creamy potato salad - but with no mayo!

I do like potato salad as a side dish, but I hate the mayo-laden monstrosities I sometimes see. Yet there is something comforting about a forkful of creamy potato that I find irresistible. So I developed this recipe to fill the spud-shaped hole in my belly.

rainbow salad with corn, carrots, and tomato

This salad is so brightly coloured you almost need sunglasses to look at the picture above! This gorgeous salad is my part of the Secret Recipe Club. All the blogger participants are assigned, secretly, to one another. This month I have been enjoying the food blog It's Yummy to My Tummy, and I've chosen a recipe from Heather, the mother behind the blog, to recreate here. She called it Shamrock Salsa, but I saw it as more of a side dish salad. I've renamed it in honour of its full spectrum of bright colours.

cucumber salad with garlic and mint

Cucumber is fresh and crunchy, the perfect accompaniment to roast meat or grilled fish; it also belongs stuffed in a lamb kebab. I am attracted to recipes like this one because I adore the thriftiness of mundane vegetables such as cucumber. (I find myself gravitating towards all the dull vegetables: carrots, cucumber, and broccoli, for example. I like to think they can be exciting, too. Psychology, anyone?)

lime and goji berry quick bread with white chocolate drizzle

I am pleased to be participating in the Paper Chef cooking challenge. It resembles a lot of our daily cooking conundrums: looking at a disparate group of ingredients and wondering what to make. The Paper Chef challenge assigns four randomly picked ingredients and food bloggers try to make something out of them.

weekend links # 16

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--A list of cookbooks recently published by Hong Kong chefs (from Asia Tatler).
--Graph: money spent on food vs. ability to cook (from Indexed).
--I recently missed Lima Bean Respect Day. I wish I had known! Think of the themed events I could have planned! :( Keep ahead of the game with this calendar (from Wellness News).

recipe links:
--Spiced coconut spinach (from 101 Cookbooks). This recipe is from a cookbook I actually have. Therefore I can see that I will be making it soon!
--Almond-based yogurt (from Small Bites). I already make my own yogurt but I never thought of trying this. And so I am intrigued.

off-topic links:
--I have been trying out the to-do list software from Remember the Milk. You use tags, location, and searchable lists to keep organised. So far, it's working.
--I've been reading about ways to improve employee satisfaction (from inc.com). Not that I have any employees. Just because I'm curious.

Salt by Mark Kurlansky--and roasted vegetables with pink Himalayan sea salt

Fortunes have been made and lost over salt; did you know? History is full of the intrigue and economics of salt. Except for in the last hundred years, salt has been one of the most important commodities made and traded around the world. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky chronicles the thread of salt making, buying, and selling through the ages. I read it this month as our May Kitchen Reader selction, chosen by Stacy of Little Blue Hen. Over the course of nearly 500 pages, he covers most of the world for all of recorded history. Read this book and you will have at your fingertips salt trivia for every occasion--including some fascinating tidbits. As a starter, do you know how the word salary is related to that for salt?

lamb kebabs and pitta bread

These minted lamb kebabs convinced me that if I have to choose cuisine from just one region of the world to live on, it would have to be Middle Eastern. When Asha (from Fork Spoon Knife) announced that this month's Velveteers challenge was to make Middle Eastern street food, I was extremely happy. The fresh mint with lamb, on a soft, fresh pitta, with fresh cucumber salad and juicy tomato, topped with yogurt--it's all so fresh!

cauliflower soup: the secret recipe club

I am taking part in a wonderful new blog event: the Secret Recipe Club. Each participant is assigned another blog: this month I have received Jeanette's Healthy Living, a blog that is new to me, but has quickly become a favourite. As part of the Secret Recipe Club, I have been enjoying reading Jeanette's blog, and trying out her cauliflower soup, made with two ingenious ingredients you will never guess!

weekend links #15

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--Seven ways to eat more veggies (from Stonesoup).
--Is Sugar Toxic? (from the New York Times)
--I'm now following the cooking adventures of Minh, who is learning about his Vietnamese heritage through the kitchen.
--Chinese and Thai cooking classes (in English) by Martha Sherpa, offered in Hong Kong.

recipe links:
--The master bread recipe from the folks behind Artisian/Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (from Kitchen Explorers).
--Chocolate cake made with aubergine (eggplant), a recipe from the book Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood (from her blog). The book is all about baking with vegetables. Sounds great!
--Make ahead this falafel mix and pitta bread (from The Kitchn). Then shape and cook on your chosen weeknight.

off-topic links:
--I've discovered a blog called Healthy Motivation that posts pictures, mostly, that make me want to keep trying to be more healthy. Some of the bodies of the women pictured are amazing!

Five Clever Ways to Use Leftover Rice--Including Brown Rice Pie Crust

My fridge always seems to be filled with a revolving collection of leftover rice. No sooner have I managed to incorporate the remains into a new meal, the shelf refills with more. My husband loves rice so much he sometimes begs for it, and all this leads to eternal remnants. Do you have this problem? Thought so! Let's chat about ways to use up that rice!