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If you are familiar with my blog, You know that the Salad section is the least populated in the table of contents. But Jackie came over for dinner last night with the Swinging’ Singles. (That’s our widowed 3 neighbors, Scott, Shelley and Jackie, who are in their 70’s and 80’s who are more fun than Teenagers!) We’ve had a lot of great dinners this summer with this crazy bunch. Two of them don’t cook at all, but Jackie and I both love to. She’s always up for a great dinner and willing to contribute something delectable. And she always comes through! Last night I told her I was making chicken enchiladas, so please bring something that goes with that. Over the last 4 months I have learned that her salads are especially good, so I suggested that. She brought a “Fiesta Salad”, which, after some research, seems like I’m the only self described chef in the universe who never heard of it! The other thing I learned is that everybody seems to have their own version. I like that, because you can suit your own tastes. But it seems that everyone agrees on the basic onion, corn, black beans, and the sweet lime viniagrette–after that, you can do your own thing. But I am going to give you Jackie’s recipe, because it was SO excellent!

FIESTA SALAD

1 can corn (Jackie’s recipe calls for 2 small cans white shoepeg corn) If you can’t find it, use regular corn

1 can black beans

1 or 2 chopped avocados

Cilantro to taste

1/2 cup Chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped green onion

Viniagrette: 1/3 cup each, fresh lime juice, sugar, oil

Chop and mix all ingredients, toss with dressing. Chill and serve.

Chef’s Notes: If you google this salad you will see that people change it in lots of ways. Some put chopped cucumber, some add chopped lettuce or cabbage to make it more “Salad-y”. There are other main dish versions, some with chicken or other proteins. Lots of the recipes included chopped red bell peppers or jalapeños. I am going to add Orzo pasta to mine next time! One more thing: this can be refrigerated for a long time, unlike lettuce salads. So you can make it the day before the party. Enjoy

NOTE TO MY FAMILY: I’m bringing this dish to our next get together, so don’t try to out-do me with your version! Love, Mom.