All-American Pasta Salad

This dish is a fresh, cool, simple, make-ahead treasure for summer pot-luck dinners like the one we are attending tonight!

Ingredients:
1 pound Penne pasta
8 ounces smoked Gouda cheese
1 jar diced pimentos
1 jar artichoke hearts
1/2 purple onion
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 green bell pepper
3 green onions
1 can sliced black olives

Dressing Ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
2 tablespoons red pepper jelly
2-3 tablespoons vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Boil up the pasta to the al dente stage.  Drain, rinse, and set aside to cool.

• Slice the Gouda cheese wheel in half and cut into pie shaped wedges.

• Then, dice up those wedges into small bite-sized pieces.

• Admire it just a bit because it is beautiful, fragrant, and good-a!  
• Slice half the purple onion and dice the slices up into little yummy pieces. (Save the rest for salads later in the week ahead.)

• Slice and dice half the green pepper and put the rest in the fridge for another recipe.

• Pick three beautiful green onions from Mike's garden and wash them up in the sink.  Well, you might want to pick yours from somewhere else but make sure you wash them up somewhere.  Then, snip them up into tiny little pieces. Yep, the whole thing - green and white as well.

• Drain the black olives in your favorite little colander spoon thingy.

• Drain, rinse, and chop the artichoke hearts - right in the heart of them.

• Rinse the grape tomatoes.  It's okay if you eat a couple, too.  Then, slice them in half.

• Open the jar of diced pimentos and pat yourself on the back that you thought to get the diced ones which will save you a bit of chopping.

• Plop each of the veggie pieces on top of the al dente pasta in a big old beautiful bowl.  Do it in an arranged way so that the colors look beautiful for a photo.

• Now mix up a little tangy and sweet dressing for this beautiful concoction.  Start out with a cup of mayonnaise.

• Add some home-made sweet pickle relish - about two tablespoons.  (If you don't have home-made relish, it will be okay to use some of the bought kind.)

• Plop in a couple of tablespoons of red pepper jelly to add some tang to it.

• Pour in a little bit of vinegar - two to three tablespoons.  I used some out of my home-made bread-and-butter pickles so it would have a bit more bite to it.  Then, stir all this together and admire the beautiful little flecks of wonderfulness inside.

• Sprinkle in some salt and pepper to taste and plop this right smack dab in the center of the bowl of veggies and pasta.

• Toss everything together making sure to coat all of it with a bit of the yummy dressing.

• Cover with some clear plastic wrap so you can admire the colorful beauty of it as you set it in the fridge for all the flavors to marry together for a couple of hours or so.  Give it a quick, refreshing toss just before you serve it!

(It is quite alright if you dish yourself up a spoonful to eat with some left-over chicken livers as a late lunch so long as nobody - well, at least Mike - knows.  After all, somebody has to taste it to make sure it is going to be alright for the pot-luck!)

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
2 bags of four cheese tortellini
1 bag of bowtie pasta
1 can of niblet corn
1 can sliced black olives
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 jar of artichoke hearts, drained
1 can of asparagus, drained and chopped
1 jar of roasted red peppers, rinsed and drained
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 green onions, chopped
Italian salad dressing

• Boil, rinse, and drain pastas.
• Add other ingredients except for dressing and toss gently to mix.
• Pour enough salad dressing to suit your taste and toss gently.  I use about a cup of the dressing.
• Chill for an hour or so and serve cold.

This recipe is one I got from my sister, Brenda and her daughters, Megan, Rebecca, and Madalyn.  I don't know who of them first prepared this for one of our family gatherings but I can tell you that I absolutely love it and have had hoards of complements every time I have taken it to a pot luck.  Mike's son and daughter-in-law always have a bash celebrating The Fourth.  Since it has been beyond sultry and closer to hot-as-Hades this week, I mixed this up to take to the bash.  It makes quite a big large huge gigantor quantity, so you will want to make it when you know there will be a crowd!

Note:  I have left out ingredients at times when the cupboard was not fully stocked by the household grocery shopper (me) and in the salad pictured I had no olives or asparagus.  So, this salad wasn't quite as yummy as it could have been but it was gobbled up and ooohs and aahhs abounded just the same!

Bridgette's Chicken Noodle Soup

This is one of those recipes that I called and asked for in a pitiful voice after I'd been sickly for a couple of days.  I knew that my daughter, Bridgette, must have a simpler method of preparing chicken noodle soup than me because she does it frequently and has two little girls and a busy schedule.  I just didn't feel like standing at the stove to cook and chop the chicken, chop the veggies, and prepare my recipe.  This one is basically the same ingredients but allowed me to just let it come together with little effort. I've also prepared the entire dish in the Deep Covered Baker and the microwave.

3-4 carrots
3 stems of celery
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 tablespoon butter
3 chicken breasts
2 cartons of chicken broth
a package of noodles
tablespoon of chopped parsley or teaspoon of parsley flakes
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
(I added a half a bunch of broccoli.)

• Place onions, carrots, and celery in the bottom of a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker.
• Arrange chicken breasts on top of vegetables, top with butter, and sprinkle with garlic.
• Cover and place in microwave for 25-39 minutes on high or until chicken is cooked.
• Put chicken broth, water, herbs, and noodles in pot on stove and bring to a boil; cook noodles until tender.

• Cut up chicken and vegetables while still in the Baker with a Pampered Chef salad chopper and then add to pot with broth.
• Return to boil; lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes to blend flavors.