Continuing on a Cooking Thread -- Pasta Salad

For some reason, Husband and I make a lot of Pasta Salad. We have a friend who shows up with a couple bags of groceries now and again, puts them on the kitchen table and leaves for a while, long enough for us to turn them into a pasta salad.

What she brings is a box of Penni or Rotini, a green pepper (at least -- there have been times when she can't make up her mind and brings all three colors), a can of black olives, Parmesan cheese, shredded carrots, and a bottle of Italian dressing. She knows we always have tomatoes, celery, cucumber, an onion and herbs. I grow oregano, garlic chives, parsley, rosemary and mint, but I have back-ups of most of them dried and on my shelf.

This is a two-person job. We cook the pasta according to directions and while that's cooking, we wash and cut celery, cucumber, onion and black olives -- and I shred carrots if she forgot them -- I have a hand-crank machine I got at a yard sale. By then, the pasta has been lifted, and drained and covered again with cold water to wait to be drained again and go into the bowl.

We use the biggest bowl we have to collect the vegetables in. I go outside to pick reasonable amounts of oregano, garlic chives etc., knowing from experience how much I need. While I'm doing this, Husband pours about half a bottle of Italian dressing into the blender, throws in some Parmesan, maybe a little sharp cheddar or Colby-Jack, and stands there tapping a wooden spoon on the counter until I get the other herbs ready to throw in. Then he blends all that into a dressing that smells DEVINE!

I toss the pasta into the bowl with the veggies, Husband pours on the dressing and a few shakes of salt and pepper, and I steal his wooden spoon to stir with. It's best to go to the bottom of the bowl and lift upward, turning the bowl a little each time. Then I cover the salad with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator until our friend shows up .

This will serve us twice, with some for our friend to take home -- or one fairly large church dinner.

By Popular Demand! Macaroni & Cheese "The Hard Way"!

I wrote this originally for my son's blog and we just copied it to here. (Don't you love computers?):

I use part cheddar cheese and part colby jack--about 1/3 of an 8-ounce package, grated or chopped in fairly small bits. If all you have is cheddar, it would probably be about 5 to 6 ounces.

In a big pot--a stock pot--I boil water, a healthy couple of shakes of salt, and a little bit of olive oil to keep the macaroni from sticking after it's drained. When the water is boiling briskly, put in two cups of elbow macaroni, or macaroni and other pasta of the same size--like the little shell or spiral macaroni. Boil about 10 minutes, and drain in a collander.

Spray oil into a two-quart size casserole dish--or coat the inside with shortening, margarine or butter.

Layer the drained macaroni--enough to cover the bottom of the casserole--then cheese, mac, cheese, etc, ending with the last little bits of cheese. Give it a good shake of pepper and two good shakes of salt. Pour about 3/4 cup of milk over all--this distributes the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle the top with seasoned breadcrumbs (or plain breadcrumbs with a couple shakes of dried parsley). If you don't have any breadcrumbs, mash some saltines for the top.

Cover with the casserole lid or aluminum foil, bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, let sit in the oven after you've turned it off until you need to serve.

There you have it!

The Angel is BACK!

Husband's mother died several years ago, and since he would not be able to visit her grave often, and out church had decided to make a memorial garden for a deceased member at about that time, Husband sprung for an angel statue for the space beside the garden.

When little kids played outside, they clambered over the statue. The rest of us -- ourselves included, began to take the statue for granted. But shortly after Thanksgiving, a woman who lives nearby stopped Husband after church and told him it was missing. I think Husband was heartsick -- I know I was.

Well, one day we were driving along less than a mile from the church and I spotted, in a Christmas display our angel! I said to Husband, "That's our angel!" (our not in the sense of our ownership, but the church's). Very calmly Husband said, "Yes, I know. It's been there awhile."

He said he didn't know what to do about it. He was calm. I was -- well, I tend to brood.

Someone at church suggested he call the sherriff. Husband hesitated. He never rushes into anything. Someone handed him a phone number and gave him instructions. He called, was called back, then apparently allowed the mills of the gods to grind slowly.

On our rounds yesterday, lo and behold! There were two sherriff's cars at the location were the angel was. Last night , just before the women's group met, one of the women called to say the angel was in the parking lot!

We went up the morning to check. She was indeed in the parking lot, at some distance from her pedestal, painted with shiny paint, some of which didn't take the trip well. Husband moved her out of the way so she (nor an automobile) would not suffer more damage. She is a long way from her pedestal. But she is back HOME.

Such miscreants should make sure, when stealing something like that that the sherriff doesn't belong to the parsih they are stealing from!

'Tis the Season

On January 18th, Husband and I intended to celebrate our 45th Wedding anniversary. Well, there was no celebrating that day. Husband got up that morning and discovered a massive plumbing disaster.

As you may know if you have followed this blog, we live in the country, in an old house, the newest part of which is the bathroom. Also the coldest part. It is nothing but misery. It was almost a week getting back to normal. Husband would think he had the problem solved, go out to the road to turn on the water and -- Oh, I can't bear to think of it!

A few days ago, it got even colder than it had been on the 18th of January. The pipe under the bathtub broke. It wasn't difficult to fix, but it was a concern.

Now every time I hear a strange sound, I have to go check it out.

And needless to day, I hope our 50th anniversary goes better.