Salade Niçoise

Salade Nicoise is a favorite go-to dish around here. I used frozen tuna steaks last night, but you can easily substitute the canned stuff. Thawing frozen tuna steaks is a cinch. Submerge the wrapped steaks in a cool water bath for fifteen or twenty minutes. I like to put a dry spice mixture of sesame seeds, garlic pieces, dehydrated onion, salt and pepper. I think I threw some Montreal steak seasoning in there too. I did a quick pan sear and let the fish rest before slicing. The boy ate one of the fillets while I was making the rest of the salad. Apparently he didn't want the salad main dish as he had just finished a huge plate of chicken and bacon nachos, but he easily ate an entire tuna steak.

While you're thawing your fish, boil some eggs, tiny new potatoes, and steam some green beans. I didn't have green beans. Asparagus would be good too. The dressing is a simple vinaigrette. Lemon juice, scallions, smashed anchovies if you're brave like that, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Assemble the eggs, taters, peppers, olives, green beans, tomatoes, etc. on a bed of greens. As you can tell, my food styling skills stink. You could make it really pretty though. I was more interested in getting dinner on the table.

Place sliced tuna on top of everything and drizzle your dressing. Top with fresh parsley if you have it. Salad Nicoise is one of Hollywood's favorite meals. I'm making Chicken Piccata for her today. She had some at T.G.I. Fridays and was miserably disappointed. Who orders chicken piccata at T.G.I. Fridays?! My mom and her husband are joining us for lunch. In fact, I think the whole family will be here. With everyone working and schooling such late hours, we rarely get to dine together.

These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies were well received. I halved the recipe and I still have cookies coming out of my eyeballs. Bon appetit, y'all!