It's still hot here in Chicago. That means I'm still trying to keep cooking to a minimum. Today I made a simple pasta salad, served with all our crazy leftover pickles I've been making. It was too much, I couldn't finish it all, but Ko helped out.
I made black radish pickles (I used vinegar as if they were daikon). They taste similar to daikon but slightly more woody and with less tang, but they are good. Then there's the last of the beet pickles! Next to that is a rolled, pickled hakusai wrap. There's kikurage, carrots, and celery wrapped in the hakusai and pickled. They were not very good, and I won't be repeating that recipe.
In the small dish is umeboshi and hakusai pickles (always a favorite), and then a chickpea-avocado salad I make often now. Finally, gobo-miso pickles and some moyashi. Ugh, it was much too much for me but my husband ate all of his and most of mine. Ugh.
The main dish tonight was a chicken pasta salad. I had some pesto a friend had given me, so I tossed the noodles in that, added shredded chicken, a tomato, pine nuts, and cheese. Simple, pretty healthy, and delicious.