Not The Week We Were Expecting

Greek Pasta Salad

Daddy-O is under the weather. I am mostly staying out of his way, letting him snooze. Lack of appetite is one of his symptoms. But then his medicine says "Take after breakfast and dinner." As on a full stomach. 

This recipe popped up on my computer yesterday and I had all the ingredients here. I thought it would make a nice light dinner. I mixed it up while he napped. I'm happy to say he ate this for dinner.

This recipe is the only greek recipe I've ever seen that didn't include olives. I don't like olives. I wonder if the recipe developer doesn't like them either. The only good thing I can say about olives is that it's easy to leave them out—or in this case, add them in. 

Because it doesn't have a lot of other vegetables that would need to be peeled and chopped, this salad is very simple to make. The star of this recipe is the dressing––it's really good and really easy, so keep it in mind if you want homemade greek dressing for a green salad later. 

GREEK PASTA SALAD

1 (16-oz) box penne pasta (or other short cut variety such as rotini or bowtie)

2/3 cup olive oil

juice of 1 lemon, about 1/4 cup

1/2 cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons Cavendar's seasoning, or other greek seasoning

1 (6-oz) container of crumbled feta cheese

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup fresh basil slivers

Cook pasta. While it's cooking whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, mayonnaise and greek seasoning. When pasta is cooked, drain, rinse with cold water and pour into large bowl. Add dressing mixture, cheese, tomatoes and basil. Mix until combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Will keep in refrigerator for 4-5 days.

When the mood strikes—or you have vegetables you need to use up– you can change this up by adding other vegetables. Red onion, artichoke hearts, red peppers, green peppers, cucumbers are all candidates. 

Or toss in some leftover cooked chicken  and make this a main dish. 

Note: Daddy-O got up this morning and made the coffee. That's a good sign!

 

Mimi Camp Has Come And Gone

Mimi Camp this year started as soon as we got home from the lake. And unlike all the other years it started without a plan because we had been busy with the family at the lake and with the lake renovations before that. But because we had skipped two Covid years we were determined to do something. This is just a peek at a few of the things we did. And we had two recipes worth sharing. 

I crawled into bed the first night home from the lake after tucking the girls into their beds and I laid there wondering what on earth we could do in the morning. And what was I going to put in ''the box." I was hoping they wouldn't remember that we usually start our camp day by opening the official Mimi Camp box to see the clues for the day's activity. (They remembered.) I couldn't even find the actual box but thankfully had an empty box with a lid that hadn't made it to the trash dump yet. 

Early that first morning I filled it with an assortment of fruits and vegetables from the fridge. Some were wilted and about to be tossed anyway. But they were a great for creating food art. They added herbs from the garden. The girls worked all afternoon making food paintings. We talked about different ways to see ordinary things.

I can't even begin to put the rest of the week in order, but there was fishing at the pond behind the house. And a picnic. On a blanket. On the ground. 

According to Baby Girl that's the definition of a real picnic. It has to be on a blanket on the ground. We came home with no fish but it was all great fun.

Another morning they found my gallon jar of buttons in the box along with an old flannel shirt that Daddy-O sacrificed to the cause. We cut off the sleeves and cut off the cuff button and learned to sew that button back on. I wanted them to be able to button it back up. Button sewing turned out to be the sleeper hit of the week. They kept sewing buttons. Both girls agreed the hardest part was tying the knot in the thread.

I thought we would have fun going through an old cookbook of mine that has a chapter of recipes for each decade from the 1930s to the 1970s. The plan was to find a recipe from each decade. We started off with a bang and made ice cream from the 1930s the first night. This is the 1930s recipe. 

PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

3 drops red food coloring (I was out of red, so we used green)

1 cup whipping cream

Combine the condensed milk, water, extract and food coloring. Whip cream until thick and custard like and fold into the peppermint mixture. Pour mixture into a 3-cup refrigerator tray. Freeze until partially frozen. Break mixture into chunks into a chilled mixer bowl. Beat until smooth. Return to cold refrigerator tray. Freeze until firm. Makes 3 cups.

Since our ice cream had to be green, Baby Girl said, "Isn't it supposed to have chocolate chips in it?" So we added those. And Little Sister asked, "Why can't we use your little churn?"  I explained about refrigerator freezer desserts from way back. (My mother made a great frozen lemon dessert in a metal ice cube tray.) But then thought she might be on to something. So we skipped the "beat the cream" part and mixed it all together and poured into my countertop churn. 1930s meets 2022. Worked like a charm.

When the girls got up another morning, they found a five pound bag of flour in the box. And each girl separately made a loaf of no-knead bread. The only thing I did was move the heavy Dutch oven in and out of the hot oven. If Mimi Camp had badges, both of them would have earned the bread baking badge.

The next night Little Sister made caprese skewers for a late afternoon snack on our patio and we added some bread wedges to our tray.

And Daddy-O used the very last of the bread for French toast on Saturday morning. We didn't want to waste a crumb of their delicious bread.

Our "foods from the decades" exploration had one more success when they made brownie pudding from the 1940s. After that, they looked at the 1950s recipes and decided to abandon this project when they saw shrimp in jello. EVERYTHING was in jello in the fifties! 

BROWNIE PUDDING

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-3/4 cup hot water

Stir together flour, sugar, 2 tbsp cocoa, baking powder and salt. Mix in milk, oil and vanilla. Pour into greases 8x8-inch baking pan. Combine brown sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa and hot water; pour over batter. Bake at 350º for about 40 minutes. Serves 6 to 8. 

The chocolate sauce layer on the bottom gets thicker as it cools. We liked ours warm, not hot.

So much more happened. But this hits the highlights. If I'm a smart Mimi I'll start collecting ideas for another camp right now. Baby Girl informed me that she planned to come to Mim Camp until she finished high school. Maybe college. "By then I'll have learned all that Mimi knows." 

Lake Week with Family

 

We just got home from a week at the lake. The week started with a family gathering on the Fourth of July. After missing two Covid years we were back in full force. There had been two weddings since our last gathering so had new faces this time. 

There were 29 assorted cousins from multiple generations. it was so good to see faces that we had not seen in a couple of years. And of course, the food is always good. The fellowship is even better.

For the remainder of the week it was our immediate family. This time it included a 5-month old baby and a toddler who, as she proudly told everyone, turned 2-1/2 on July 4th. So it was crazy busy times for the entire week. We raced to keep everyone fed and to keep the littlest ones in dry diapers. I had forgotten how hard young mamas work.

Lucky for us, Little Sister and Baby Girl (who have really outgrown their blog names--but they like them!) are willing and able helpers. They kept babies entertained, helped out in the kitchen and ran back and forth between our old cabin and the new cottage. Saved us a million steps.

Little Sister volunteered to make an appetizer one night. We have basil growing by the back door so caprese skewers were quick and easy to make. Alternate grape tomatoes, mozzarella pearls and folded fresh basil leaves on small skewers. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a balsamic glaze. They were gobbled up before I got a good photo!

We had one meal at the beginning of the week that was good enough for a repeat at the end of the week. Mommy makes a Baby Kale & Chicken Caesar Salad at her house on her regular rotation. She uses the recipe from Real Simple. It's super healthy with lots of fresh dark green kale and shredded Brussel sprouts and uses a homemade Caesar dressing. It's delicious.

But at the lake we took the Real Simple recipe and made it REALLY simple. This time we used more preprepped ingredients so that it was only a matter of quick assembly. We did keep the homemade croutons. The second time we had it at the lake, we added fresh corn and cantaloup from Daddy-O's garden. It was a perfect summer supper.

Here is how we did it.

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD

1 bag hearts of romaine

1 bag butter lettuce

1 bottle Panera Caesar salad dressing (look in the refrigerated section)

1 rotisserie chicken from the deli

1/3-1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese

1 loaf sourdough bread (we used a round loaf from 

Publix bakery)

shaved fresh parmesan for topping

Cut or tear bread into cubes and place in single layer on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss with hands to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in preheated 425º oven for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Pull chicken from the bones into bite size pieces. In a large bowl, mix lettuces and chicken. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Pour dressing over and toss to coat. Transfer to a large serving platter. Sprinkle croutons over and top with shaved parmesan.

The homemade dressing was very good. But the bottled Caesar was a pleasant surprise. The Panera brand was a cut above the other bottled brands I've had. I bought a couple of extra bottles to have on hand.

Mimi Camp starts today, so I'll be away from the computer for at least a week. Maybe I'll have something to share from our camp week at a later date.