Salad Nicoise | Hey… It's Jet Here

Hey It’s Jet Here.

Our friend, Miss Jodi, Heart Like a Dog, initiated this great idea to update readers on previous posts. She created a lovely badge to go with her idea and has successfully turned her wonderful idea into a robust blog hop!

Saturday – Dear Blogville

We appreciated the amount of time and care so many blogpals took to think about the difficult situation we faced last week. Ruby let go of JJ, who saw and then zoomed after a feral cat while the homeowner had a very strong reaction. Most of you had perspectives that resonated with Mom’s. We have passed that way four times this week without incident. No Mr. Homeowner sighting, though.

Sunday – Neve Makes Tracks

Our pack mate, Neve (we forgot to clarify she is a female!), stayed comfy cozy as Mr. Giovanni and Miss Beverly crossed either 8 states in 12 days or 12 states in 8 days, we forget! Miss Beverly generously sent in this photo, which we thought had a cool composition. Whoops, we still owe a bunch of comments from this day (Mom travels and spends very little time home on Sundays lately.)

Monday – Just Thinking About Mischief Potential

A sliver of open door to a teenage room can really get your nose twitching! Many of you wanted to know if Little Miss Curiosity and I went into Rachel’s room. I, Gentleman Jetty, refrained from invading my human sister’s privacy. Little Miss Can’t Resist did a fast investigation locating and delivering a wrapper of some sort to Mom. Mom realized the source of the wrapper and quickly put a kibosh on further snooping.

Tuesday – Mom and JJ Finished the Book

Guess what? A few humans said they also read The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry. Mom selected one of the recipes from author, Kathleen Flinn’s website. She chose the Salad Nicoise because Little Miss Bon Appetit and I like almost every ingredient you see in the picture. Lots of readers enjoyed the recipe, too! Yippee! Coincidentally, Mom’s Kitchen Counselor Newsletter eblasted Tuesday to some of our blogpals; Mom had a special thank you to them in this edition!

Wednesday – OCEARCH – Making Shark Tracks

I would say the opinions were unanimous – great photos, great project, glad we live on land and do not encounter these 3,500 lb. creatures! Several of you acknowledged and agreed the program creates a win/win for humans and sharks, whose populations have greatly declined.

Thursday – Mom Requests a Post of Her Own

Boy of boy, thank you for your kind words of understanding, empathy (VBP) and support for Mom. I love you guys for that! She worked on about 40 comments yesterday and hopefully will have some dig out time tomorrow, after her BlogTalk Radio show segment, too! She promised to represent the Tropics as well as help me report when she attends BlogPaws. What a leap of financial faith I tell ya! She’s doing some of that nervous finger tapping stuff; however, I know she will figure it out. (Coincidentally, she procured (VBP) a small, new, exciting part time job yesterday!)

Another great hats off to Blogville, week.

Hey It’s Jet Here.

Remember Little Miss Book Club’s recent literary/culinary mischief?

Well, they finally finished the book on Sunday night… or was it Monday in the very early morning after a manly man might have woken Mom up at 4 ish… can’t recall…

Anyway, the book offers a full roster of French recipes author, Kathleen Flinn, made during her experience at Le Cordon Bleu. The ladies fetched the following recipe from Miss Kathleen’s website because it features many of my favorite ingredients.

Salade Niçoise

Thyme-lemon vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Coarse salt, ground black pepper

Potato Salad

1 lb. Yukon gold or new potatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons chicken stock
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon minced shallot

Salad components

1 cup, about 6 ounces, cooked green beans
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
4 ounces butter lettuce, arugula or other simple greens
1/2 cup pitted black olives, such as kalamata or Niçoise
3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped or quartered
12 anchovy fillets
7 oz. can tuna, packed in olive oil

Prepare the vinaigrette:
In a small bowl or jar, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, two pinches of salt, coarse ground pepper and shake or whisk together until emulsified. Set aside until needed.

Prepare the potato salad:
Steam or boil the potatoes just until tender. Cut into bite-sized pieces while still warm and toss gently with the white wine and stock. After a few minutes, toss again. Toss half the vinaigrette with the potatoes, chopped parsley and shallots.

Finish the salad:
Arrange the cooked green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs and olives in a bowl. Toss with the vinaigrette. Arrange the elements onto four plates, top each with the anchovies and tuna.