Summer Salads

Sometimes the same old macaroni and potato salads can get a little boring for summer cookouts (well, at least for some people, I might not be one of them). I have found two alternatives that are as tasty as they are beautiful in the bowl.
The first is a black bean and corn salad from a Rachel Ray recipe. You can probably still find the recipe at foodnetwork.com (I'm not going to chance copyright infringement here). It is incredibly simple to make and doesn't involve any cooking (perfect for a hot summer day). What makes this salad so tasty is the balance of sweet with the corn, salty with the beans, peppery punch of the red onion and freshness of the red pepper. Plus, the use of cumin and lime juice in the dressing adds a little something unexpected. It's also a great offering for vegetarians in your cookout crowd, who are sometimes left with carrot sticks and dip to eat ;) My only suggestion for this salad would be to add a touch of aroma and green color with some fresh flat-leaf parsley, or possibly cilantro (which I'm not a huge fan of, but could see it in here if you like it).
The second salad is a Greek Orzo and Spinach salad that I got a recipe for from a friend. I did my own bit of tweaking to it before it was done, but was very pleased with the results. I think what makes a big difference in this salad is the choice of produce. I used fresh baby spinach and let the heat of the cooked orzo wilt it just slightly with some olive oil to prevent sticking, then put it in the fridge to chill before adding the other ingredients. The rest of the additions are cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, feta cheese, and a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar and lemon juice, with some salt and pepper. I used Armenian cucumbers, which are small, very sweet cukes that you don't have to peel or seed. Grape tomatoes were the suggestion of the recipe, and I agree are a great choice. For the feta cheese, I found a mild cow's milk feta and bought it in a block so that I could leave it as little cubes in the salad. This way, if feta isn't your favorite, you can pick it out, but I was happy to see that with the milder version, the feta was a success. This was a fun salad to build. I didn't worry about the recipe's amounts for anything, I just went with how things seem to balance, added some more lemon juice when I thought it needed a bit more fresh bite and aroma, then some more salt when it had rest for a while and seemed a timy bit bland. The ratio of orzo to veggies is also up for fiddling with. Once you have the idea down, it's a great one to play with.