Day 7 – 12 Days of Mayo Free Pasta Salads

Here we are on day 7 already, can you believe it? 7 days of Mayo free splendor!

This one I imported into my old ProChef software on my laptop. I *think* it comes from one of the coffee table book cookbooks I have laying around or from a class I took, I am wagering on a class. Some of these recipes are so old that I just never thought to write down where they came from, I certainly never thought I would find myself on year two of blogging about food and life in general. Doing a series of 12 days of pasta salad would never have entered my mind 10 or 20 years ago…even 5 years ago for that matter. Now it seems so normal, so every day. My how things change.

Speaking of change, it’s odd how my tastes in cookbooks has changed too …I used to despise those huge cookbooks and would pour through them first thing first and upload any good recipes. Then the book would be banished to my upstairs cookbook stacks (I know…it’s a problem…too many cookbooks!) where it could be laid flat since they take up so much room. An odd thing happened to me recently though, I find that I really LIKE those huge books. Maybe it’s because I am getting old and going ridiculously blind. Big pictures and text appeal to me 🙂

Back to topic, sorry for the ramble –

Day 7 is an old standby for me for parties. It feeds 50 so it’s perfect for large gatherings and it is light tasting, fast, easy and delicious. The ingredients for this salad are listed by weight. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, I cannot recommend one more. It will change the way you cook and you will become more adapt at scaling and understanding ratios and yields.

4 pounds cheese-stuffed frozen spinach tortellini (AP) (6 lb cooked)

2 1/4 quarts French Dressing
(assemble this first)

2 ounces salt (3 tbsp)
2 tablespoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 quart cider vinegar
4 teaspoons onion juice
2 quarts salad oil

1. Add dry ingredients to food processor bowl
2. Add vinegar and onion juice to dry ingredients. Add salad oil slowly. Blend on high speed until thick and blended.
3. This is a temporary emulsion that separates rapidly. Beat well or pour into a jar and shake vigorously just before serving.

5 pounds shrimp (31-35 count), cooked
26 ounces celery, thinly sliced
12 ounces carrots, cut into 3/4-inch-long thin julienne strips
10 ounces green onions, thinly sliced
22 ounces water chestnuts, sliced, drained
44 ounces leaf lettuce
1 pound black olives
1 pound cherry tomatoes

1. Cook tortellini in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Drain. Place in bowl.
2. Pour dressing over pasta and toss gently to coat. Chill quickly to 41°F or less.
3. Thaw shrimp under cold running water. Drain well and add to cold pasta.
4. Add celery, carrots, green onions, and water chestnuts to pasta mixture. Toss well. Cover. Refrigerate until chilled to 41°F or less.
5. Cover plate with leaf lettuce. Portion 6 oz salad onto lettuce.
6. Garnish plate with3 black olives and 1 cherry tomato. Serve with breadsticks.

We aren’t even to the 4th of July yet and already I am craving “winter” food favorites. I think it is because I have been so knee deep into summer parties and things of that nature. Anyway, Friday’s are traditionally pizza night here but I was craving something more, well, slow. I made French Onion Soup Gratinee and roasted Cornish hens with sauteed rappi. It tasted so delicious. I roasted the hens with a scaled down version of Ina Gartens Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic so the rappi and FOS were nicely balanced with the roasted garlic. It just tasted delightful and is such an easy meal to make, and if you lay low on the gratinee it is actually a very good for you, low fat, low calorie meal that is elegant and satisfying.

Don’t forget about the cookbook giveaway! July has a bonus!

Have a wonderful Saturday and do something delicious!

Colleen
Creatively serving the Greater Binghamton area in the lovely Southern Tier of NY. www.foodwineartdesign.com

Colleen is a private caterer and personal chef, she also hosts the internet’s favorite resource for the home wine maker at www.homemadewine.net. Her blog and websites are viewed by thousands each day who enjoy her simply explained, illustrated and photographed recipes and helpful tips.

Day 6 – 12 days of Mayo Free Pasta Salad

I’m sure that you have noticed that my posts have been absent photos, and I do apologize for that. I have a torn tendon in my bicep and holding the camera at that angle is agony right now. Typing is tough (of course it has to be my right arm). even stirring is difficult, and I had to cancel my riding lesson…

Poor me…can’t you just feel the pity oooozing out? 🙂

So yesterday ended up being a good old spaghetti dinner night with a sauce of onion, garlic, basil, oregano, San Marzano’s, our own 2007 Pinot Noir and a bit of Balsamic reduction. Super luscious. And we had the ever present two-day no knead bread with it of course. Here’s a pic of that and a link (scroll down to the the post with day one in the title) if you want to try it:

So last night’s wegman’s inspired dinner didn’t happen BUT I did try something else and it was super good chilled! It is the Greek Santorini Couscous Salad! YUM! The only change I made was to chill the couscous…so delicious!

Here is a link to the recipe at wegmans’ dot com. If you live in a wegman’s free zone you’ll use non wegman products of course (I sub all the time..sorry wegman’s!) The day 6 recipe in our 12 days of mayo free pasta salad is!

Greek Santorini Couscous Salad

If making couscous is a little daunting to you try making it this way as Alton Brown suggests it really does result in a nice light fluffy couscous.

I did something yesterday that I have been putting off for a really long time…I joined the Tuesday’s with Dorie bake along YAY! I’m so excited! I love to bake but I will come right out ans say that it isn’t my strongest area of expertise. I can decorate you a gorgeous cake, make amazing little marzipan lovelies and thing like that but the actual baking is not my gig. We don’t eat many sweets so I just don’t get the practice that makes perfect, but it is something that I have been wanting to work on so away I go on a new adventure.

This is Brutis, he is very excited too. He couldn’t wait to start previewing this weeks recipe.

Check out that enthusiasm! It’s hard to be Brutis, somehow my work always gets in the way of his nap.

Just in time for summer farmer’s markets, I have my new 2008 hand soap ready to go. There are two new blends this year and the bottles will be amber with hand painted (by me of course) “label”. They are very pretty, very effective and have no nasty stuff in them…no additives, colors and artificial fragrances. Just a couple well explained ingredients and organic/wild crafted therapeutic grade essential oils. This is something I have been doing for nearly a decade and while most of my clients have been of the four paw or hoof persuasion, I have some people clients too. The hand soap is PERFECT for the kitchen. I’ll be adding a salt scrub for the hands to match each blend as well. They make an excellent gift and will be available at a few select locations around the Southern Tier of NY and also online, so look for them in a couple of days.

That’s all that is going on here. so enjoy your Friday and do something delicious!

Colleen

Creatively serving the Greater Binghamton area in the lovely Southern Tier of NY. www.foodwineartdesign.com

Colleen is a private caterer and personal chef, she also hosts the internet’s favorite resource for the home wine maker at www.homemadewine.net. Her blog is viewed by thousands each day who enjoy her simply explained, illustrated and photographed recipes and helpful tips.