Today's Recipe: Perfect for your Midsummer celebration this Friday and Saturday, a simple potato salad of new potatoes and a simple vinaigrette, made just like Finns make potato salad during summer. Gluten Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Today's Conversation: A guide to the special spuds that come from Finland, a national obsession with potatoes this time of year. A quick note: With this recipe, I'm experimenting with both a larger and a vertical-orientation photo. If you like it or if you don't, please do say! I don't expect any problems but just in case, especially on mobile phones and tablets, please do let me know if something's a little wonky. ~AK I know, I know. Is a potato – a plain ol' potato ??? – worth so much adulation? But yes, Finnish potatoes are special. They're firm but soft when cooked, the flesh is a pretty yellow color with thin and light-colored skins that peel easily with no more than your fingers. The

Today's easy cucumber salad recipe: A refreshing change from the “usual” cucumber and tomato salads, just fresh cucumbers briefly soaked in a soy sauce and toasted sesame oil sauce. Very Weight Watchers Friendly, just WW 1 PointsPlus. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". HEY WORD DANCERS! We’re familiar with “bread” and “gravy" and “dough" as synonyms for money but really, who knew that “cucumber” is another metonym ? (New word for me!) Well, if only we had a greenback for every one of the gargantuan green cucumbers the garden will spit out for the next couple of months while it’s hot-hot-hot. “There was just one cucumber today,” I reported one morning last year after a sweaty session hauling hoses across the yard. “Not possible,” was the grunt of a response. Well, who knew, too, that said cucumbers hide under those giant itch-inducing leaves? The haul would have filled a small bank vault. Now we do l-o-v-e cucumbers (starting

Today's Salad Recipe: A new take on coleslaw, starting with familiar cabbage but adding the crisp crunch of sugar snap peas and toasted almonds, all tossed in an Asian-style dressing. Lots of color! A good salad for home or a potluck contribution. Weight Watchers Friendly, WW 1 PointsPlus. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Today's Conversation: The usefulness of a giant salad bowl. Anyone else sharing a kitchen with a giant salad bowl, you know, one big enough to house a small child or a cornucopia of salad? A couple of years back, we were gifted one by a niece who "knows" this kitchen almost as well as I – she and I work side-by-side for family parties, knowing exactly how to feed a pile of people in short order. What Laura also knows is that the typical family potluck can yield a buffetful of food with a surfeit of protein and sweets but bereft of a fresh green salad. So one day she walked in with said giant