"nicoise salad" news and stories

It's the middle of December, the thick of the Holiday season, and though I want to cook a giant pot roast with warm wintry root vegetables, I can't. I'm in LA and it's almost 80 degrees. Okay, so I exaggerate. It's a much cooler 76 degrees right outside my front door.

I have to eat salad because it feels like summer. I get Nicoise salads in restaurants, but I've never made it at home. I don't know why not because it's ridiculously easy (as is any salad, for that matter). The most difficult part was getting up the courage to go next door to borrow a can opener for the tuna because I didn't have one.

Everything else is simple - along with very good tuna packed in oil, there are hard boiled eggs, chopped tomatoes, Nicoise olives, roasted red potatoes (which taste better than the boiled ones in the restaurants), cooked green beans, capers, and anchovies, all piled atop a mess of greens. By the way, it's the tomatoes, olives, garlic and anchovies that make the salad Nicoise.

The dressing is simple to shake together as well: 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, 1/4 c. olive oil, a teaspoon each of Dijon mustard, sugar, fresh herbs of choice (I used tarragon), and salt/pepper to taste.  

I wonder when it'll actually feel like pot-roast weather here.