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Dress Up Pea Salad With Optional Goodies

Merri Lou Dobler Staff writer

There probably aren’t many 83-year-old great-grandmothers who regularly peruse the Internet for recipes.

But Phalice Ayers of Spokane is a modern-day woman who knows there’s a wealth of information just waiting for her to discover on the World Wide Web - and share with others.

Ayers noticed that Taste of Home magazine, which prints recipes from its readers, didn’t get much response from the western United States. So she sent in some of her favorite recipes.

The magazine selected her as a “field editor” and indicated it would print her recipes in a fall issue. Her submissions included meatballs with sauce, a delicious barley entree and her favorite, a pea salad.

“You can put in all kinds of goodies,” Ayers says of the salad. She’ll add cashews, sunflower seeds and tomatoes to the frozen pea/ mayonnaise mixture - “whatever might be in the fridge,” she says.

Ayers tailors her cooking for her husband, Stan.

“My husband has a heart condition, so I cook for the heart,” says Ayers, who looks for flavorful foods that don’t have salt.

Ayers does admit to a fondness for chocolate. And she also admits to having a lot of fun on her computer.

“You can get some good recipes, like soup recipes, over the Internet,” says Ayers, who remembers trying an asparagus and cheddar soup. “It’s great fun; I’m always looking for desserts.”

Ayers sent me her pea salad recipe - by e-mail, of course - and when I called her back later her line was busy. You can guess the reason: Ayers was on the Web searching for more interesting recipes.

Pea Salad

3 or 4 cups frozen peas

1/2 cup unsalted cashews

Regular, light or nonfat mayonnaise to taste

Optional: sliced water chestnuts, chopped celery, sliced black olives, chunks of tomatoes

Mix all ingredients together an hour before serving; the peas should be thawed when served but still very cold. (You can serve within 20 minutes by partially thawing the frozen peas in your microwave.) Serve as a main course or side dish.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings.

Nutrition information per each of 4 servings (using fat-free mayonnaise and all optional ingredients): 308 calories, 10 grams fat (29 percent fat calories), 45 grams carbohydrate, 11 grams protein, 12 grams dietary fiber, no cholesterol, 992 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes MEMO: The goal of Five and Fifteen is to find recipes where you can do the shopping in five minutes and the cooking in 15. Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian and Spokane resident, welcomes ideas from readers. Write to Five and Fifteen, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, RECIPE - Five and Fifteen

The goal of Five and Fifteen is to find recipes where you can do the shopping in five minutes and the cooking in 15. Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian and Spokane resident, welcomes ideas from readers. Write to Five and Fifteen, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, RECIPE - Five and Fifteen