Mexican Pasta Salad

I love mexican food - so when I found this recipe for a mexican pasta salad at Cara's Cravings, I made it right away!  A great change from the normal pasta salad that I usually make so many times during the summer.  I made just a few modifications, as presented below.

1 lb wagon wheel pasta
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn

1 medium bell pepper, diced
2 medium tomatoes, and diced
1 1/2 cups salsa
1/2 cup olive oil
The juice of one lime
~2 -3 tbsp Taco Seasoning

freshly ground salt & pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, diced

Prepare pasta as per package instructions.  Drain and rinse with cold water to cool

Add beans, corn, and tomatoes to pasta in large bowl.

I mixed the cilantro and olive oil in the food processor.  Then drizzle the cilantro oil over the rest of ingredients and add seasoning.

Mix and add salsa as needed to coat (I did not measure and use 1.5 c.).  Season with salt and pepper, and dice and add avocado immediately before serving.

Potato Salad

I couldn't find the recipe card of my mom's classic recipe, so I went to allrecipes of course for a basic overview, and this came out really great.  Changes made are incorporated below.

Ingredients:
6 potatoes
3 hard boiled eggs
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 (generous) tablespoon Grey Poupon

ground black pepper to taste (generous)
1/4 cup light mayonnaise

Hard-boil and cool your eggs.

Peel and slice potatoes into large chunks (generally 1/8ths or 1/4s).

Boil potatoes for approximately 10 minutes (totally dependent upon the size of your pieces).  Stick with a fork or knife - they are done when you can poke through them relatively easily without them falling apart.
Meanwhile, cut up celery and onion.

Cool potatoes when done cooking and chop up eggs.

Stir all ingredients together.  I add the mayo by the tablespoon or 2 at a time to ensure it doesn't get too mushy.  We don't like overly-mayo-ey potato salad.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours prior to serving so flavors can meld.  Stir prior to serving and add a bit more mayo if needed/ desired.

Goes great with rotisserie chicken and roasted asparagus ;)

Baked Pineapple

Like scalloped potatoes, I don't think I will make a ham without this anymore!  Slightly fattening but so good!
Recipe from allrecipes.com with minor omissions/ changes.  1 cup of sugar made it pretty sweet, so I would reduce it for next time, as indicated below.  I also mistakenly used DOUBLE the amount of butter I should have...doing too many things at once apparently!  I noticed while preparing that it was very moist and added more bread.  But it wasn't really tooooooooo bad with a ton of butter (taste-wise, not cholesterol-wise!).  So I would increase the butter from the recipe...just not quite so much as I did yesterday ;)

3/4 cup butter (1.5 sticks), softened
3/4 cup sugar (or 1 cup if you like things very sweet)
5-6 slices slightly stale white bread (I left them out overnight)
1- 20 oz. can pineapple chunks
4 eggs

Blend butter and sugar until well mixed.

Add the eggs one at a time until blended.

Add pineapple chunks (with juice) and torn up pieces of bread.

Bake at 350 for approximately one hour

The complete meal with spiral sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, and roasted broccoli:

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are a necessary accompaniment to ham for me.  We love them!
I combined a few recipes I found on allrecipes.com to create one that worked best for us.  We don't like a lot of cheese or too heavy of a sauce, so this blend of broth with a bit of milk works great.  Here is my favorite scalloped potato preparation.

6 large potatoes
1 large onion
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup milk

Peel potatoes and then slice them with mandolin slicer into 9x13 baking dish.  Do the same with the onion, mix together, and add salt and pepper (as you can see, s&p has not been added as of this picture!).

Melt butter in saucepan and stir in flour.  Slowly add broth and milk, stirring constantly.  Add cheese and stir until slightly melted.  Pour over potatoes and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Grilled Zucchini, Peppers & Onion

Summer is almost here and the grilling season has begun!  I can't wait until the ingredients to this dish are coming from our own backyard...

3-4 large zucchini or summer squash
2 peppers
1 red onion
drizzle of vegetable oil
salt, pepper, basil

Lay out your recycled aluminum foil, drizzle the bottom with oil, and add vegetables and spices, then drizzle on more oil.  You want the veggies to get a thin coating so they don't stick to the foil and/or burn.

Fold the foil over the top and tightly roll the edges up on the 3 open sides to seal tightly.  Do this carefully and thoroughly because oil spilled out will cause a flare- up!

Grill pouch for approximately 10 minutes per side over medium-high heat.  Be very careful when flipping as not to puncture the bag!  Reynold's Heavy Duty Recycled Aluminum Foil is much better than the regular for this.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes & Feta

I had sundried tomatoes and didn't know what to do with them...so I looked around on allrecipes.com for a quick and easy side-dish for which I had the ingredients!  This is the simple recipe I put together, and it came out pretty good...we would make it again!

Ingredients:
Approximately 10-15 sundried tomatoes, diced
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 package angel hair or similar pasta
crumbled feta cheese
1-2 tsp Parsley
1-2 tsp Basil
2 cloves diced garlic
Cornstarch to thicken

Soak the chopped tomatoes in the broth while you prep the water and cook the pasta.
Shortly after starting the pasta, turn the heat on the sundried tomato/chicken broth, and add spices and garlic and simmer.

Use a few tbsp water with 1 tbsp cornstarch and mix well, then slowly add to the sauce to acquire desired consistency, just a bit thicker than it is.

Once the pasta is cooked according to package instructions, toss it in with the tomato mixture.

Add feta and mix in well - we served with oven roasted bone-in chicken breasts:

 

Brussels Sprouts with red onion

We love brussels- this is a quick & easy preparation!

You need:
Brussels sprouts (I usually use 2 pkgs)
1/2 red onion
salt & pepper
a bit of butter to saute

Wash & cut brussels in half if they are large.  Smaller ones can stay whole.
Boil them for about 5 minutes, until they start to get tender.

Then add sprouts and red onion to a medium saute pan with a bit of butter.

Saute on medium until the sprouts are gently browned-

Serve with filet mignon above!