LULU'S SUMMER TUNA SALAD

This salad was a mainstay in Lulu's summer kitchen and it sure has been also in ours. Last week I made it for perhaps the last time this year. The hot weather seems to have left us and we are now experiencing very Fall-like temperatures. G never says no on a hot day in the summer when I ask if he would like Tuna Salad. It's kind of an adlib sort of salad depending upon what you have in the house besides tuna!

LULU'S SUMMER TUNA SALAD

-One 12 oz bag of mixed salad greens, chopped a bit more

or

the equivalent other salad greens (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a head of iceberg chopped)

-1 or 2 cans of tuna, drained & chunked up (I usually use 2 cans)

-1/2 a basket of cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved

or

1 C. seeded regular tomatoes, cut in chunks

-1/2 C. green stuffed olives, sliced (See #3 below)

-1/4 C. to 1/3 C. diced purple onion (I use the 1/4 C.)(See #4 below)

-3 or 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled & cut up. (see #5 below)

-3 or 4 shakes of McCormick's California Lemon Pepper Seasoning

-Mayonnaise

1) In a fairly large bowl, dump the lettuce in after having cut it up a bit more in smaller bite-size pieces than it comes in the package. I've also been known to use a bag of shredded lettuce, but I don't like that as much. Lulu always used a head of iceberg lettuce.

2) Add in the tomatoes

3) On a paper towel blot the olives and slice the olives in thirds. My kids used to call these the eyeballs in the salad. If you don't like green olives, I don't see any reason you couldn't substitute a little can of black olives.

4) Add in the onion. If you would prefer yellow or white onion, you can substitute it.

5) Add in the eggs. I cut up the peeled hardboiled eggs with my handy slicer by first slicing them one way and then turning them and inserting them to slice them the opposite way. Hmmm, this is hard to explain, but hope you get my drift. If you don't have an egg slicer, just cut up the eggs.

6) Now toss all the ingredients together and sprinkle on the seasoning.

7) Add mayonnaise to desired consistency. Spoonfuls should mound. G likes this salad a bit sloppier than I do.

NOTE: Amazingly good even the 2nd and 3rd day. We always "fight" over the leftovers! Living in a very hot summer area of California when I was a kid, Mum used to make this a lot. For a fancy luncheon for her friends Lulu she would serve this in or on a lettuce leaf/cup along with other things. Back then I got all the leftovers since I was the only one left at home!

Stuffed 8 Ball Zucchini

If you scroll down to my previous post, you will see some round zucchini in the picture of the abundance of zucchini blessings from G's garden. Here finally are the directions and a "sort-of" recipe for preparing these great zucchini. If you don't grow them yourself, we have found that they are available at the local farmer's market events.
First you need to make a stuffing for them. I make this with whatever I have on hand. It never turns out the same twice! Basically this is what you need and what you do:

2 or 3 slices of onion, diced
1/2 t. minced garlic from jar (you could use fresh if you like)
1 to 2 cups cubed leftover meat (today I used leftover London Broil; last time it was chicken)

Spray a saute pan with pan spray and make turn around the pan with some olive oil. Saute the onion a bit, then add in the meat. Then add the following:

2 small (5 inch) zucchini quartered lengthwise & diced (I used 1 green and 1 yellow)

Stir till combined and add in:

1 -2 C. cooked rice or some stuffing cubes (you could even use pre-cooked pasta)

Today I used leftover Basmati rice. Then add:

1/2 C. store bought refrigerated garlic salsa. (here you could adlib with your own or even a small can of chopped tomatoes....or 1/2 of a larger can)

The salsa was my idea so that I wouldn't have to worry about flavour, but you may also want to add salt, pepper and herbs here to your taste. If you are using pasta, you could make the stuffing more flavourful with pasta sauce at this point. I've also made a cup or so of broth to use as the liquid ingredient. If you keep stock on hand like Rachael Ray, that's perfect.

Stir well and set aside. Your stuffing should be moist like turkey stuffing is at Thanksgiving. If it's too dry, add more moisture. If it's too sloppy add more rice, pasta or stuffing cubes.

Now wash your 8 balls and cut the stem off and a thin slice off the bottom so the halves will sit flat. Next you are going to cut your 8 balls in half as shown below:

When you've halved them you will see the seeds and where you should cut around the center with a small paring knife at an angle to hollow the center out. I usually cut around at an angle with the paring knife and then across the circle several times. Then I switch to digging the seeds out with the large end of a melon baller.
Here's what your halves should look like.

Now use a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill the halves with your stuffing, pressing it firmly down and mounding it a little. Place the filled 8 balls in a deep casserole with a lid. Here's what today's looked like after stuffing. G let these 8 balls get larger than a softball so I had to squeeze their sides to make them fit in this casserole.
Cover and place in your microwave. Cook on high for 10 min. If you don't have a lid for your deep casserole or dish, you could use saran wrap, but I wouldn't recommend letting it touch your food. Important: If you don't cover these during cooking, they will cook unevenly. If your microwave doesn't have a turntable, turn your casserole after 5 minutes.Here you see what the stuffed 8 balls look like after they come out of the microwave. Placing a half slice of cheese on top when they are hot is optional but delicious! You are only limited in the number you can make by the size of your pan and the volume of the stuffing you make!

After Note: G didn't like this version as well as others I've made. He finally admitted he prefers me to use the stuffing cubes instead of the rice. He said there was too much rice, but I don't think he would have noticed that as much if the seasonings had been better. Sometimes you win; sometimes you don't!

Nummmmmmmm!