I thought I was being lazy last night when I decided to make some Salad Nicoise for dinner.  It's a French "composed salad" which basically means you throw a bunch of stuff on a plate without stiring it up first.  Easy, and anyone who's picky can just leave off the bits they don't like. 

I started with some butter lettuce (last summer I got some red butter lettuce at the farmers market.  Can't wait for veggie season) and then set out:

• sliced, hard-boiled eggs
• tuna (I was hoping for fresh, but there wasn't any, so I went with canned Tongul tuna)
• anchovies (pretty dang good actually)
• nicoise olives (my favorite grocery actually had pitted nicoise!)
• grape tomatoes
• sliced radishes (a mixed bunch with red, purple and white radishes)
• some blue cheese

Everyone got to choose what they wanted, which worked out great.  The whole family raved.  My son actually thanked me this morning for the salad last night.  That's something you don't get every day.  I'll have to remember this one for future quick dinners.  I'd like to try it with freshly poached Ahi, and maybe try some different anchovies.  I used the basic Napoleon brand, but they also had Spanish or Italian ones.  For the fish phobic or weak at heart I might try some nice salt-cured capers instead of the anchovies.  Kalamata olives would probably do in a pinch, but the pitted nicoise were perfect.  They're a bit less salty than Kalamatas, and just slightly bitter, which was nice. 

To go with the salad we had some oven-roasted asparagus with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and some nice garlic aioli.  It must be getting closer to Spring, as the price of organic asparagus is approaching reasonable.

It was set off pretty well by a nice glass of Abby Ale from Brewery Ommegang, which was slightly sweet, although not too, which worked well against the salty salad.