Grilled Chard Salad

In my family, we've always celebrated birthdays when it's most convenient for everyone to be there.  Both my parents are singers, and they would sometimes be traveling when one of our birthdays happened.  Instead of missing the celebration, birthdays became moveable.  So even though my dad's actual birthday was a few days ago, we celebrated it yesterday.

We had decided ahead of time that we wanted to float in tubes down this little river that ends at Lake Michigan.  There were six of us, and seven tubes (one for the cooler full of beer), and it seemed like a great plan!  That's assuming that it's hot and sunny in July... which it sometimes is not in Northern Michigan.  The high yesterday was only about 72, and it was cloudy, which made for an interesting trip down the river.  We definitely still had fun, but by the end of the 2-plus-hour journey, we were all a little blue and shivering.  Especially me, since my tube had started slowly deflating about halfway through.  Oh well.

My mom and I are a pretty great kitchen team.  We marinated some boneless pork chops in Wicker's Original marinade, which you can (and should) order here.  We grilled the pork chops along with some sweet corn on the cob, and this chard salad, and made a peach cobbler (using this recipe, substituting peaches for rhubarb, and omitting the almond extract), which we served with ice cream from Moomers, the little ice cream shop down the street.  You can see the cows that provide milk for them right outside their window.

Grilled Chard Salad


1 bunch chard (red, rainbow, whatever you want)
1 cup cherry tomatotes
1/4 cup pine nuts
olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon


Rinse the chard well, and chop into 1-inch pieces, discarding the very end of the stems.  Toss with olive oil in a large bowl, and then pour out onto a piece of aluminum foil.  Using another piece of foil, fold the edges to make a sealed packet.  Place on a hot grill for about 10 minutes.  Remove, open the packet, and empty the chard into a serving bowl.  Add cherry tomatoes and pine nuts, dress with a little more olive oil and the lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve warm.


Yield: 6 servings