Cooking Thursday: Green Goddess Pasta Salad

Hello dear Friends!

Happy Thursday to you and I hope you're doing well. 💗

It has been rather interesting here in the northwoods. First we had days of 90 to 100* temps. Now we have had wildfires from Canada and also some areas closer to us in the states and the Boundary Waters too. So we have been enveloped with a thick blanket of smoke. It looks like we're fogged in, but if you go outside it smells and tastes like you are in the middle of a campfire. It's the worst air quality we have ever had in our area. We have always been known for our pristine air, lakes, and forests. And with the environmental issues affecting our world we are once again dealing with wildfires. I have lived here my whole 54 years and never had these issues until the past 4-5 years it has become a regular thing. I pray for all those truly suffering through this and hope it clears up soon!🙏🏻 

So needless to say, this summer has now started to feel like we are trapped indoors. We only go out when truly necessary. We haven't been able to mow or do the yard projects that need catching up. I know there are far worse things... and I'm grateful we are healthy and don't have issues from the air. But it's frustrating when our summers are already so short. 

This was the sun coming up this morning:

I was out (quickly) watering my flowers earlier today. Our lilies have been popping out and I took this pic and you can see off to the right the thick haze:

But I'm sure you didn't pop by to listen to my belly achin'. Lol 

What I wanted to share for a recipe today is this green goddess pasta salad. I follow a young gal on social media called cooking.em and she does a lot of healthy twists on yummy food. And I knew Annie would especially love this salad... so I made it for us all a few weeks ago. 

Now with the worries about fresh produce - it may not be something you want to make right now, as it has a bit of fresh produce and herbs. But I'm sharing it anyways as it was really yummy and fresh and you may want to make it sometime. 

 

The recipe is below but she had a video for her instructions. So I will share what I did. I boiled the pasta (I used tricolor veggie pasta). While it was boiling I washed & cut up the fresh veggies and herbs. When there was about 2 minutes of boiling time left I threw some frozen peas, frozen edamame, and fresh asparagus (cut up) into the pot too... in order to blanch them a few minutes. Then I drained all into a big colander and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking of the pasta and veggies. I put all into a big bowl.

To that bowl I added the cut up fresh veggies of pepper, cucumber and instead of green onion I threw in some chives from my garden. I tossed everything together. 

I then blended all of the dressing ingredients in the blender. 

I then put the dressing onto the pasta and mixed it all together.

I didn't use arugula - I had some spinach to use up. So I added that and some mozzarella balls (I wanted to use mozzarella pearls but they didn't have them at the store). So I cut the balls smaller - but you could just cube up some cheese too. 

This was really easy and so fresh and tasty. It's wonderful as a side for a BBQ or to have as a main dish. If you wanted to add more protein, as a main dish, I would throw in some grilled or rotisserie chicken too. Here is the recipe:

Enjoy! And have a great weekend ahead. xo

Cooking Thursday: Caramel Cashew Bars & Monte Cristo Sliders

 

Hello dear Friends ~

The weekend is in sight and I hope you have some fun plans ahead!

Speaking of fun...I thought I'd share the recipe for these fun bars I made recently that have been a favorite around here for years (just like the twix bars). I thought I had shared them on here before, but now I wonder if maybe I hadn't? So I thought I'd put the recipe down here today so you will have it for sure. 

I also made monte cristo sliders up at the lake for brunch a few weekends back. I forgot to take any pics but we all LOVED them. So I want to be sure to keep the recipe here for my own record. But also so you have it if you would like to try it as well. 😋💗

First up the bars. Think 7 layer bars (I think they're sometimes called magic cookie bars?) but instead of a graham cracker crust it is a sugar cookie dough crust. And instead of a sweetened condensed milk topping, you use a thickened caramel.  I just love cashews with caramel - thus caramel cashew bars were born! (PS: if you've never had a caramel cashew sundae you're missing out - give it a go!)

The recipe I was inspired by is actually in an old cookbook I have. And it was for caramel pecan bars. 

Here's the recipe from the old Pillsbury Holiday Baking cookbook I have (this recipe is under Autumn). So for these bars I just changed the pecans to cashews. And I also add butterscotch chips. So I did about 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and 1/2 c. of butterscotch chips (maybe a little extra of both but don't tell) 😉

These bars hold up well and don't need to be refrigerated. They'd be great to bring to a potluck. Plus they're delish and always a home run with folks! :)  

Next up I want to share the monte cristo sliders I made for our brunch at the lake a few weekends ago. It's a recipe under my "sliders" board on pinterest you can find if you click here.

Here is the recipe as it's posted from the jennifercooks site. They were easy and so amazing!! We had them as brunch along with fruit and some veggies and dip. Highly recommend giving them a try. The only thing I did differently is that I didn't have gruyere cheese and used provolone cheese slices and they were still amazing. 😋

Ingredients

• 1 package Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls 12-count each
• ½ pound deli sliced smoked ham
• ½ pound deli sliced smoked roasted turkey
• ½ pound Gruyère cheese hand grated

Sauce:

• 1 stick salted butter melted
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Garnish:

• Powdered sugar
• Raspberry Preserves

Instructions

Prepare the Baking Dish

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper or foil, ensuring enough overhang to use as handles for easy lifting.
• Lightly coat the parchment paper-lined dish with cooking spray.

Assemble the Sliders

• Keeping the rolls connected, slice them horizontally as one unit. Do not separate into individual rolls.
  1 package Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls
• Place the bottom half of the rolls into the prepared baking dish.
• Layer the ham, turkey, and grated Gruyère cheese evenly over the rolls.
  ½ pound deli sliced smoked ham,½ pound deli sliced smoked roasted turkey,½ pound Gruyère cheese

Make the Sauce

• In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, beaten egg, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and mayonnaise until smooth.
  1 stick salted butter,1 egg,1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce,2 tablespoons dijon mustard,2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• Pour half of the sauce evenly over the layered cheese and meats.

Bake the Sliders

• Place the top half of the rolls over the assembled ingredients, pressing down lightly.
• Pour the remaining sauce over the tops, brushing to distribute evenly.
• Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.
• If the tops brown too quickly, cover loosely with foil to prevent burning.

Finish & Serve

• Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes.
• Using the parchment paper handles, carefully lift the entire slab of sliders onto a cutting board.
• Cut into individual sliders with a sharp knife.
• Dust generously with powdered sugar.
• Serve warm with raspberry preserves on the side for dipping

Wishing you a great weekend ahead! If you try these recipes I sure hope you enjoy them as much as we did! 

xoxo