An EAsy Spring Party

 What works for a Spring party? Light dishes that are still tasty and filling.They could be seafood or a salad? It could lead off withh chicken.Any would make a memorable presentation.

First time contributor  and cookbook author Kidey Heuck gave three interesting dishes in wednesday's New York Times Food section. To start off the season you could easily make her littlemech clams with cherry tomatoes.They're served over peark couscous for a light take on the upcoming seafood season, She recommends chopping the tomatoes ahead of time. The littlemeck clams are first soaked as the tomatoes are cooked with dry white wine and red Chiles. This makes for a spicy sauce that would go well with crusty bread for dipping. It should be served with a simple green salad as Ms Heuck suggests. You could also experiment with grape tomatoes too for a sweetr taste.If your guest prefer chicken then try her whole milk yogurt with sharma spices such as ginger, turmeric and allspice along with cinnamon, coridandr and cumin. Roast veggies work great here.

The third dish is a taverna salad. This sia perfect dish for vegan and vegetarian guests. CHickpeas provide the protein . Tomatoes, yellow peppers, and English cucumber give it color and flavor while Kalamara olives and chopped red onion provide the taverna flavor.Parsley and shallots are chopped and added too. It's topped with toasted pita and halloumi cheese. This is a Cypriot based cheese often used in many Greek dishes. THese are slightly toasted and then cut into  two to three inch cubes and tiossed into the salad. A variation on this is serving it with stuffed grape leaves or subbing in feta cheese for the halloumi. Remember to get good Greek olive oil for this. It has a much  richer flavor than Italian olive oiil. Ouzo would work with this as well. Serve with more pita and tahini dip if you want. This is also a good salad to make ahead , especially for Spring barbecues.

These three dishes are perfect for Spting dinners. Make them and enjoy their rich flavor. They're full of spices and herbs, which bring a warm weather freshness to them