Recipe(tried): White Bean Salad with Olives and Herbs; Red, White and Blue Potato Salad; Chickpea Salad with Roasted Red Peppers, Lemon and Herbs

Hi Corrie :-) Besides the salads, another idea would be watermelon that you can cut open shortly before everyone is ready to eat. It is probably the safest thing, especially if it is hot.

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 instead of cooking them from scratch, small white beans instead of garbanzo beans (don't know why I didn't use canned garbanzos - cook's prerogative, I guess) and I used some dried herbs to save time (never mind 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 Tbsp. (1 1/2 tsp.) red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. 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 black pepper to taste
1 1/2 Tbsp. pitted, coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
1 1/2 Tbsp. 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.

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This next recipe is from the "Food Network Kitchens." If you don't check that site and haven't tried this recipe, I thought that it was very much worth sharing. ('Tis good:-)!) You can make it with just red or white potatoes, obviously, and you can serve it anytime, not just on national holidays. Enjoy:-)!!

RED, WHITE AND BLUE POTATO SALAD
Yield: about 4 servings

FOR THE SALAD:
4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 pound small, red skinned potatoes, such as red thumb, scrubbed
1/2 pound small, white skinned waxy-style potatoes, such as German butterball, scrubbed
1/2 pound small, blue potatoes, such as Peruvian fingerling, scrubbed
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
FOR THE DRESSING:
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
2 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. minced flat-leaf parsley
2 scallions (white and green), thinly sliced

TO PREPARE THE POTATOES:
Tie thyme, parsley, rosemary, and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine. Put bundle in a medium saucepan along with the wine and garlic. Slice potatoes into 1/4 inch thick rounds and add to saucepan. Add cold water to cover by 1 inch and the salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook until the potatoes are tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes, and discard the herb bundle.

MEANWHILE, MAKE THE DRESSING:
In a large bowl combine the vinegar, mustard, salt, and season to taste with pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil to make a smooth dressing.

Add the warm potatoes to the dressing and toss very gently to combine, taking care not to break up the potatoes. (A rubber or silicone spatula works well for mixing this.) Add the celery and set aside to cool.

When reday to serve, carefully fold in the parsley and scallions. Serve.

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CHICKPEAS WITH PIQUILLOS, LEMON AND HERBS
3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzos) or 2 (15 oz.) cans, drained (I used canned, in bottles from Bread and Circus, chickpeas, rinsed and drained)
6 oz. (about 10) authentic Piquillo peppers from Spain, drained and coarsely chopped (They are Spanish roasted Red Peppers. You will have to take the seeds out of them but it is a very easy job since they have already been roasted and peeled. I get these at our local Whole Foods grocery store. If you can't get them, use other roasted red peppers but the taste of the salad will be a bit different.)
1 or 2 lemons (I used 1 since I didn't want the salad too lemony)
8 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
4 sprigs savory or thyme, finely chopped (I used thyme)
1 sprig rosemary, removed from stem and finely chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil from Spain (I also got this at Bread and Circus)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

If using dried chickpeas, soak 1/2 lb. (about 1 cup) in cold water overnight in the refrigerator.
To cook, pour off soaking water, top with fresh, cold water or vegetable stock, add a peeled carrot, a stalk of celery, a halved, peeled onion, a few cracked garlic cloves, and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer until done, about 2 hours. During the cooking process add salt and black pepper to taste.

When beans are tender, drain and cool. Place in mixing bowl.

Remove the yellow portion of peel from lemon with a microrasp, or with a vegetable peeler and chop finely. Cut lemon(s) in half and squeeze the juice over the chickpeas. Add chopped herbs, lemon zest, and Piquillo peppers to chickpeas. Toss with olive oil and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. 4-6 servings Very pretty and very tasty:-)!! Also, it is very light and so it is a great salad for a hot day.