Sausage Salad with Baked Zucchini Rounds; The Bike Ride

It’s summer.

We played yesterday.

One is supposed to play in the summer.

We even had a picnic.

No photos of the picnic, though – we were starving.

After this lovely salad, I’m going to bore you with pretty pictures of the canal we biked along..

I’m not a fan of raw zucchini.

I have a hard time working it into salads.

But… this time of year, when the garden starts producing, one has to be creative to eat everything.

Isn’t it fun to be so blessed? (She says, at the beginning….)

Sausage Salad with Baked Zucchini Rounds

Total time: 35 minutes

 Ingredients:

  • 8oz (240gr) sausages
  • 1 large tomato, cut into chunks
  • 2oz (60gr) feta, crumbled
  • 1/4 cup dry-cured Greek olives, chopped
  • 1 medium zucchini, cut into 6 1/3″ (1cm) slices (discard any remaining)
  • 2 tsp Dijon-style mustard
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbs dry bread crumbs
  • 2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tbs fresh oregano leaves
  • Romaine lettuce for 2 large salads, washed and torn
  • Vinaigrette:
  • 2 tbs sherry vinegar
  • 2 tsp ketchup
  • 2 tsp Dijon-style mustard
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tbs good olive oil

Salad with Zucchini Rounds

 Instructions:

  • Make Zucchini Rounds:In a flattish bowl whisk the mustard, Worcestershire and the egg together. In another flattish bowl or plate mix the crumbs, Parmesan and chili powder together.
  • Dip both sides of the rounds into the egg, then the crumbs.
  • Place on a nonstick baking sheet. Bake at 400F (200C) for 35 minutes, until lightly browned.
  • Cook sausages on barbecue grill for 10 – 15 minutes or until done or in nonstick skillet for same amount of time (until done). Slice into 1″ (2.5cm) lengths.
  • Make vinaigrette: Put vinegar, ketchup, mustard. cumin, chili powder in small bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in oil, whisking constantly.
  • To finish: Toss lettuce with a bit of vinaigrette. Add sausage, tomato, feta, olives and oregano and toss gently. Taste and add more vinaigrette if desired.
  • Arrange zucchini slices next to salad and, remaining dressing on the side.

 

Did I mention it’s been hot here?

Not excruciatingly hot, not in the 100’s, but hot enough…. In the 90’s (yesterday was 93F, 34C)

We decided to go on a bike ride along the canal.

It’s shady there.

The canals and the paths are lined with plane trees, like many of the roads in France.

canal1Canals criss-cross most of Europe. They were used to transport goods back in the olden days.

canal2Horses or oxen walked along the paths, towing the loaded barges.

canal3Today the canals are used by pleasure boaters.

And the paths are used for walking and bicycling

locksThere are locks periodically. They used to be operated by a human who lived in the house next door.

Now, most of them are automatic, operated by the boaters.

boatA side  note – see the guy standing at the wheel? That’s not really a punk hairdo he’s sporting.  It’s a cap with hair. After I asked if I could take the photo he lifted the cap and he’s totally bald.

I’d give you a close-up but I asked if I could take a photo – not if I could post said photo as a close-up on the net….

This is a traditional canal boat – long and skinny.

People can live on these.

Mon mari wants to be one of those people.

blueboatSigh…..

That’s him, on his bike, admiring the canal boats (and picking out the one he wants?)

boats

We were only supposed to be gone 2 hours.

Mon mari decided we should ‘just go all the way to the end – shouldn’t be more than another 15 minutes’.

Not only does he have selective hearing he has selective map-reading skills.

We were out for 4 1/2 hours.

At least it was shady…..

If you want nutrition information, try this site: Calorie Count

7 thoughts on “Sausage Salad with Baked Zucchini Rounds; The Bike Ride”

  1. I would love to do one of the canal week long boat rides and bring my bike along for side trips. I am starting to get inundated with zucchini, so bring on the zuch’ recipes!

    • When we were bicycling along one of the French canals, we talked to some fellows who were boating. They looked longingly at our bicycles and said they would much rather have done that. They said the boat riding was too sedentary and monotonous. They were young guys though. I’m thinking lolling on a canal boat would be pretty nice. But I’d definitely want to have my bike with me so we could ride into various villages for supplies.

  2. Kate, lovely, cool and flat.

    Zoomie, it’s a scary thought….

    Meredith, I would be too – if I let them near it. We passed a lot of rental boats – with the bikes . I’d love to do it too.

  3. We had your sausage salad the other night. It was as wonderful as ever. Too bad I didn’t know about the zucchini rounds because we got some lovely yellow zucchini at the market.

    And I love the photos! And I’m positive that we’ve bicycled along that same canal several years ago. Does the canal road suddenly peter out?

Comments are closed.

Share via
Copy link