grill out!

our friends becca and adam, anna and paul came over for dinner and games on saturday. we have officially re-named bola wrap and now call it hobo golf. paul and anna went home with their own purple and white (northwestern) customized hobo golf set.
here, anna looks like paul just lost their kids' college funds to adam in a hobo golf bet, but i assure you that this expression was just a fluke. then again, maybe becca was saying, "we always wanted to put gold-plated sinks in our house. and a trip to tahiti wouldn't be bad, either!"

as always, our entertaining menu included a fair number of brand-new recipes. will i never learn? while the au gratin potatoes were under-done in the middle (we ate around the bubbly, brown edges), the chopped salad was a winner. i love chopped salad. i've been a relatively late-comer to green salads and didn't really start enjoying them till college (i would ask for cottage cheese or fruit at restaurants, instead). the blendedness and uniform size of ingredients in a chopped salad, which usually includes yummy non-green things like chopped turkey or salami, cheese and chickpeas, remedies my main frustration when i'm eating a salad--i often can't get everything i want (greens plus veggies/nuts/egg/cheese/crouton/dressing) into one forkfull. here's the recipe i used:

sophie's chopped salad
(courtesy of bobby flay at www.foodnetwork.com)

1 head romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup cooked red beans
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup friend blue corn tortillas, diced (i just used blue corn tortilla chips)
1/2 cup diced monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup diced cheddar cheese
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

toss all salad ingredients together in a big bowl. combine vinegar, mustard, oil, salt and pepper. dress salad with the vinaigrette and serve.

one caveat--this one won't last overnight so you have to eat it in one setting. as a side at our grill out, i had quite a bit left over after all six of us had eaten. bon appetit!