MACARONI SALAD

While I am getting soaked in Tampa, Florida this week, I am sending you this yummy recipe for Macaroni Salad--sooo good!

Our family doesn't usually go for macaroni salad.  But on a hot day this sounded just right to serve with grilled sliders.   I adapted this recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks and everyone loved it. Not too mayonnaisey (which is my usual complaint about macaroni salads) and the sweetness from the pickles is magic.  I use Bubbies Bread and Butter Chips (found at Sprouts in the refrigerated deli section) which is our favorite sweet pickle.

Ingredients

• 4 cups Elbow Macaroni
• 3 whole Roasted Red Peppers, Chopped
• ½ cups Black Olives, Chopped
• 6 whole Sweet/spicy Pickle Slices, Diced (about 1/2 Cup Diced)
• 1 cup diced Celery
• 4 whole Green Onions, Sliced (white and dark green parts)
• ½ cup Mayonnaise
• 3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
• 3 teaspoons Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt, More To Taste
• Plenty Of Black Pepper
• ¼ cups Milk (more if needed)
• Splash Of Pickle Juice (spicy Sweet Pickles)

Preparation Instructions

Cook the macaroni in lightly salted water according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Set aside.

Mix together mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Splash in enough milk to make it pourable. Splash in pickle juice for extra flavor. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Set aside.

Place cooled macaroni in a large bowl and pour 3/4 of the dressing. Toss and add more dressing if you’d like. (Dressing will seem a little thin, but it will thicken up as salad chills.)

Stir in olives, roasted red peppers, pickles, celery, and green onions.  At the end, splash in a little more pickle juice and stir.

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Sprinkle with sliced green onion to serve.

TRADER JOE'S ARGENTINIAN RED SHRIMP with LINGUINE

I'm so sorry if you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby.  Truly.  And I am hoping you can find this sweet lobster-like shrimp if you don't have a TJ's--it's worth the search.  My friend, Ashley, grabbed several bags when she spied these because apparently it is only available a few times a year. Lucky me--she gave me a bag.

I had lots of pasta so concocted a recipe using what I had in the pantry.  But grilled and served with vegetables would work well, too.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 4

Bag of Trader Joe's Argentinian Red Shrimp (frozen)
8 oz Linguine
4 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Olive oil (I used garlic infused olive oil)
Fresh parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS


Forgive me, I didn't measure much in this recipe, but I know you will turn all these ingredients into a lovely dish.

While pasta is boiling, drizzle olive oil in a skillet and add crushed garlic cloves and red pepper flakes.  Cook the garlic for a few minutes and then add the frozen shrimp sprinkling with salt and pepper.  Cook until shrimp is pink and curled (about the same amount of time it takes to cook the pasta).

Drain the pasta saving 1 cup of pasta water.  Add pasta water to the shrimp, stir, and then add the linguine.  Peel fresh parmesan strip over the shrimp and linguine. Serve with fresh parmesan.

Really, this is so yummy and easy.  Do make it!  From start to finish it took less than 30 minutes.

SPICY CAMPANELLE WITH MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS

Don't you love it when ingredients come together in your head and then actually tastes as good as what you imagined?  This dish did just that.  Even the little kiddos next door loved it.

(Forgive the boring name for this recipe--I am terrible about coming up with clever names for people, recipes, etc.)

1 lb Campanelle pasta
Garlic olive oil
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
1 teaspoon (or more) crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup pasta water
Freshly shaved Parmesan

Heat oil in sautee pan.  Add onions, cook for 5-7 minutes until soft.  Add mushrooms, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Cook for 8-10 minutes until vegetables almost caramelized.

Boil pasta according to instructions. After pasta is finished cooking, remove 1/2 cup pasta water and add to mushroom onion mixture, stir.  Drain pasta (do not rinse).  Add pasta to mushroom onion mixture and stir.  Add Parmesan to dish, let melt.  Serve with extra Parmesan.

SOUR CREAM NOODLE BAKE - Pioneer Woman Cooks

A few months ago I bookmarked this recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks.  It would be just right for an upcoming weeklong family vacation at the beach.  At the time it seemed the trip was forever and a day away, but we just returned from that never-going-to-get-here trip having had the loveliest of times.

I doubled the batch of the original recipe so that we would have leftovers.  But, really, one batch was plenty--it made around 10 servings.

I  modified a separate batch for my sister, Tammy, who has to stay away from tomato sauce.  Instead of the tomato/beef sauce, I added precooked chicken, baked it along side the other dish and she loved it.

Both versions were delicious, however next time I would add crushed red pepper flakes to the tomato/beef to give it a bit more zip.

Ingredients

• 1-¼ pound Ground Chuck
• 1 can 15-ounces Tomato Sauce
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 8 ounces, weight Egg Noodles (I used No Yolks)
• ½ cups Sour Cream
• 1-¼ cup Small Curd Cottage Cheese
• ½ cups Sliced Green Onions (less To Taste)
• 1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground chuck in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir.

To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheddar. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until all cheese is melted.

Serve with crusty French bread.

CHICKEN SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS PASTA

I'm sure there are a ton of recipes out there for sausage, peppers, and pasta. I didn't look around for any I just had these ingredients on hand and knew the combination would be divine. It was.

Sprouts had a great sale on chicken italian sweet sausage so I bought a few links. I used two of them in this recipe along with multi-colored peppers. It also made for great leftovers.

Chicken Italian Sausage - 2 large links

1 Red Bell Pepper - chopped

1 Orange Bell Pepper - chopped

1 Yellow Bell Pepper - chopped

1 Onion - chopped

4 cloves of garlic

Crushed red pepper flakes (I added 2 tsp)

Favorite marinara sauce

1 lb. penne pasta (I used 1/2 regular and 1/2 whole wheat)

Saute the sausage whole in a tiny bit of olive oil until nicely browned. Remove the sausage and slice into the sizes you like best (I sliced and then halved them again) and return to pan. Add the peppers, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook until tender and the sausage is done. Add your favorite marinara sauce and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. After pasta is cooked, add to sausage and pepper mixture.

Zucchini Pasta Carbonara Recipe

It's nice to find a pasta recipe that looks lovely and doesn't use tomato sauce or cream. This recipe comes from Simply Recipes. I made it with yellow summer squash but adding zucchini or the little patty-pans would be great, too. And I loved using all that fresh basil from my garden.

From Simply Recipes: This recipe uses thinly sliced prosciutto, which works well with the more delicate flavor of the summer squash. But you could also use pancetta (diced), bacon (thin strips), or even thinly sliced ham.

Ingredients

Salt
3/4 pound egg noodles
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
1/4 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 summer squash, yielding 4 cups chopped squash
Salt and pepper
4 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup basil leaves, sliced thin*
* To slice the basil leaves, chiffonade them by stacking basil leaves on top of each other, roll them up into a cigar shape, starting at one end and working your way down the "cigar" take thin slices from the end.

Method
1 To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water (one tablespoon of salt for 2 quarts of water).

2 As the water for the pasta is heating, prep your vegetables and heat olive oil and butter on medium high in a large sauté pan. Working in batches, lay pieces of sliced prosciutto down in the pan. Fry gently on both sides until just lightly browned (no more than a minute, more likely 30 seconds each side, the prosciutto is very thin), remove from pan with tongs or a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Once cool, tear into bite-sized pieces. Reserve oil in the pan.

3 Add pasta to boiling salted water. The pasta should take about 10-12 minutes to cook until al dente (cooked but still a bit firm), which is just about the right amount of time you'll need to cook the vegetables. Cook with a rolling boil, uncovered.

4 While the pasta is cooking, add the onions, garlic, and summer squash to the sauté pan that you had used to cook the prosciutto. The heat should be medium high. Stir the vegetables so that they are all coated with oil from the pan, then spread them out in the pan, generously salt and pepper them. Cook until they are just lightly browned, stirring only occasionally. Remove from heat.

5 In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the grated Parmesan and lemon zest.

6 When the pasta is ready, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the squash and onions (or add the veggies to the pasta, depending on the size of your pans). Pour the egg, Parmesan, lemon zest mixture over the pasta mixture and quickly stir in with a wooden spoon. The heat from the pasta will sufficiently cook the eggs. Add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water if it looks a little dry. Stir in the prosciutto and basil.
Garnish with more basil and grated Parmesan.

LESLIE'S BALSAMIC CHICKEN BOW-TIE PASTA

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes. My friend Leslie made this for me several years ago and I was surprised at the depth of flavor in this simple looking dish.

Red peppers, corn, fresh basil are all plentiful right now. By roasting the peppers and the corn extra flavor develops. Grilling the marinated chicken just adds more smokey flavor. Balsamic vinegar and oil dresses the dish and chopped fresh basil dresses it up.

Try it this summer--you will love it. By the way, this is a Bobby Flay recipe before he was "Bobby Flay!".


Chicken Bow-Tie Pasta

Serves 4-6

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ cup soy sauce
2 T Ginger, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 ears of corn roasted
2 red peppers roasted
1 pound farfalle pasta
3 T basil chiffonade (or 1 T dry basil)
Salt and pepper to taste

Vinaigrette:
3 T balsamic vinegar
½ c olive oil

Chicken:
Place soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let sit for ½ hour. Place the chicken breasts in a shallow dish and pour marinade over. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Season with salt and pepper and grill. Remove to a plate and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice crosswise into strips.

Corn:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove all the silk and all but one layer of the husk; dip each ear into water to moisten. Arrange the corn on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes. Scrape kernels from the ears with a knife.

Roasted Red Peppers:
Preheat oven to 350. Place peppers on a baking sheet and roast 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and place in a brown paper bag for 5 minutes. Peel the blistered skin away from the pepper flesh and seed the peppers. Slice into strips.

Vinaigrette:
Place the vinegar and oil in a small bowl and wish to mix. Season with salt and pepper.

Pasta:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and place in a large bowl. Add chicken, corn, and peppers and toss with the vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper and add the chopped basil if using fresh basil.

ASHLEY'S BAKED PASTA

I have made this recipe so many times! My friend, Ashley, gave this recipe to me years ago. I have played around with it a bit but she would still recognize it as her favorite pasta dish.

Ashley's Baked Pasta

1 lb. lean ground beef (I use ground turkey)
½ onion diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced
pepper and oregano to taste (I also add crushed red pepper flakes & kosher salt to the turkey)

1 large jar favorite spaghetti sauce
1 packet of sliced provolone cheese—you need 8 thick slices
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 pint light sour cream
10 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 box penne pasta

Cook pasta according to directions
Brown meat and onion together—add spices—after meat is cooked add spaghetti sauce.

In deep large pan (lasagna pan is perfect) layer as follows:

½ cooked pasta
½ cooked meat sauce
½ sour cream
½ provolone cheese
½ mozzarella cheese
½ parmesan cheese

Then start over layering the remaining ingredients. Cook for 40 minutes covered at 375 degrees—remove cover and cook for another 20 minutes.

(The above picture shows olives--I added sliced black olives and it was great.)