This is for meridiansky , but I figured other folks might like it too.  It's a good summery potato salad recipe that has no icky maoynnaise (it's vegan, in fact) so it can sit out for a while and not run the risk food poisoning.  I know it isn't really summer (or even spring--we got 2 inches of snow last night) here on the East coast, but she's on the west coast and I'm trying to will spring into being over here!

Gretchen's Dad's Potato Salad:
(written out by Gretchen)

1 1/2 - 2 lbs red potato
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion (purple is best)
1/3 cup sushi rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. minced fresh dill weed (or equivalent dry dill weed)
1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook potatoes in lightly salted water until almost soft, approx. 20 minutes.  Rinse and cool, dice.  Put potato, celery, and onion together in a large bowl.  Mix remaining ingredients, pour over potato mixture, stir and chill. 

It's best to make this several hours in advance.  I find that the flavors are much better mixed almost a day later, although I've been known to make it in the morning for an afternoon or evening picnic and as long as you stir it occasionally as it cools the flavors are well mixed by the time you need it.

Because I didn't have time this morning to post them both.  This one's sort of for woobat, because it has beets in it.  But I was wrong about the name--it's "Russian Cabbage Borscht," from the revised edition of the Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen.

Recipe time! Happy birthday to woobat, but enjoyment to all! (I hope, at least).

( Tasty Spinach Pie )

( Bonus points for a ring mold! )

EDIT: lj markup changed so that the second link actually shows you the second recipe. D'oh!

My Freshmen, that is. I mean, I know they're all actors and dancers and what-not, and have probably been on diets since they were 13 years old, but still...

(For those who don't know, I teach/supervise a crew of freshmen who have to hang and focus lights for their "crew" assignment. I'm also teaching a portion of the Intro to Stagecraft class, which means I get some lecture experience. Yay! I've done two so far, and they've gone okay. No one has fallen asleep yet...)

In celebration of not being on any sort of diet, I present:

Christmas Soup! (or, as the PoC calls it, Giftmas Shoup...)

cook 3/4 cup dry rice ahead of time
1 pound frozen spinach
1 small onion, chopped
1-3 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 cups vegetable broth (or water with a bouillon cube)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1-2 Tbsp butter
1-2 tsp lemon juice (can be from a bottle)
sour cream for topping

Fry the onion and garlic in the butter. Stir frequently until the butter starts to brown and the onions are pretty soft.
Add broth, spinach, and cooked rice. (I usually forget to defrost the spinach, and put it in frozen)
Let the mixture boil/defrost, then simmer 20-30 minutes.
Stir in lemon juice and bell pepper.
Simmer another 15-20 minutes.
Serve hot, with lots of sour cream on top or stirred in, as you prefer.

Really, the point of this soup is to eat sour cream. (Without sour cream, it's a nice, mild soup...but the point is the sour cream. My mother likes it with yogurt. I don't entirely disagree.)

Speaking of soup, I should go home...but that involves overcoming the inertia that's holding me in my chair. I'm tired from a long day, and looking at about 3 weeks of work without a day off. (That might be an exaggeration...there might be 1 or 2 days when I won't have to come in to work.) And yet I don't feel like leaving...