A salad for summer

I love vibrant colors, especially in food, and with summer approaching I am again inspired to create technicolor salads, moving beyond romaines and arugulas into combinations of corn and beans, coriander and tomatoes and lime.

Sweet corn, black beans and tomato salad

Boil 2 or 3 ears of shucked fresh sweet corn in water that's been lightly salted and sugared. Let cool, slice off the kernels. Combine with a 15-oz can of kidney or blackbeans (drained), some chopped red onion, two handfuls of plum or cherry tomatoes (sliced), the zest of 1 or 2 limes and a few tablespoons of chopped coriander (but really, who's measuring? I just toss in as much as makes the salad look pretty).

Make a simple dressing using a teaspoonful of lime juice, 3 or 4 teaspoons of good olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, a sprinkling of brown sugar, one bruised clove of garlic and a bit of chopped red onion--pour into a screwtop bottle (or Tupperware container) and shake. Toss the salad, making sure every bit of the dressing is evenly distributed, and voila! A lively, aromatic, quintessentially hot-weather salad is served.

Babies & showers

IT'S SPRING. Yes, I thought I should write that in all caps to wake you all up on a lazy Sunday morning. Trees are sprouting little deep red, baby-pink and coral spools of what will be flowers. After the somnolence of winter the birds are back making their usual racket just outside my window. Finally there is sun again and light and HEAT--not yet the sharp true heat of July and August, but enough to go out in short sleeves again.

I am suuuuch a tropical person. My ideal home would be somewhere in the tropics (or subtropics, which is in many ways better because you have some semblance of seasonal change without the extremes of cold.)

A couple weeks ago friends and I hosted a baby shower-slash-barbeque at the Tai Tam Reservoir country park for a friend who's expecting her first baby this May. It drizzled on and off throughout the day, but the food was good, the company fun, and hey, you can't let some dampness get you down. :-)