Tomato-Basil Bread Good Companion To Katie’s Greek Salad

Looking for Five and Fifteen? Starting today, on the first Wednesday of each month, it gives way to a new column: Kid Stuff.

Featured will be favorite recipes from budding chefs in our area. Your own aspiring Graham Kerr or Julia Child may have a recipe they’d like to share with our readers.

The spotlight focuses this month on Katie Querna, a 15-year-old who attends Lewis and Clark High School. Querna is a sports enthusiast involved in a lot of activities: tennis, volleyball, softball, track and skiing. She’s also a cooking enthusiast.

A favorite food of Querna’s is French onion soup, which she likes to make with her dad, Kit. Mom Christie assists with shopping and overall kitchen guidance, while sisters Betsy and Emily enjoy eating whatever creation is set on the table.

You’ll find Querna in the kitchen at any hour, when her busy schedule permits. She might make muffins for breakfast or a main-course salad for supper.

Querna uses cookbooks such as the “Sunset All-Time Favorite Cookbook” and “Secrets of Fat-Free Baking” for ideas. Then it’s off to the grocery store for items that appeal to her.

Querna’s into salads right now. “It’s more fun to make salads because you can make up your own and go with whatever you want to put in them,” she says.

Here’s her most recent concoction, using a bottled vinaigrette dressing over a Greek-style salad featuring sun-dried tomatoes (which come bottled in oil, packaged dry or even sold in bulk at some larger supermarkets). Just chop the ingredients, sprinkle with feta cheese, drizzle on your favorite vinaigrette and toss.

Try serving with Querna’s recommended accompaniment, tomato-basil bread from Great Harvest Bread Co.

Summer Greek Salad From Katie Querna, Spokane

1 large head Romaine lettuce

1 large garden fresh tomato

1 medium cucumber

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 cup black olives

1 cup feta cheese (regular or tomato/ basil)

3/4-1 cup prepared vinaigrette dressing, such as sun-dried tomato/pesto

Chop lettuce and tomato. Peel and slice cucumber. Drain sun-dried tomatoes (if packed in oil) and cut into quarters. Chop olives, or leave whole. Combine ingredients and crumble cheese on top. Pour vinaigrette over salad and toss. Serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

Kid cook alert: “365 Foods Kids Love to Eat” by Sheila Ellison and Judith Gray (Sourcebooks Inc.) offers a good variety of tempting recipes for all tastes and abilities, even finicky eaters (try The Sentence Sandwich or Fairytale Ambrosia).

xxxx