Best Intentions

I'm not sure if it's all the sunshine that's damaging my braincells, but this head of mine does seem a little full of holes at times.  Yesterday, the Kiddos and I had the pleasure of a pool party with good friends to look forward to, and in preparation, I whipped up a tasty salad, in the morning.  Thinking I was being ever-so-thoughtful, and supremely organized, I stashed the salad in a big yogurt container.  No glass by the pool, right?  Seemed like a decent idea.  However, when I arrived at the party, I brought out my yogurt container, with perhaps somewhat of a flourish, being rather proud of my salad, only to realize my error:  I brought yogurt.  And that lovely zucchini salad was sitting at home, chilling in my fridge.  Oh dear.  So it goes.

R, being ever-so-thoughtful herself, ran upstairs and whipped up a beautiful zucchini carpaccio of her own, bless her.  (A salad that I shall have to make very soon, it was delicious.)

So, while my best intentions rather came to naught, as far as providing a dish for the pool party was concerned, we did enjoy the salad with dinner last night.  The recipe is one of those lovely, intuitive sorts, barely a recipe at all, simply food that makes sense.  It comes from La Tartine Gourmande, the gorgeous cookbook that is now sitting at the very top of my birthday list.  Splendid for a pool party, should you possess the mental capacity, unlike this gal, to get it there.

Here you go:

Zucchini Salad with fresh herbs - Adapted from La Tartine Gourmande
-serves four, recipe easily doubles to serve a large group

Ingredients
2 medium zucchini, finely julienned, preferably using a mandoline
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs - I used parsley and mint

Vinaigrette
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs white wine vinegar (or substitute another light vinegar, or lemon juice)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp maple syrup or honey
6 Tbs good extra virgin olive oil

Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together, then dress the zucchini with it, tossing with the fresh herbs.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  This salad will keep for a day or two, but the zucchini will lose its crispness and go a bit watery with time, and the mint will darken, so it's best eaten the day its made.

Perhaps you will have a bit more luck than I had, getting this one to an event. 

Enjoy your day!