Cherry Tomato Salad with Walnut-Tarragon Dressing

Will a June 2007 Cooking Light recipe do? What do you think? Life has been moving too fast for me to even scan my new Cooking Light magazine, but this weekend I did make a lovely recipe from last June's issue. We first had this unusual salad at a dinner party at our neighbors' home last summer, made with her own home-grown, sparkling fresh tiny heirloom tomatoes. Heather had varying shades of red & yellow -- golds & pinks -- so beautiful as well as tasty! I fell in love with this combination of mysterious flavors that night, and knew then that it was a keeper recipe. (The mystery that evening was mostly from the very finely minced walnuts.)

It's barely June in Kansas now, so my little tomatoes this weekend were all bright red & from the grocery store. We've planted 2 kinds of babies this year, so maybe after several years of eating only OPT (other people's tomatoes) we'll have our own in late summer. The tarragon I used was from my own herb planters on the deck railing -- my first year to plant French Tarragon! Lots of rain & sun so far, & the 3 little tarragon plants seem to be keeping up with my current craving for that fresh flavor.

Here's the Cherry Tomato Salad with Walnut-Tarragon Dressing recipe. I used EVOO instead of walnut oil, & at least 3 times as much tarragon as called for -- it was very mild & delicious. My walnuts were purchased already chopped, but I should have whizzed them in the blender to be more like Heather's were last summer -- that mystery ingredient. Still, they were good straight from the cooled toasting skillet.

Cherry Tomato Salad with Walnut-Tarragon Dressing

(Thanks, Wes, for the quick lesson in pasting in a hyperlink! Let's hope I can remember how to do it the next time!)

June Issue

Now that life is starting to settle down, I thought it was time to try a new recipe from the current issue of Cooking Light. Friday night I did the Chipotle Salmon Burgers on page 106. I used 2 frozen salmon fillets from Costco so I'm not certain what the total weight was. I thought I had less than a pound so I tried to adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I chose to not do the flavored mayonnaise. The result was rather spicy for all of our tastes so I would try to use only a half a chipotle chile next time. Angie has a wonderful mango salad that would have been a great side dish to the salmon burger and the mango could have been used in the flavored mayonnaise.

Be sure to post your attempts with any of the recipes. Have a delicious month of June!