On The Road Again - Not To Key West

Time to pack up and head to my brother's house in Knoxville, Tn. for the Memorial Day Weekend. This weekend is the official start to summer, although we have been having lots of summer weather here in Ohio the past few weeks. No complaints from me! So hubby and I are packing up the car and heading south with summer clothes and lots of summer...you guessed it, WINE! Since I have gotten my brother to make the transition from beer to wine a couple of years ago, visits turn into major tasting events. He even has one of those "handy-dandy" wine coolers. So we will be tasting the wines at their perfect temperature (Nate, I will let you know the results, if I remember). I am taking my new camera, don't leave home without it, but am not taking my computer. So, again, I will be out of touch with all of my blogging friends for a few days. When I return I hope to have some good wine suggestions and tasting notes to share with everyone.

Now for my foodie blogging friends, check out this Swiss chard that I purchased at the farmers market last week. It was awesome. I used it in a pasta dish and will get the recipe to you soon. But my main reason for this note is that I did not use the colorful stems in the pasta. I saved them and put them into a tuna fish salad. Yes, just chopped up raw and tossed them in. It really livened up the tuna fish salad, which I make with canned albacore tuna, lemon juice, mayo, capers, a dab of Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a dash of celery seed. This salad usually looks pretty blah. Adding the colorful stems of the chard really gave it some personality. The crunch was great. Amazing how all of our wonderful veggies can be so versatile. Now for all my vegetarian blogging friends, not sure what you guys would substitute for the tuna. I know you all are so creative that you will find the perfect salad to add your chard stems. Let me know what you come up with.

Till next week, wishing everyone a safe and fun holiday weekend.

Cheers!