Do you have seasonal recipes that you forget to serve when the season rolls around?

Do you have seasonal recipes that you love and somehow, when the season rolls around, you forget to serve them? It happens to me more often that I’d like to admit and it took one of you to remind me.

Take this orange salad for instance. I had completely forgotten about it this winter until Chris of Nibble Me This participated in a Culinary Adventure Challenge recently and posted a version of this salad on his blog. He and his wife Alexis gobbled the salad down while he prepared perfectly cooked lamb chops, macaroni, and a Napa cabbage gratin that he says was crazy good to complete the challenge. I owe you Chris. This salad had completely slipped my mind.

Citrus salads are a great substitute for tomato salads when tomatoes are tasteless and not in season. If you’ve a frequent reader, you might remember this salad. I took it to a blogger get-together in Tennessee and later, two of my friends – Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings and Lea Ann of Cooking at the Ranch made versions of it. Larry served it with coconut shrimp and Lea Ann incorporated it into a camping trip. Now Chris has “kicked it up a notch” and used blood oranges (the glamour queen of oranges) and added feta cheese. All in all, this orange salad with its bit of sweet and spicy taste is a winner and goes with many different entrees.

It’s a hastily made, colorful salad that I found in one of Pierre Franey’s 60-Minute Gourmet cookbooks many years ago.  At our house, we call this “Pierre’s salad.” Pierre Franey was a French chef who ran the kitchen at Le Pavillon restaurant in New York City for years. Pierre went on to write newspaper columns for the New York Times, penned some of my favorite cookbooks, and work alongside his dear friend Craig Claiborne, who practically taught my generation how to cook along with Julia Child.

Salade d’Oranges et Olives Noires
Orange and black olive salad adapted from 60 Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey

1 each large navel orange and tangelo, or two navel oranges
8 black imported black olives, cut in half (I used Kalamata)
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
½ teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon freshly chopped fresh rosemary (optional, but delightful)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Slivers of red onion
Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Trim off the ends of the orange and tangelo. Peel them, then cut into quarter inch slices, and put them in a mixing bowl. Add the olives.

Put the paprika, garlic, vinegar and oil, rosemary, salt and pepper in a jar with a tight lid and shake well to make vinaigrette. Pour the vinaigrette over the oranges and olives and toss well. Sprinkle with slivers of red onions, chopped fresh parsley, and serve. Easily doubled or tripled.

Do you have favorite dishes that you forget from time to time? Please tell me, because I need some reassurance that I’m not alone in this.