dinner on the beach: roasted chicken, persian cutlets, and delicious summer salads

my {sister}friend is visiting with her family (which explains why i haven't posted in a few days). we've been friends forever, and often wait too long for these valuable reunions. whenever we're finally together, we squeeze every last minute out of each day, and quite often, our days seem to revolve around food-what to eat, where to eat it, and what we have yet to eat....and then it all goes by in the blink of an eye, and we're left with amazing memories and a few pounds of extra weight! unlike her last visit, the weather has been cooperating this year, and we've had lovely warm sunshiney days like you expect from california {thank you, universe}! last night we packed a nice dinner for the beach- my mom made delicious persian beef cutlets (kotlet), my sister roasted chicken and made a delicious corn salad (recipe below influenced by our sister-visitor), and i made two salads along with haricots vert & boiled potatoes drizzled with a thyme vinaigrette. my friend suggested the following as one of my salad options: orzo with arugula, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fennel, and radicchio (which i substituted with red endives)-it was delicious, and since she also strongly suggested it was about time i mentioned her in my blog-here's to you, my dear L-the "wali" salad  is born!

• for 6-8 servings:
• 1 cup whole wheat orzo (#65), cooked
• 1 cup small organic {sugar plum} tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 cup small mozzarella cheese, cut in half
• 1 large or two small fennel bulbs, cut in quarters and thinly sliced
• 2 red endives, thinly sliced, or 1 radicchio
• 3 cups roughly chopped organic arugula (rocket)
• 3-4 green onions (scallions) sliced
• sea salt & cracked pepper to taste
• 2-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• make an aglio olio with 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and the (crushed) garlic cloves, let it cool completely, then add the lemon juice, sea salt & pepper to taste and whisk together, combine all the other ingredients in a bowl, drizzle with the dressing and mix well. the "wali" salad...simple and delicious!
• corn salad recipe below:

wali salad

vegetarian cutlets up front, beef & potato cutlets above (recipe coming VERY soon)

for the corn salad:

cook 4-5 heads of organic corn on the cob, then carefully slice the corn off the cob and let it cool.

combine together in a bowl:

• cut corn
• about 15-20 sliced organic radishes
• a cup or so of sliced (in half)  baby tomatoes 
• 1 nice bunch of fresh tarragon leaves
• 1/4 to 1/2 of a shallot, finely minced (optional)
• juice of 1 lemon
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt & red pepper flakes (or cracked pepper) to taste