Roasted Potato Salad with Carrots and Cilantro and food dreams

A Guest Post from Finn the Cooking Assistant (aka the dog picker)

We've been having salad night once a week at our house, where we serve a combination of salads and some crusty bread from Tall Grass Bakery or Preston Bakery.  It all started when the Lady was working on this article and she kept making different salads.  

I got so many scraps tossed my way, one night I fell asleep and of visiting the market myself.  

The dream was a little like Alice in Wonderland, but my version was more delicious--Finn in farmland, maybe.

Everything was oversized. One carrot was almost too much to finish.

I needed to do some serious walking to walk those dreams off. 

I may not make it to the end of the race, at least not in one day, but I don't miss a thing on my journey.  What did you gloss over and totally not see today?

The giveaway season is when people stick cool furniture out that they don't want.  Sundays are the best bets for finding good stuff.  Not sure who would wants this chair after a rainy night but it makes a great rest stop for a weary basset.  Give me a warm blanket, fresh out of the dryer of course, and I could nap here in a heartbeat.

Seriously, this is better than my chair at home.

I worked up an appetite and when we got home, the Lady thumbed through cookbook after cookbook, then got out her own books.  Love the food she makes from this book, but it doesn't have the right potato salad--at least not the one the Lady was looking for.

Looking for the right recipe--tick, tock, tick, tock . . . 

It was in this book.  It's older than me.   And the guy, John Huschle, on the front cover--he's got two kids now.  No word about the dogs on his farm.  Maybe he needs a hungry hound to help with the harvest. 

The baby carrots were from Stoney Plains Farm.  The Lady featured this farm in both cookbooks.

Check out all these sweet babies!  Why you could simply leave them on a plate like this to serve.  They add color and sweetness to this salad.

Savor the scents of the season.

Roasted Potato Salad with Carrots and Cilantro (adapted from Local Vegetarian Cooking)

(Serves 4 to 6)

If it's way too hot and you can't bear turning on the oven, steam the potatoes like you would for traditional potato salad.

1 1/2 pounds new potatoes

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup aioli spread or mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white miso

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

1 tablespoon spicy Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 large clove garlic, pressed

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 cup chopped pickles

1 green pepper, chopped

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup diced celery

1 spring onion, chopped (optional)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Wash the potatoes (no need to peel the delicate skins of new potatoes.)  Cut into bite size pieces and place in a baking dish.  Drizzle with canola oil.  Roast for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to the pan. The potatoes should be fork tender and slightly browned. Cool, while you make the dressing.

2. Blend aioli spread, miso, raspberry vinegar, mustard, olive oil, celery seed, garlic, cayenne and pickles. Mix well, making sure miso is evenly mixed.  

3. Place roasted potatoes in a salad bowl. Gently but thoroughly blend dressing with potatoes, green pepper, carrots, celery, and onion.  Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Garnish with cilantro.

Sometimes the sad face works.  But sometimes no matter how hard I work, all I get are crumbs. 

My policy is never whine about the crumbs, but sometimes this is impossible

 "No one said life is fair," the Lady is fond of saying.  So true--there's always dessert.  And you know how I feel about strawberries . . .