Pasta Salad

I have a little pet peeve with my sweet hubby. He swears he LOVES pasta salad, but every time we're at a restaurant or someone's house who serves pasta salad, I ask if he likes it, and he always says, "Eh, it's okay." So I asked one day, "What kind of pasta salad DO you like?" He couldn't come up with an answer for me.

So, for Memorial Day, I found this recipe at Let's Dish, and I decided to give it a try. I've never made pasta salad before that wasn't from a boxed mix, so I enjoyed chopping the veggies and seeing it all come together. It was beautiful.

Here's the recipe (with my minor changes from the original):

½ cup olive oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. garlic salt
1½ tsp. dried basil
1½ tsp. dried oregano
¾ tsp. ground black pepper
¾ tsp. white sugar
16 oz. rotini pasta
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green bell pepper, chopped
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
2 green onions, sliced thin
1 (4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
¾ cup sliced turkey pepperoni sausage, cut into strips

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic salt, basil, oregano, black pepper, and sugar. Add cooked pasta, tomatoes, red peppers, feta cheese, green onions, olives, and pepperoni. Toss until evenly coated. Cover and chill overnight.


The verdict? He said it was "pretty good." When I asked him what would make it better, he concluded, "Maybe I don't like pasta salad as much as I claim to." Ahh...the truth comes out :) But I thought it was very good for pasta salad. So if you've got an event where you need to bring a dish, I recommend whipping this up. Enjoy!

Spinach Feta Dip

Sorry I've been M.I.A. lately. School has been non-stop CRAZINESS, but this coming Friday, I'll be through with junior year. How exciting is that?!

Last weekend, some of our best friends, Brandon and Ashley, came to stay with us. I whipped up this spinach-feta dip from Annie's Eats, and it was a huge hit. Everybody loved it.


2 cloves garlic
3/4 cup mayo (I used the olive-oil kind)
3/4 cup light sour cream
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
Ground black pepper, to taste

Squeeze out all excess moisture from spinach with paper towels. Then, in the bowl of a food processor or blender, pulse the garlic until finely chopped. Add in the mayonnaise, sour cream, feta and lemon zest. Process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the spinach and season with black pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with pita chips (or tortilla chips are good, too).

Hamburgers

Now, I don't typically post more "boring" recipes such as hamburgers, but I thought, "why not?" This is a dish that appears about once per month in our house to satisfy Jonathan's cravings for man food :) This is an original recipe from my mom.

1 lb. extra-lean ground beef
1 egg
1/2 packet Lipton Beefy Onion dry soup mix
A few dashes Worcestershire sauce
4 whole wheat hamburger buns
4 slices American or cheddar cheese
Fixings: lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup, pickles, etc.

In a bowl, combine ground beef, egg, soup mix, and Worcestershire sauce. Form into 4 patties, and place on a George Foreman grill for about 10 minutes or until well-done. Toast cheese on the buns under the broiler. Assemble burger and top with your favorite fixings!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

I LOVE peanut butter. No, that's not quite right. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peanut butter. I blame it on my mom because she had horrible morning sickness during her pregnancy with me, and peanut butter was the only thing she could keep down. So, of course I was excited when, on Jonathan's birthday this year, he didn't want cake. He flipped through my recipe box and opted for these chocolate peanut butter bars instead. This is a recipe I've had since middle school. My youth minister's wife made them for us once, and they were the hit of the party. Ever since, I've been making them. Here's a picture of the deliciousness:

To make these bars, you'll need:

1 (18 oz.) roll Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix well. Remove cookie dough from wrapper. With floured fingers, press half of the dough in the bottom of an 8" or 9" square pan. Press peanut butter mixture over the dough evenly. Crumble then sprinkle the remaining half of the cookie dough over the peanut butter mixture. Carefully spread as evenly as possible. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Can serve warm or chilled (we like them better warm).

Strawberries and Cream Pie

Yeah, it's as tasty as it looks. This weekend, Jonathan and I headed south to our homeland, and I ended up coming back with a huge flat of amazingly scrumptious strawberries. I had to figure out various things to do with them, so I decided to try out a pie I had seen on Our Best Bites website.

Here's the recipe:
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 (8 oz.) package light cream cheese
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
9" graham cracker crust
1-2 ounces chocolate

In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. In a separate large bowl, beat the whipping cream and powdered sugar until medium peaks form. Add about 1 c. of the whipping cream mixture to the cream cheese mixture. Beat until smooth and well-combined. Add the remaining whipping cream mixture and mix until just combined. Spread in the graham cracker crust and refrigerate for a few minutes while you prepare the strawberries.

Wash the strawberries and cut off the stems. Blot dry with a paper towel and then gently press, cut side down, into the whipped cream mixture. Set aside.

If using a chocolate bar, break it into equal pieces and place in a small Ziploc bag. Microwave for 1-1 1/2 minutes, stopping the microwave every 20 seconds to mash the bag. You want the chocolate to be melted but not hot at all. When the chocolate is melted, snip a corner off the bag and drizzle it over the strawberries. Refrigerate for at least three hours before serving.