Food Charms

Aaah, the weekend. Time to sit back, put my feet up, and relax. NOT.

The weekend does, however, afford me a bit of extra time to play with our food. This last Saturday evening I decided on the following:

• char siu (Chinese BBQ sauce) ribs,

• cucumber, tomato, purple onion and feta cheese salad

• tomato, fresh garden chives and mozzarella cracker dip

• baby potatoes baked in an olive oil, garlic powder, garlic salt and dried oregano seasoning

I know, there was absolutely no theme going on there. It was more of a 'throw together what I felt like' mix.

The great thing about it was, not only was all this a cinch to throw together, but they were each very tasty.

The char siu ribs, for example...all that was needed was a jar of char siu (which can be found in most Chinese grocery stores) and a rack of ribs. Slather the sauce onto the ribs, throw them on the barbecue, and there you have it! Delicious.

The salad was likewise easy to make. Dice up half a cucumber, slice up some tomato into chunks, cut up some thin layers of purple onion (not too much!) and crumble in some feta cheese.

The chives were the first herbs to make a reappearance in the garden this year. The cracker dip was the first time I've used them this season. As a lover of chives, I was quite excited about that. This dip pared very nicely with the Parmesan and rosemary flavored Triscuit crackers.

As for the baby potatoes, all they needed was a wash, and then I threw them into a bowl (about 1lb.) In a small bowl I combined garlic salt (to taste), garlic powder, dried oregano, black pepper (to taste) and about a quarter cup of olive oil. I mixed them all up, poured it onto the potatoes, and then used a spoon to roll the potatoes around so that they would each get an even coating. Then I stuck them into a baking dish and into the oven at 400 degrees. Baked them for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

Voila!