Salade Niçoise à la Susan

Well for lack of anything else I want to talk about, here's something yummy I made last night. We had a slightly warm afternoon and I thought it my last chance to make Susan's take on Salade Niçoise for lunches for this week...

Main Stuff
4-5 medium-sized red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed (skins on!), cooked til done but still solid (like you would for potato salad)*
1 can asparagus (or half a bunch of fresh, steamed a little)
6 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1 packet or can tuna, drained
1 small can black olives
1 green pepper, chopped big so non-fans can pick it out easy
1 can garbanzo beans
3 med. tomatoes, cut in largish cubes
1/2 small red onion if desired, chopped medium-big so doesn't make it too oniony with all those crazy onion juices

Cook the potatoes and eggs while you cut/mix the other stuff. Cool the potatoes and eggs. Mix it all up and add dressing.

Dressing (Susanized starting from base S.N. dressing recipe from BHG cookbook)
Whisk together:
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar if you have it - won't turn the salad drudgy-looking, but I only had red, which tasted fine)
1 rounded teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (more or less to cut vinegar acidity)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper (makes the other flavors blend together and adds a slightly zingy buttery aspect - many of you know I love white pepper and pretty much can't cook without it)

Pour dressing over other mix and toss. Serve immed. or put in fridge to spoon out lunches all week long. Makes 5-6 hefty helpings. Yummers.

Note: be sure and drain the tuna, even if it's those packets that say "No draining necessary." If you don't drain it salad will be more tuna-y than anything else - unless of course you want it that way in which case go right ahead.

*This is also all quite yummy substituting rice for the spuds, too. :)