Another plug here for Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Salads for the Season.

Tonight's supper: #3 (a winning cucumber salad, had to be repeated); #16 (fennel and apple, I added a touch of honey to Mark's recipe); #30 (the yummiest, easiest, potato salad I could imagine, with lovely new potatoes from River Valley Market); #61 (a sophisticated salmon salad. I may have tossed in a few tablespoons of mayo, but only because my sweet darling doesn't eat yogurt.) I rounded the table out with a caprese salad and some cornichons. This is food with tremendous nutritional value, in season and delectable, minimally processed and full of the good fats (olive oil) without much of the bad stuff. Lovely summer supper!

What are you eating?

Around here, we love our veggies. Still, there comes a point in every farm-share season when we are simply sick of our old standbys--Grandma Bobbi's cucumber and white onion salad, roasted beets, zucchini sauted with green onions, green salad with mustard vinaigrette.

That's why I was so excited to read Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Salads for the Season in the July 22 issue of the New York Times. If you by-pass #78 (Chicago-style hot dog salad) and leave out the optional bacon in one or two recipes, you'll discover that Bittman has assembled an incredible array of low-fat, high-flavor seasonal treats. He's also organized his recipes very well: Vegan, Vegetarian, with Seafood, with Meat and Grain salads.

We're working our way through them and so far, everything I've tried has been a hit with me and with my six year old daughter. (My sweet darling is tomato averse, so it's hard to please her with July's produce.)

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