You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

I always think of that Beatles' song when the Miss Wayne County Pageant comes around.  We say goodbye to last year's titleholder and hello to this year's.

The pageant was last night, and we crowned Sarah Suydam, a Wayne State University student from St. Clair Shores.  Goodbye, Anjel Francisco.  We loved having you as our Miss Wayne County.  Best of luck to you in California.  Hello, Sarah.  We're so happy to have you join our pageant family.  It's going to be another good year!

Now that the pageant is over, Swiss steak is cooking in my slow cooker for dinner, and brownies are made for dessert, I have a moment to post that pasta salad recipe I promised about a week ago.  I got this recipe from the Miss Wayne County Executive Director, so it seems fitting that it's in this post.  We both are pretty simple eaters and love us some fat-free Italian salad dressing.  :)  Without further ado...

Sheila's Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. box of pasta (I used tri-color rotini)
• dash Kosher salt, if desired
• 1 can of Italian style diced tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber, cut into chunks
• 1/2-3/4 bottle of Italian dressing
• dash garlic powder or garlic salt
• dash dried parsley

Directions:

1. Cook pasta as directed on box. Add kosher salt to water, if desired.
2. Mix can of tomatoes with pasta. Add cucumbers. Refrigerate.
3. Add italian dressing. Add garlic salt and parsley to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Top with dried parsley for presentation.

It's so easy to make, and so tasty!

This Saturday is the tea party/personal shower I'm throwing for my friend Jessica.  I will have lots of tea party-like food recipes to post next week.  Please check back for those and some photos from the party!

I'll have the big salad.

**Virtual points to anyone who can tell me where the big salad is from.  :) **


Last weekend, my husband decided that we needed a new kitchen faucet.  We can get something new and shiny?  Okay, I'm in!  :) 

I don't have a before photo, but here is the after:

I'm seriously in love.  I feel all fancy when I'm doing dishes now.  Our old spout came straight out.  I had no idea how much room a gooseneck spout would give me!

I wanted to try out the new faucet further by doing something other than dishes.  If you recall, in my previous post, I mentioned how I had bought some lettuce the other day that went bad really quickly.  Well, I had purchased the other salad veggies to go with it, but now they didn't have a bed of lettuce to rest on.  Quite sad, huh?  I didn't want the other veggies to follow in the footsteps of the first head of lettuce, so we picked up another head.

Disclaimer:  I am fully aware that Iceberg lettuce has virtually no nutritional value, but it's the only kind my husband will eat.  Every now and then I try to slip some Romaine or Green Leaf lettuce past him, but I usually hear about how he prefers the other kind.  For the sake of this post, please imagine whatever type of lettuce you prefer to eat.  :)

Yes, I know that making a tossed salad is super easy.  I just wanted to pass along some tips that I've found along the way that I think are helpful.


Tip #1
Use a lettuce knife.  The serrated plastic blade keeps greens from browning which can happen when you use a metal blade.  I love my lettuce knife by Zyliss.

Please be careful.  Even though the knife is made out of plastic, it still hurts if you run it across your fingers. 

I may or may not be giving you this tip from personal experience...


Tip #2
Use a salad spinner.  I didn't have one until a few months ago, and I constantly wonder how I lived without it.  My friends Jess (from Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy) and Marcin gave me a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card for my birthday this year.  I wasn't sure what to spend it on and finally decided on this salad spinner.  I'm glad I did!  It really does help dry the lettuce after you've washed it.  I used to just shake the collander around until my arms hurt, but my lettuce was usually still really wet.  No more soaking wet lettuce = a happy Brooke.


Tip #3

Shred your carrots.  Shredded carrots are much easier to pick up with a fork.  You don't have to be a master chef to use shredded carrots in your salads, trust me.  I used to use the julienne disc for my food processor.  This was very easy to do, but kind of a pain to clean up.  If you're making a really large salad, I would recommend using this method, but if you're making just a small salad to go with dinner, I would suggest getting a julienne peeler.  Again, I have one made by Zyliss, and I LOVE it.


Tip #4

Cover your salad.  If you're preparing your salad in advance, make sure to keep it nice and crisp by covering it with a wet paper towel.  My mom learned this neat little trick when she volunteered in the kitchen at Camp Barakel where I used to go to summer camp.  That was over 15 years ago, but we still use that handy tip to keep our salads from drying out.  I also cover my bowl with plastic wrap before sticking it in the fridge.

Enjoy!

And there you have it!  A crisp, green, fresh salad to go alongside dinner.  We had ours last night with Stouffer's French Bread Pizza. 

Sometimes I just don't feel like cooking.  :)