Corn/avocado salad with shrimp and wild rice

Flavor and color explosion!

Now that I am looking at the original recipe in the NYTimes, I'm questioning if this is even the right one. You can compare their photo to mine and play "spot the differences." Or read my explanation below!

My mom and I both thought this recipe sounded good, particularly with the inclusion of avocado, leftover corn on the cob, feta cheese, and a lime dressing. Great flavor combination! The cherry tomatoes from the original recipe stayed, too.

What we added: Chickpeas, artichoke hearts, radishes, and carrots.

How I ate the leftovers: served with wild rice and marinated shrimp.

This is probably not one I would attempt in Russia due to the grocery offerings, but I'd have it again during an American summer for sure!

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018245-corn-avocado-and-cucumber-salad

How to Make Chocolate Mousse Dirt Cake

I'm going through my Instagram feed to see which recipes I can add here. I used to have lots of recipes with no photo, and now I have the opposite problem!

I got the idea a longgg time ago to do a bug theme for my son's birthday party in July. Maybe it was a pregnancy thing, but I was really craving "dirt cake." It's that dessert where you have chocolate pudding with the top disguised to look like garden dirt.

Chocolate Mousse Dirt Cake

Since my family has a favorite chocolate mousse recipe, I decided to use that for the base. No boxed pudding mixes for us, and a benefit of this dessert is that some mousse could be kept "plain" for people who avoid gluten.

Get the recipe:

Bean Tomato Feta Salad

This was supposed to be the last of my summer posts and I got sidetracked. Isn't it a gorgeous salad, though?

White Bean and Tomato Salad

I was craving a bean salad of some sort, which sounds kind of funny, but it's not something I would usually make. Russian salads tend to be mayo-heavy, and my husband prefers straight tomatoes and cucumbers. MY favorite is something tangier, with a vinaigrette or Caesar-like dressing. And adding something like beans helps to add some body when produce is scant.

I had a can of beans on hand and starting looking for recipes. This recipe from Simply Home with a lemony dressing appealed to me right away!

A few changes:

THEIR version had cherry tomatoes and parmesan.
MY version had regular tomatoes and feta.

THEIR version had an herb infusion including anchovies and rosemary.
MINE did not, mainly due to the ingredients I had on hand. I definitely went for the garlic and lemon, and some fresh dill as you see in the photo.

It was a great, refreshing salad that hit the spot! If you have the ingredients, go for it. I might even make this with just the beans.

Just Cook It! (tip)

This is just a really quick tip for using up ingredients.

I have a few baking recipes that call for an egg yolk or two. I put the egg whites in the refrigerator, where they get lost...partly because my husband is the breakfast chef and doesn't notice them.

Recently, I was going to put the egg white in the fridge for later, and thought to myself...why don't I just EAT it? So I poured it right into a frying pan, which had a little oil left from breakfast, and had myself a mini dose of protein!

You could also fry it, chop it up, and add it to a stir-fry or pasta dish for dinner that night. Obviously it could wait for breakfast the next day, but the sooner, the better.

Basically, I'm less likely to let it go to waste if I have as close to cooked as possible!

Surely I can't be the only one?