce?

Plated.  One with egg, one cluckless. 

Close-up Nicoise-ness.

Nicoise Salad (for 2)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Scrub and chop 4 small Yukon Gold potatoes into an approximately 1" chop.  Oil a baking sheet and roast potatoes for 30 minutes.  

1 can of the best Italian tuna available

2 cups assorted greens

2 cups baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup of a red onion, sliced as thinly as possible

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and cut in quarters

1 cup haricots verts (skinny green beans steamed for three minutes in the microwave and rinsed in cold water)

1. Arrange greens on two plates

2. Add divided tuna, onion, eggs, roasted potatoes, par-boiled haricots verts, and tomatoes to each plate

Combine vinaigrette:

2 tsp anchovy paste

2 Tbsp grain mustard

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Drizzle over arranged greens and serve.  

This will make more dressing than you'll probably need; save the rest for your salad tomorrow. 

In other news, we saw an armored truck (at a TARGET) in Rochester and I looked at Carter and asked him if the did the same thing I do every time I see an armored vehicle:  immediately scan the area for suspicious cars and/or men wearing Ronald Reagan masks.  He just shook his head and did that thing where he looks to the heavens for an answer.  Am I sensing a trend?  

Yep, The End.  Thanks.