A Potato Salad Recipe You Won’t Soon Forget!

While researching the eating habits of the characters of a yet to be satisfactorily outlined romance novel, I came across a food site aptly named Fine Dining Lovers. This beautifully structured site is an ode to, wait for it, fine dining! The recipes are straightforward, the anecdotes amusing, if not nostalgic and the images of the finished product are downright mouthwatering. Galleries, videos, blogs, tips and a section dedicated to cooking apps earns this site triple A’s in my book!

Many a menu on Fine Dining Lovers boast a rather intimidating list of ingredients, and it took a while to rev me up into attempting something. I’m proud to say I scaled and conquered the slippery slope of Peking Duck, but the recipe I’d like to share today, courtesy of Fine Dining Lovers, is simple, nutritious and quite filling.

Mediterranean Potato Salad with Olives and Feta

Ingredients

800g Irish potatoes

200g red tomatoes

150g Feta cheese

100g green and black olives

2 cloves of garlic

1 bunch of fresh basil

2 fresh green peppers

4 tbsp of vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Peel, wash and halve the potatoes, then boil until cooked. Set aside to cool.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and retain 6 tbsp of the oil.

Separate the basil from the stocks and dice.

Wash, halve, core and roughly dice the peppers. Peel the garlic, then chop finely.

Mix the vinegar with the tomato oil to create a dressing.

Mix the potatoes, olives, tomatoes, basil, peppers and garlic with the dressing and crumble the feta over the salad.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Great Bite?

Peking duck. The play of the plum sauce on the duck’s crispy skin merits no other word except divine!    

Purchase your copy of Love’s Pendulum here and here. Thanks!

Follow @RaychelLane

5 Books To Read Before You, well, Die

My private library is appallingly scanty. It’s not what you think. I didn’t disregard all printed works in favor of the more practical devices touted about these days. The feel and the smell of books remain a constant source of joy, but due to their sheer numbers, I surrendered most to charity drives, interested family and friends and future academics in the guise of my nieces and nephews. Books are friends to the friendless, and on this note, I’d like to invite you to pick up five of my favorites, though nowhere near the only.

Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela

The former South Africa president is the epitome of inspiration. Whenever despair and self-pity pay me a visit, culminating in a depressive state that can stretch the course of weeks, I revisit this great man’s trials, in both thought and the book itself, reminded that if he can endure 27 years in prison under appalling conditions and emerge sane, then what do I have to feel sorry about? Bitterness and the desire for revenge may plague him in private, but there is no hint of it in this humbling work.

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy can tell a tale, and a long one at that. Not that I minded the 510,000 words constituting this epic. The plot primarily revolves around aristocratic lives and the French invasion of Russia and its aftermath, dividing critics on the matter of classification. Is it a poem or a historical chronicle? What they can’t dispute is the realism of the era in question nor the authenticity of the characters. You be the judge.  

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

It’s taken me years to warm up to poetry, on account of my limited affinity to sentiment, but I credit this collection to accelerating the process. Ms. Angelou’s unconventional prose runs along distinct themes, the most dominant being challenging stereotypes in the arena of race and gender, and she does it beautifully. Poetry may be her forte, but this wordsmith has an autobiography spanning seven volumes that transports readers through her triumphs and trials, as well as her travels.  I recommend them all.

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

This is not only a manifesto on how to achieve financial freedom, but an apt serving of reality. I first read this book when I turned fifteen and it was the first time I truly grasped the concept of thoughts manifesting into actions. If I think I’m depressed, then, true to form, moments later I will be. If I think this is the day I’ll pen the greatest work ever read, the enthusiasm sets in to pound at the keys, mapping and remapping plotlines. Hill is blunt and often mean, but hey, if you desire to accomplish anything in this life, persistence will carry the day.

The Bible – The King James Version

It’s everything, really. It’s the answer to every question, comfort to the grieving, hope to the despairing, peace to those in turmoil and the cadence of the happy. It’s our Creator lending us the grace to know Him before life ends.

Great Bite?

Lentil soup served with thick slices of freshly baked rye bread. Very medieval, but what could it hurt?    

Purchase your copy of Love’s Pendulum here and here. Thanks!

Follow @RaychelLane