Pasta Salad Improved-Lemon Bacon Pasta Salad

This is the second part of my 2-part pasta salad postings.  ;-)  You can find my first posting here.  This one has so much flavor and it's unexpected.  You really could add other ingredients to this, just consider this the base recipe.

Salad

12 oz. pkg. short pasta
1 Cup peas, frozen
8 oz. bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped

1.  Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain & cool.
2.  Add remaining ingredients to a bowl.
3.  Add the pasta to the other ingredients and mix together.

Dressing

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. thyme, chopped
1/2 tsp. black pepper

1.  Mix all ingredients together in a food processor.
2.  Add dressing to the salad and mix together.

Pasta Salad Improved- Fiesta Pasta Salad

I have been cooking a lot more than usual lately and I have found some great recipes that I have adapted and absolutely love.  I don't want to forget them and I also want to share these recipes with others because they are so great!  So, I'll be posting a series here over the next few days (or weeks, if I'm being realistic) of some of the things I have made lately that turned out to be better than just a regular 'ol dish.

The first two are pasta salads.  We have had a lot of pot lucks to go to lately, considering it's summer now and I'm always scrambling at the last minute to try to find a good food item to bring.  Normally, pasta salads are just "ok".  They're what I would call "filler" food.  People just make them to add an extra dish to the entree, but they're usually pretty flavorless.  Well, I have found two pasta salad recipes and now I will never need another.  They are SO tasty!  Neither of them contain mayonnaise, so they are fine to serve in the hot weather at a potluck.

The first one is a mexican version.  Just a fair warning, this makes a HUGE batch.  Enjoy!

Salad

1 (1 lb.) pkg. pasta (I usually use bowtie, but any short pasta would work)

1/4 cup or 1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 can sliced olives, drained
1 pkg. corn, frozen
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 Cups cheddar cheese, grated
salt to taste

1.  Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and cool.
2.  Add all of the other ingredients to a (very) large bowl.
3.  Add the pasta to the other ingredients and mix together.

Dressing

1 Cup plain greek yogurt
1 Cup sour cream
1 Cup buttermilk
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Fiesta Dip Mix (if you can't find that, here is a recipe for a mexican seasoning you could use instead).

1.  Mix all ingredients together with a wisk until completely combined.
2.  Add dressing to the salad and mix together.

Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.  Serve with Frito corn chips on top.  Delicious!

I have posted my other favorite pasta salad recipe here.

My Grandma's Heavenly Frosting

This frosting is called heavenly frosting for a reason.  It's amazing!!  It's my Grandma's old recipe and I think of her every time I make it.  It is meant to top Red Velvet Cake and that combination is unbelievable, but I've used the frosting for other cakes as well.  Just try it, you will be in "HEAVEN"!  This is coming from someone who normally scrapes frosting off of cakes and cookies, but this I could eat with a spoon.

5 Tablespoons flour
1 Cup milk
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Cook flour and milk in a saucepan stirring constantly until really thick.  Let cool.
2. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla together with an electric mixer.
3. After flour mixture has cooled, add to butter/sugar mixture and beat on high speed until it is the consistency of whipped cream.
4. Spread on cake and be sure to lick the bowl and beaters!

Maple Orange Gingerbread Cupcakes

We had a family Cupcake Wars a couple months ago.  It was super fun!  We had a list of ingredients and we had to use at least two of them.  We even had un-biased judges (they didn't know any of us), one of who was a personal chef!  They judged on appearance, creativity of ingredients and taste.  These little babies won first place!  These are definitely not quick and easy like most of my meals, plan to spend some time in the kitchen.  Enjoy!

Cupcakes

1 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons fresh ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3/4 Cup molasses (or less)

3/4 Cup sugar

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg, room temperature

1 Cup Buttermilk, room temperature

Zest from one orange 

Juice from one orange (but save the other orange for the frosting)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Whisk the flour spices, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

3.  Squeeze the juice from two oranges into a 1 or 2-cup measure and then add molasses until it fills up to 3/4 Cup.  Beat mixture together with the sugar and melted butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.  Then beat in the egg until incorporated.

4. Add the flour mixture and beat until the batter is smooth and thick.

5. Pour the batter into greased muffin cups and cook for about 20-30 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Frosting

The frosting recipe was an adaptation from my Grandma's Heavenly Frosting recipe, which you can find here.  There are two modifications to this recipe for these cupcakes.  In addition to the ingredients in the original recipe, you'll need:

1 Orange

Mapelline (maple extract)

1.  Use a 1 or 2-cup measure and squeeze in the juice of one orange (first remove the zest in long strands for the topping, if desired). Then fill it up to 1 cup with milk.  Use this mixture in place of the plain milk in the recipe.

2.  Add mapelline in place of the vanilla.

Topping

The toppings are certainly not necessary, but it was a fun addition to these cupcakes.  We candied ginger and orange zest.  You can find instructions for that all over google.  We also added pomegranate seeds for color and crunch.  

Keeping Buttermilk & Heavy Cream On-Hand

I have quite a few recipes that call for buttermilk, but who uses it often enough to always have it on-hand in the fridge?  Also, what about half & half, heavy cream or whipping cream?  These are always things I need, but I usually have to run out and buy them if a recipe calls for them.  After I started making my Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes regularly, I wanted to find a way to keep these items on hand, so I tried freezing them.  It worked beautifully.  I now purchase those little pint cartons of all these things and keep about 3-5 of each in my freezer.  I just defrost them in the microwave and add them to whatever I'm making.  It works great!  I'm sure they'd last in there a couple of month just fine, but I use mine up before then anyway!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes

My kids never liked pancakes.  In fact, I haven't been a huge fan recently either.  One morning, I was in the mood to cook so I decided to make them from scratch rather than adding water to the Krusteaz mix.  Wow, what a difference!  Since then, I have tried many recipes and combined them until I think I have found the perfect concoction.  Now we all love them!  These are so delicious.  Just mix all these things together and store in your pantry, then just scoop out what you need for breakfast.  Enjoy!

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Cups Rolled Quick Oats (I process mine in the blender dry before adding them to the mix because I don't love having the texture of the oats in my pancakes, but this is optional)
2 Tbs. Sugar
2 Tbs. Baking Powder
3/4 Tbs. Baking Soda
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

When you want to make pancakes in the morning,  mix together the following:

1 1/2 Cups Mix
1 Cup Buttermilk (I always have this on hand.  Click here to read how)
1 Egg

Cook on griddle or skillet and serve.  This is the right amount to feed my family of 4, with a little leftover.

Crumble Topping

This recipe was given to me a long time ago by a girl that used to live in my neighborhood.  I made it and LOVED it.  Unfortunately, I lost the recipe and she moved out of the state (this happened before the days of facebook).  Well, a few years later I was telling some friends about this delicious recipe and we were discussing how I might be able to get my hands on it again.  I'd tried plenty of recipes online and none of them were the same as what I remembered.  I couldn't even remember her name, so I didn't know how I could reach her.  Well, one of my friends knew who I was talking about and somehow got this awesome recipe for me!  I made it again and it tasted just as good as I remembered.  So as not to lose this recipe ever again, I'm posting it here.  Luckily, you all get to enjoy it as well! 

1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Oats
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/8 tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Butter, softened

1.  Mix all dry ingredients.
2.  Add dry ingredients to softened butter and mix until crumbly.
3.  Pour into baking dish over desired fruit mixture (see below).
4.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.
 
For the fruit mixture, you can use anything you want.  When I ate it originally, it was made with apples.  Since then, I've also made it with berries and apples together.  Peaches would also be delicious.

Cut up whatever fruit you like and sprinkle some granulated sugar, a little flour, lemon juice and salt (tiny bit) over it.  Stir it all together.  Put that in a baking dish and put the crumble mixture over it before baking.

Oh. My. Gosh.  It's amazing!  Enjoy!