Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins

Ingredients:

1 lbs fresh spinach
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or dried currents (or all THREE!)
1/2 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

Directions:

Soak raisins, cranberries, or currents in warm water for 10 minutes while you wash the spinach, then drain.

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in a pan and toast the pine nuts. (You can use olive oil, but I just like the favor butter adds to the nuts.) Remove pine nuts once lightly brown and set aside on a plate.

In the same pan, melt the rest of the butter and wilt the spinach a handful at a time. Keep it moving so the leaves don’t stick to the pan.

Once wilted, toss in berries and pine nuts. Serve.

Minted Summer Salad

Ingredients:

1 cucumber
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 cup fresh garden peas or petits pois
3/4 cup feta, crumbed
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix. Enjoy.

This last one I ate before I could photograph, but I found something similar from Southern Living. It was very yummy and used most of the same ingredients from the potato soup. (Bacon optional, but recommended)

Creamy Potato Salad

Source

Ingredients:

1 pound red potatoes, cut in to 1-inch cubes
6 hard-boiled eggs, quarter
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon course ground brown mustard
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped bacon, optional

Directions:

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook for 8 minutes or until slightly tender. Strain, place in large bowl and let cool until slightly warm.

While potatoes are cooking, mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, dill, salt and pepper, and optional bacon.

Add green onions, hard-boiled eggs, and potatoes and gently combine until well coated. Serve immediately or keep covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

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As an aside, I went to high school with a girl named Summer Sides. She was never mean to me, but she also wasn’t very nice. I just remember that her name was embroidered on the bib of her jumper, because yes, we all wore uniforms and yes, we went to Catholic school.

I wore a Catholic school uniform for twelve years. Not the same one, of course, but one appropriately sized at each grade level with the exception of an “as-short-as-I-could-get-away-with” hemline. I always got away with it because I was HOT. My friend, Amber, however got fined every year.

It was because she had a huge ass and her skirt rode up in the back. I can say that because she wasn’t a very good friend. If you really want to know, she was very bitchy and still is.

So the funny thing about my Catholic school uniform was that in spite of sporting the whole getup… knee socks, Mary Janes… no boys ever noticed me because of it. None. Then, the second we graduated it was all… “Ooohhh baby, Catholic school girls”.

My boyfriend in college, who also went to Catholic school all of his life, would always ask if I just so happened to have saved old uniform.

Heh! Wouldn’t you like to know…

Anyway, I have no idea what ever became of Summer. I don’t even know why I brought it up.

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For more great recipes, drop by A Southern Fairytale for “Mouthwatering Mondays”.

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