Recipe(tried): Chicken Spiedi Sandwiches, White Bean Salad with Olives, Green Onions and Herbs,

Today, summer finally arrived here in Western Massachusetts. Woohoo:-)!! To me, this meant a summery supper menu so the following is what we had:

Chicken Spiedi Sandwiches

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast per person
Spiedi Marinade
Crusty Italian Rolls (Grocery store Kaiser rolls will work okay, too)
Sliced tomatoes
Mayonnaise

Spiedi Marinade for Beef, Chicken or Pork
(I have tried this recipe but neither of the following from The Washington Post article. I have used Salamida's State Fair Sauce and like it very much but I realize that many of you might not be able to find it. Harris Teeter stores in the Washington, DC area do carry it or did the last time I checked.

3/4 c. olive oil
3/8 c. vinegar
1 Tbl. dried oregano
1/2 tsp.garlic powder, or fresh, finely minced garlic
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

The Washington Post Food Section had a big article on Spiedies on Jan. 17, 2001. Here are two recipes from that article.

Spiedie Marinade

2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. vinegar
1/2 c. water
8 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Tbl. dried thyme
1 Tb;. dried oregano
1 Tbl. garlic powder
Zest from 1 lemon
Thickly sliced Italian Bread

Upscale Spiedie Marinade

3/4 to 1 c. olive oil
3/4 to 1 c. balsamic vinegar
6 to 8 Tbl. herbs de Provence
2 Tbl. garlic powder

I have used and very much like Original State Fair Spiedie Sauce from Salamida Co. (800) 545-5072 (www.spiedie.com) but feel free to try any of the above 3 recipes.

Rinse chicken breasts under cold water. Pat dry. Here, I took some liberties with the traditional Spiedi which is loved in South Central New York State. Pound each breast to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Place in a dish large enough to hold all of them, covered with marinade. Cover with Spiedi Marinade and marinate overnight or up to 2 days.
The traditional way is to cut the meat into chunks and marinate. When you have finished marinating the meat chunks, thread the chunks on skewers and grill over coals. Serve immediately. To eat, fold Italian bread over the contents of the skewer and pull the skewer out, leaving meat sandwiched within the bread.
Cook your chicken on a grill. DH grilled ours, (thinly pounded chicken breasts) over low heat on a Weber gas grill, about 5 minutes on each side, then turned the heat to high the last couple of minutes to give the chicken color. When done, serve on a lightly toasted (on the grill) Italian roll with a little mayonnaise and a slice or two of fresh tomato.

White Bean Salad with Olives, Green Onions and Herbs

This recipe is based on one from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Beans and Rice. This is the first time I have made it. I needed something a little faster than that recipe. I used canned beans inatead of cooking them from scratch, small white beans instead of garbanzo beans (don't know why I didn't use canned garbanzos - cook's perogitive, I guess) and I used some dried herbs to save time (nevermind money) instead of chopping all of the fresh herbs that the recipe called for. I did use some fresh since I did have some fresh rosemary, and I used fresh mint since dried doesn't come close to fresh mint. We were very pleasantly surprised with how good (to us) this was. When DH came in from work, he looked over my shoulder at the recipe and kind of scrunched up his nose. He ended up liking it a lot:-)

1, 15.5 oz. can Goys small white beans, drained and rinsed under cold water
1/2 Tbl. (1 1/2 tsp.) red wine vinegar
3 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl. fresh mint, minced
1 tsp. dried basil, crushed a little between my hands
1/2 tsp. dried leaf thyme, crushed a little
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed a little
salt and freshly ground balck pepper to taste
1 1/2 Tbl. pitted, coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
1 1/2 Tbl. pitted coarsely chopped green olives with pimiento (Spanish olives?)
2 green onions with tops, finely chopped

Rinse the beans. Drain well. Place in a bowl. Add all other ingredients. Serve at room temperature.

Favorite Summer Fruit Salad (very colorful)
This is, hands down, the most favorite summer fruit salad in our family.

2 ripe peaches or nectarines
Boiling water
1 tsp. Fruit Fresh (to keep the peaches/nectarines from turning brown - found in the section of my grocery store with canning jars and pectin)
1/2 Tbl. sugar
1/2 pimt, rinsed, hulled, and sliced strawberries
1/2 pint rinsed, blueberries

Heat water to boiling in a deep, medium sized pot. When boiling, gently lower peaches/nectarines, one at a time into boiling water and cook for 20 seconds. (This makes it much easier to peel the fruit - works well for tomatoes, too.) Remove immediately from water and let cool briefly until you can handle them in order to peel them. Peel and slice the peaches/nectarines into thin slices into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with Fruit Fresh and sugar and mix gently. Wash, hull and slice strawberries and add them to the bowl with the peaches/nectarines. Wash blueberries, checking for stems and over or under ripe ones, discarding stems and those berries that are not good. Add them to the bowl. Gently mix the entire salad and serve at room temperature or chilled. Leftovers are wonderful over vanilla ice cream, or pound cake for dessert or in/on your breakfast cereal the next day. This is also great for a summer short cake with biscuits and lightly sweetened whipped cream.