Eggs, Sausage and Potatoes

Well, this week I learned that not only should I not be allowed to cook when I'm extremely upset, but that I should also not cook when overly excited.  Both dishes I was looking forward to and both of them failed.

The first was a dutch baby topped with a mixture of pork sausage, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and red bell pepper.  I knew going into it that I should not be cooking, but had already purchased the ingredients and we were hungry, so I made the dutch baby. Should have been easy enough, a simple mixture of egg, flour, milk and a pinch of salt...I was sadly mistaken. It didn't rise! It was supposed to have gotten all puffy and yummy, instead it just sat there and cooked as if it were a cake! But I continued on with the sausage mixture anyways, in hopes that maybe it would still at least taste like it was supposed to. Nope, wrong again!  Although the sausage mixture turned out good, it did not go well at all with the egg cake. Fortunately Dylan enjoyed hers, but I think it was just more her knowing that I was in a bad mood and trying to do anything to try and cheer me up (plus she was probably starving by this point).

The second idea came from an abundance of potatoes and the leftover sausage mixture.  This day I happened to be in a wonderfully excited mood with so many great things happening that I think maybe my brain was a bit preoccupied. However, I had this great idea for dinner in my head and I was determined to make it.  I diced up the potatoes and cooked them in a pan with some garlic until they started to brown, added the sunburst squash, which was sliced, and then added the leftover sausage mixture from the previous night.  I also poached a few eggs, which proved a bit difficult as well (but I won't get into that right now).

Apparently, I should have checked my potatoes better because they were only half way cooked through and somehow I managed to add too much salt, which to be honest I hardly even remember adding.  I also know that this was a disaster of a dinner, because as hungry as Dylan was, she wasn't too thrilled with me for serving it to her (poor thing!).

So now the rule is that Jess is only allowed to cook when in an even, controlled temper. Hmm...this may pose as a problem, considering even tempered and controlled aren't words typically used to describe me!

Tuna with Arugula and Sunburst Squash

Well, I think that it is pretty apparent after making dinner last night that it's time to figure out how to use an actual grill because this little grill pan just isn't going to cut it anymore. Fortunately, dinner still turned out edible just not quite as good as I was going for.

I started out by covering the tuna steaks in a mixture of Trader Joe's Island Teriyaki Sauce and rice wine vinegar and set aside for about 20 minutes. While the tuna was marinating, I made a quick red wine vinaigrette and drizzle over top of some arugula. I also prepared the red pepper strips, watermelon balls, pluot slices and cherry tomatoes for the plate.

I heated a grill pan to medium high and cooked my tuna steaks for a few minutes on each side, however, because of the sticky/sugary nature of the marinade, this burnt to the pan and caused one side of my tuna to turn a bit, well, dark. So I immediately took the tuna out of the pan, calling it officially done at this point and set it aside to rest. 

After cleaning the pan, I returned it to the burner and lowered the heat to medium so that I could grill the sunburst squash on all sides, just until cooked through.

I also took the remaining sauce from the marinade and cooked it down slightly to brush on top of the finished tuna.

The finished product was not too bad, provided you covered the tuna in the sauce. I much preferred the simple arugula salad with red pepper and a light sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top.

Friday Bin 8/19/11

Friday's bin was full of delicious produce! I can hardly wait to get started this week!

Local Carrots with Tops
Local Cucumbers
Local Lacinato Kale
Local Red Potatoes
NW Corn
Red Peppers
Sunburst Squash
Arugula
Mini Watermelon
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Early Dapple Pluots
Early Gold Apples
Local Peaches
1 Jar of Sunny Honey Raspberry Blossom Honey

I'm very excited to have honey included in my order!! Also, the mini watermelon has already begun to inspire tonight's meal, and can you really go wrong with cherry tomatoes? Yum!! 

The newest vegetable to my bin this week is the sunburst squash. It looks like a prettier version of zucchini and probably tastes like it too, but the wonderful color should make for a great addition to any meal!

Zucchini Frittata

I have willingly eaten (and craved) eggs twice this week. I'm blaming it on some sort of chemical imbalance considering this never happens. However, I decided to take advantage of this craving and make a frittata.  It was just me at home and I figured this would be a quick idea for dinner.

I chopped half of a zucchini and a yellow squash into bite sized pieces and added them to a small saute pan with a clove of rough chopped garlic. I added a small amount of butter and when the vegetables began to brown I finished it off with a small splash of white wine (just because).  The vegetables were removed from the pan and set aside.

For the eggs, I simply whisked 3 eggs together with some salt, red pepper and paprika and poured into the small pan.  Once the eggs began to set, I added the zucchini and squash then placed the pan into a preheated 350 degree oven to finish the eggs.

When the frittata was done, I flipped it out onto a plate and sprinkled it with cheese and fresh basil.

I will admit that this was good, very good. In fact, I ate the entire thing. Although I don't see myself falling in love with eggs any time soon, I just might have to start cooking with them a bit more.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Raspberry Plum Sauce and Fresh Grape Juice!

I've been craving pancakes with raspberry sauce for several days now and last night I finally decided that it was time to give in. Because technically, I'm cheating a bit with this dish I decided to use the plums (from my bin) with the raspberries (purchased) so that it would qualify for my blog!!

I started off by making the grape juice because it actually has to sit for several hours.  After rinsing and removing the purple grapes from the vines, they were placed into a large stock pot and mashed with a potato masher. I brought the grapes to a low simmer and allowed them to cook for 10 minutes, mashing again after 5 minutes to make sure that all of the juice was released. The grape mixture was then strained through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl and set aside in the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the sediment to settle on the bottom of the bowl.  To finish the juice, I strained it a second time and poured into a glass.

For the raspberry plum sauce, I peeled and chopped five plums and placed them into a saucepan with a cup of fresh raspberries and 1/2 a cup of sugar.  This was brought to a simmer over medium heat and allowed to cook until thickened, stirring constantly to avoid the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. It took about 10 minutes to cook and was set aside to cool a bit.

I also made fresh whipped cream by adding one cup of heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar to a bowl and mixing on medium speed just until stiff peaks formed.

Then it was time to make the pancakes! I started off by whisking two eggs until frothy and adding 2 cups of sifted all purpose flour, 2 cups of buttermilk,1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. This was stirred until fully combined and all lumps gone.

I heated a griddle pan and poured half a cup of batter onto the pan, cooking until brown on each side.

To assemble, I placed the pancakes on a plate, topped with a (large) spoonful of the whipped cream and the raspberry plum sauce and drizzled with maple syrup. I garnished with a few fresh raspberries (just because I love raspberries and you can never have too many!).

Had I not had an insane craving for pancakes I probably would not have made this because it was just for myself, however I am SO glad that I did!  In fact, this turned out so good that I even ate it for breakfast today. (I can't remember the last time I had breakfast on a weekday, but it was literally the reason I got out of bed this morning!)

The juice also turned out amazing! I only wish that I had more grapes so that I could make it again tonight.

Stuffed Cucumber

This is a dish that I made for dinner one evening last week.  It was such a big hit that my daughter not only ate all of hers, but finished mine and had the leftovers for lunch the next day!

I started out by peeling my beautiful (and huge) cucumber, slicing it in half and scooping out the seeds. For the filling I mixed together ricotta cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, the last of my garlic scapes, finely chopped onion, and minced mushrooms. I then filled both halves of the cucumber with the cheese mixture, poured a jar of vodka sauce over the top, sprinkled with cheese and chopped basil and finished with some sliced heirloom tomato for garnish.

This was baked in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, long enough for the cheese to brown and the cucumber to be fully warmed through. I served some sliced french bread alongside.

After this meal, my daughter exclaimed "You can stuff anything!", and has been inspired to try and come up with a few of her own dinner ideas. I think maybe it won't be much longer and she will have a food blog of her own!

Salad with Chipotle & Lemon Herb Shrimp and Creamy Avocado Dressing

I figured it was time to make a salad. It's been a while and I had this beautiful big leafy green lettuce, but what to put on it?  Well, this was my cue to head to the store with Dylan for some inspiration. As we were sampling our way down the aisles, we found some wonderful cheese, bread and shrimp. (The guys at the seafood counter were more than happy to give us samples of pretty much everything, Dylan thought this was pretty cool.)  I also found some beautiful green heirloom tomatoes that I just couldn't pass up along with some avocado, which just sounded good at the time.

Once back at home, it was time to start making dinner.  I began by chopping the lettuce and some fresh kale, placing into a large colander and rinsing with cold water. This was set aside to drain while I prepared the first dressing (yes, there is more than one dressing in this salad!). 

For the basic dressing, I added white wine vinegar to a bowl with chopped garlic scapes, finely chopped onion, sea salt and fresh black pepper. This was whisked while I added in the olive oil. Once fully combined, I poured the oil and vinegar mixture over top of the lettuce (now in a large bowl) and tossed to make sure that all of the lettuce was coated.

Next, I toasted up some slices of both french and seeded french bread in a little olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.

Finally, I made the avocado dressing. In a food processor, I placed one peeled, pitted avocado, the juice from half a lime and a few tablespoons of olive oil. This was blended until smooth and creamy (adding more olive oil to get the right consistency).

To assemble, I placed a large pile of lettuce in the middle of a plate which was then covered in shaved carrot and shaved cheese (unfortunately, I can't remember the name of this cheese, but it was delicious). I also chopped the remaining hot capicola and sprinkled this on top too.  Next, I sliced some cucumber and zucchini, quartered the heirloom tomatoes and coarsely chopped a bit of nectarine, adding this to the plate as well. Then I topped the whole thing with a large spoonful of the avocado dressing and a few chipotle shrimp, as well as some lemon herb shrimp.

Can I just say, I am getting hungry just thinking about how good this salad turned out last night, although I would have been perfectly satisfied just making the avocado dressing and dipping the shrimp in it, or maybe just grabbing a spoon and eating the dressing as is. (Yes, it really is that tasty!)

Friday Bin 8/5/11

Once again, this is late in coming but better late than never I suppose! (I've been told that the lack of internet at my house is supposed to be getting resolved soon, but we'll see.)

My bin was pretty basic this time, I still have quite a bit of produce left in my fridge from previous bin's so I didn't really see the point in adding to much more to it this time. Basic however, does not mean boring. I have a ton of great looking items that should make for some pretty good meals when added to what I do already have.

Bi-Color Corn
Local Crookneck Squash
Local Green Beans
Local Heirloom Lettuces
Local New Potatoes
Local Cucumbers
Cantaloupe
Bananas
Arctic Jays-White Nectarines
Black Catalina Plums
Black Grapes
Bananas

The black grapes are my favorite as far as grapes go and the ones that I have are big, sweet and juicy! Hopefully I can find a good use for these this week.  Also, the cucumber that I received is rather large, in fact the biggest cucumber that I've ever come across, so I'm thinking I need to figure out a way to showcase this too.

Panzanella...Maybe?

According to Fine Cooking, amongst other places, panzanella is an Italian salad that uses chunks of toasted bread to soak up the flavors of the dish. Although none of the recipes that I came across had cooked greens in them, I'm calling this dish a panzanella too. If for no other reason than I just like to say it! (It makes it sound like I just made a really cool, complicated dish, when in reality I just threw a bunch of stuff into a pot and called it good!)

I first cut up half a loaf of sourdough french bread into bite sized chunks and drizzled with olive oil to coat. This was then added to a large pan and "toasted" until just beginning to brown and set aside.

To a large stock pot I added chopped chard stems, onion and garlic scapes with olive oil and sauteed until soft. Next I added one chicken breast chopped into bite sized pieces. Once the chicken was almost fully cooked, I added a few spoonfuls of fire roasted diced tomatoes, salt and black pepper. Then I added chopped hot capicola, chopped kale and the chopped chard leaves along with 1/2 a cup of white wine.  This was covered and allowed to simmer until all of the greens were wilted, about 4 minutes.

To plate this dish, I added a handful of the toasted bread to the bottom of the bowl, topped with a few spoonfuls of the chicken and greens, a few more bread chunks and finished it off with some diced mustard and ale cheddar.

For not having any clear idea of what it was that I was going to do for dinner last night, I'd say this turned out pretty great. It had a bit of heat to it (from the capicola) without being overpowering. The bread was also a wonderful addition and soaked up all of the juices at the bottom of the bowl quite nicely.

Tomato, Onion and Zucchini Stacks

This was inspired by a recipe that I came across in the current Fine Cooking magazine. It was very simply, very quick and turned out delicious plus I was able to use up most of my ricotta left over from the previous meals.

I started off by slicing tomatoes, zucchini and an onion, brushed both sides with olive oil and heated a grill pan over medium high heat. I grilled the zucchini and onion first for about 2 minutes on each side, then I grilled the tomatoes and wiped the pan out with paper towels.  The assembly was easy, just place a tomato slice on the plate and top with zucchini, then onion, tomato, zucchini and finish with another tomato slice. Each stack was topped with a spoonful of ricotta mixed with fresh chopped basil and garlic scapes, then sprinkled with sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

To go with these stacks and turn it into more of a light dinner than an appetizer, I grilled thinly sliced country bread brushed with olive oil and cooked up some bacon.

Even though it was a bit messy to eat, it was well worth it. This was a great way to showcase the flavor of the beautiful tomatoes and zucchini that I got in my bin and would be excellent to make with heirloom tomatoes!

Fava Bean and Ricotta Toasts

Unfortunately yesterday was not a good day, so Dylan and I decided on ice cream for dinner. However, we were really wanting to make something with these fava beans and chose to do a late evening snack while we watched a movie.

This is a relatively simple dish and the only time consuming task about it is the shelling, cooking, rinsing and peeling of the fava bean's themselves. In fact, if I hadn't had Dylan to help me with this, I might still be standing at the kitchen counter peeling each one of those individual beans! Once this was out of the way though, everything else was easy.

I sliced a loaf of fresh country bread into 8 slices and laid them out on a baking sheet. These were baked at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, just until toasted.  Next I took halved garlic cloves and rubbed them all over one side of each slice of toast. Then I spread a spoonful of ricotta cheese on each slice and topped with the fava beans, a drizzle of olive oil, finely sliced basil, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

This was delicious. I will say though, if you decide to make this at home, roast the garlic prior to spreading it all over the toast slices. Not only will this give it a wonderful garlic flavor without the harshness of the raw garlic, but your body (and your friends, family and significant others) will thank you for it later. I spent an entire night laying next to my daughter who had eaten 5 of these garlicky treats and insisted on breathing on me all night long!
Lesson learned.

Lamb Sausage with Pilaf and Potatoes

Now that I'm starting to redeem myself in the meat cooking department, I decided that it was time to once again give these lamb sausages a try. They are after all the reason I got the bad rap in the first place. So, I filled a skillet about halfway with water, placed the lamb, sage and garlic sausages in the water, let them simmer for a few minutes on each side and put the lid on. I continued to cook them until all of the water was gone and they were fully cooked through (from experience, I know that they are in fact supposed to have a pink color in the middle so I did my best not to overcook them this time). Then I browned them on each side and allowed them to rest for a few minutes before slicing them.

For the potatoes, I diced some new potatoes, onions, turnips and chopped some garlic scapes and added this to a large frying pan with olive oil and butter. I allowed this to cook until the potatoes started to soften and sprinkled with a little Mediterranean sea salt blend (lavender, lemon zest, sea salt, etc.), red pepper, paprika and fresh ground black pepper.  Once the potatoes started to brown and were fully cooked through, I added about a cup of chopped spinach and some fresh thyme. This continued to cook just until the spinach was wilted.

As for the pilaf, I found a great Harvest Pilaf blend at Whole Foods Market when I picked up the sausages. It has a mixture of wild rice, orzo, red and green lentils. The directions said to add one cup of the pilaf to 2 1/4 cups of boiling water and allow to simmer for 45 minutes. I followed the directions exact and yet somehow I still managed to run out of water and over cook it by about 10 minutes so it ended up a bit dry.

The final verdict...the sausage turned out great! Just like it was supposed to! Yay!!! The potatoes didn't turn out so bad either and even though the pilaf was dry, it still had a really good flavor to it. So maybe now that I have this down I can move onto mastering other meats!

Friday Bin 7/29/11

This whole not having internet at my house right now thing is really causing me to get behind in my posts! Hopefully it will get resolved soon, but for now unfortunately they are going to continue being a bit late.

I have a few items in my bin that I'm really happy about and looking forward to cooking with. I also seem to have an abundance of fruit so I'm thinking it's time to do a bit of baking!

Local Carrots with Tops
Local Fava Beans
Local New Potatoes
Local Zucchini
Local Cucumber
Local Jr. Turnips
Local Lacinato Kale
Local Leaf Lettuce
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Valencia Oranges
Dark NW Cherries
Black Grapes
Tomatoes
Bananas

The fava beans are a brand new item for me, I'm not even sure that I know what they taste like so I may need to scope the internet for some ideas on this one. As for the rest, I've already got several ideas going I just hope that I have enough time to fit them all in!

Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

Broccoli seems to be the one thing I get in my bin that is always carried over into the next week, I just don't eat it. Not necessarily because I don't like it but because there is just so much of it and I have so many other more inspiring options to choose from. So, for Wednesdays dinner, I was determined to find a way to use this up in a new, creative way and it just so happened that I had these huge funky pasta shells in my pantry. Once the idea for dinner was in place, Dylan and I set off to the store for the remaining items.

I started off by cooking the broccoli until it was just tender, then drained and set aside to cool. Then I cooked the pasta, which for your average person would probably be fairly easy to do, however this is me we are talking about. When the water was finally boiling, I poured the shells into the water (not so gently) forgetting that they would all crack when they hit the bottom of the pan. I ended up losing about half of the shells in the process. Once the shells were finally cooked, I set them aside to cool.

For the filling, I chopped the broccoli, added it to a bowl with some ricotta cheese, cream cheese and mozzarrella cheese and stirred to combine.

For the sauce, I added chopped onion, green bell pepper and garlic scapes to a sauce pan and cooked until soft. Next I added a cup of halved cherry tomatoes and chopped zucchini and cooked until the tomatoes started to release their juices. Then I added half a jar of roasted garlic and parmesan pasta sauce and continued to cook until heated through.

To assemble the dish, I stuffed the shells with a spoonful of the broccoli mixture and placed in a glass baking dish that had a layer of the sauce in the bottom. I poured the remaining sauce over top and covered with shredded mozzarrella cheese. For garnish I added a couple of thyme sprigs.  This was then put into a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to melt and the pasta to be warmed completely through.

I have to say that this turned out really well. Dylan enjoyed it so much that she just about finished off the entire pan in one sitting!

Couscous with Mixed Greens and Snap Peas

This meal was inspired by a box of lemon spinach couscous that I found in my pantry. It sounded fairly tasty and when I read that it would only take 5 minutes to make, I was sold.

To serve with the couscous I figured I should try to get some of these greens used, so I added chopped onion, garlic scapes, chard stems and olive oil to a pan over medium heat. When the onions were translucent I added chopped spinach, kale and chard along with about a 1/4 cup of chardonnay and allowed to simmer until the greens were fully wilted.

Being in the somewhat lazy mood that I was, I simply heated the snap peas and mixed them with butter and garlic salt.

Now normally I am not a fan of anything coming from a box but this couscous wasn't overly salty like I expected it to be and there was so much flavor going on in the meal that you would never know it took me less than 5 minutes to prep and only about 10 minutes to cook!

Babble’s Top 100 Food Mom Bloggers of 2011 – who’s your favorite?##

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Thank you!!

Friday Bin 7/22

I know that this post is a bit late, okay really late, but I ran out of time on Friday. We had to get on the road to Portland for our annual Cousin's Party at my aunt's house. Then on the way back we spent the day at Cannon Beach before coming home last night. It was a great trip and we even had warm weather (95 at times)! It was definitely hard to come back to rainy Seattle, but I'm looking forward to cooking this week!

Local Cucumbers
Sweet Corn
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Green Beans
Local Lacinato Kale
Local Red Chard
Local Broccoli
Local Zucchini
Green Bell Pepper
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Cantaloupe
Red Raven Plums
Valencia Oranges
Bananas
Dark NW Cherries

Over the weekend, I made my fruit salad for everyone and it was a really big hit. It used up pretty much all of my fruit. We also brought the cherry tomatoes with us and snacked on them during our drive, which was probably the healthiest thing we ate after we left Portland, considering all the pit stops to buy junk food to and from the beach. (We had to go into Bruce's Candy Shop in Cannon Beach and grabbed a burger and shake from an old favorite spot in Morton while passing through on our detour to miss the I-5 traffic home.)

Red Lentils with Kale and Green Beans

Dinner last night was inspired by all of the green vegetables that I had in my fridge and needed to use up. I started out by making the red lentils, thinking that this would be easy enough to do while I prepared everything else. Boy was I wrong! I took a large stock pot and added a cup of the lentils along with 3 cups of water and by the time it started boiling, I had water everywhere. So, as my daughter was watching me run to the stove to figure out what was happening and try to prevent the water from spreading anywhere else, I realized that maybe dinner was going to prove to be a bit more difficult than I imagined. When I had the mess finally cleaned up, I added more liquid to the pan (since well it had all overflowed the pot that I had it in, did I mention I was using a really big pot for this?), lowered the heat, placed the lid partially on top and again tried to start with the rest of my meal. Before I knew it water was everywhere again! This time Dylan said, "Mom, you sure you want to make dinner tonight?", but after the lentils being so overly difficult I was determined to get it figured out and put a tasty meal on the table.  I proceeded with the clean up, added a bit more water to the pot and lowered the heat to a medium-low. This seemed to be the key.
Once I had the lentils finally cooking like they were supposed to, I moved onto the kale.  To another large pot I added chopped onion, garlic scapes and red bell pepper with some olive oil. I sauteed this until tender and added chopped kale, two lemon slices, salt, pepper and fresh thyme sprigs to the pot. Once the kale was starting to wilt I added a cup of vegetable broth and a cup of broccoli. I allowed this to simmer until the broccoli was cooked through, but still bright green. Next I added half a cup of fresh corn kernels and half a cup of chopped spinach. This continued to cook until the spinach was wilted.

For the green beans, I simply placed them in a small pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. Just to soften them a bit and get them warmed through completely. I mixed them with a lemon hazelnut butter (lemon zest, finely chopped hazelnuts and butter) and sprinkled additional coarsely chopped hazelnuts on top.

Even though things didn't start out as easy as I had planned, everything else went quite smooth and turned out really tasty, just like I was hoping it would. I've also managed to make a lentil lover out of my daughter even if I'm still trying to acquire a taste for them (but don't tell her that!).

Quinoa with Black Beans and Corn

Saturday after the awards ceremony I took my daughter to The Bite of Seattle, I was looking forward to going as I've never been and thought that I might be able to get some inspiration for a few new dishes. Well, needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting there to be a lot better food choices there aside from the typical street fair food and ultimately we ended up eating curly fries and a funnel cake. We did have fun walking around and looking at all of the vendors, listening to music and people watching, however I was left without ideas for my food!

I remembered the quinoa salad that was at the potluck, which did have black beans in it and thought it seemed simple enough that I could make something at home using this idea.

I cooked my quinoa in vegetable broth, so that it added a richer flavor. I also chopped some onion and garlic scapes, which were placed in a pan and sauteed until soft. To the onion I added one can of rinsed, drained black beans, fresh corn and quartered cherry tomatoes.  Once the vegetables were warmed through, I added them to the quinoa along with some chopped fresh mozzarrella, salt and pepper to taste.

It was a very simple dish and although the end result was hardly anything like the original salad (which had crushed pineapple in it) it still turned out pretty good.  Dylan was quite happy with it saying that the cherry tomatoes were a great addition.

Potluck Pasta Salad

For Saturday's potluck they had me listed as bringing a main dish and since I live so far away from the park that this was at, I spent all Friday evening trying to come up with something to bring as a cold main dish that was also creative. Finally I settled on the pasta salad even though I was well aware everyone else would be bringing a one too. I figured oh well, next time they will just have to ask me, the cupcake girl, to bring cupcakes!

My pasta salad actually turned out quite well in comparison to some of the others that were being offered though (Dylan and I made sure to sample a bit of each one) but there was a quinoa salad that was quite tasty.

I started my salad off by cooking one box each of plain and tri-colored spiral pasta, draining and setting aside to cool. Next I started chopping rainbow carrots, onion, garlic scapes, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and zucchini which was then added to a big bowl. I also added cooked, chopped bacon and fresh mozzarrella. 

In a separate bowl I whisked together olive oil, white wine vinegar (this was Dyl's choice), salt, pepper and fresh chopped basil until combined. 

I poured a couple of spoonfuls of dressing onto the pasta and stirred to coat, doing the same with the vegetables and finally combined the vegetables with the pasta. I added enough black pepper and vinegar dressing just to get a good taste going, but not so much that it would overpower the wonderful flavors already going on.

This really did turn out great! We ended up having this for dinner Friday night, having more than enough for the potluck on Saturday and we will also be enjoying the last of it tonight!