PASTA SALAD

The warm weather is finally here and one of my favorite dishes to make for picnics and barbeques is pasta salad. It's a simple dish that can be made ahead and everyone loves it!


The ingredients are simple and can be found in any grocery store: Tri-color pasta, sliced ham (I bought Ham & Cheese this time because it was on sale), pepperoni, shredded cheese and Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing (I've tried other kinds and this one is my preferred).


Start by boiling a large pot of water. See, it's already pretty simple.

Add some salt to your water and then add the pasta. Cook it until it's just about done.

Drain the pasta in a colander. See the steam rising from those noodles? Yeah, they're hot so you'll want to run cold water over them to cool them off before using them.

Slice the ham into whatever bite size shapes you prefer. Add them to a large mixing bowl.

Do the same with the pepperoni. I'm a pepperoni fanatic so I can't do this without eating a few pieces.

Add the cooled noodles to the mixing bowl. Look at those noodles. They are just glistening and hollering out for something. What could it be that they want?

Ah, there it is. Some Zesty Italian dressing. You can't hear it but those noodles are cheering. And they're soaking up all that zesty goodness. Add about 3/4 of the bottle (the remainder can be added right before you serve it)

Stir it all together. Resist the temptation to take a big bite because it's not quite finished yet.

Then add the shredded cheese. Cheese is the reason the noodles needed to be cooled. We don't want the cheese to melt on the noodles. Stir this all together.

Move the pasta salad to the lidded dish you're going to store it in and pop it in the fridge. Keep it chilled until you're ready to serve.


Or place some on a place and enjoy it right now! It's so yummy.

I haven't met anyone yet that didn't like it.

Enjoy!

SO PROUD!

I'm a little late with this post because the end of the school year just gets a bit crazy, especially when I'm getting my next child ready to start school.

On the same night as the Kindergarten Round-Up for The Kid, The Teenager had an awards banquet to go to for orchestra.

Daddeee took him to the banquet and I took The Kid to his new school. We rushed through it and were able to make it to the banquet before the awards ceremony began. Whew! Thank goodness because I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

He got his varsity letter in orchestra! I'm so proud of him for lettering his freshman year.

His first question for me was "When do I get my jacket?"

Funny considering it's almost summer and it would be too hot for a letterman jacket. That just tells me he's proud of himself.

The banquet was a blast (even though most of the food was gone by the time The Kid and I got there - my meatloaf was gone!).

Oh and here's the picture of the finished product that I promised you.


It was amazing to watch The Teenager and his friends together. They were all so happy.

Another year is under our belts. I look forward to summer and all the fun we have to look forward to.

BARGAIN!

One of my favorite websites to visit for recipes is Steamy Kitchen.

Well, the other day I signed up for one of her giveaways and an option was to sign up for the her Steamy Kitchen Store newsletters so I did.

In my email a few days later I received a coupon code for 10% off my next purchase. A few days later I received a gift certificate for $25 off my next purchase.

After hours (I'm not kidding, I shopped for hours), I settled on a new flatware set because with years of having kids, I'm missing forks and spoons from my set that I've had for years.

I chose:

Allure Sand Service for 4 Flatware Set (20-pc.) by Cambridge Silversmiths

I decided on this set because a. it was $24.95 and b. it's a simple design that will fit nicely with my old set (should I need to use both).

They should arrive June 8th.

After coupon, gift certificate, and shipping my out of pocket price: $3.44!

Talk about a bargain!