Potato Vinaigrette and fried fish

Vinaigrettes are my favorite type of salad. I love the sour citrus taste in my mouth especially when I am eating greasy deep fried something or other. I made this on Saturday and was not going to post it because it took me 2 hours to make and I figured that most normal people would rather not spend 2 hours making anything, especially not during hot summer days. I can assure you that under normal circumstances this would probably have taken me 30-45 minutes. Had I not been listening to Car Talk, Wait, Wait don't Tell me, and This American Life while I was cooking I would of whipped this up in no time. It would of taken me 2 1/2 hours to finish this had my family not been starving. I REALLY wanted to hear the last 30 minutes of This American Life where they were interviewing the geeky girl who was switched at birth from her super rad biological family.

POTATO VINAIGRETTE (with a little something, something)

• 8 medium potatoes pealed and cubed
• 1/2 pound of green beens diced
• 3 beets sliced 1/4 inch
• 2 tomatoes cubed
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 medium sized onion
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. cook the potatoes, beets, and green beans all in separate pans until tender
   
2. while the vegetables cook chop the onion in thin slices. I like to caramelize the onions because my husband is not that into raw onions. This is optional but adds a nice sweet taste.
3. cut the tomatoes and set aside
4. In a large bowl mix the potatoes, green beans and beets together. Let it cool down a bit before you add the tomatoes or else it makes the tomatoes soft.
5. Add the caramalized onions to the bowl along with the vinegar, olive oil and salt.
6. add the tomatoes and mix everything together
7. garnish with finely chopped parsley
8. serve warm or chilled, both ways work great.

FRIED FISH

People are usually terrified of making fried fish because (a) it's fried and (b) it stinks up your house BIG time.
If you can get past (a) then (b) can also be dealt with. On the burner next to the one where you are frying the fish have a pan with orange peels boiling with water the whole time you are frying. This totally helps diminsh the smell of fish