Syndication!

I got kind of a neat email the other day, from an editor at the website http://www.ThisIsDiversity.com.  She's been looking for some food bloggers to contribute to their cuisine section.  She really likes my style, and invited me to come on over and syndicate my blog posts on their website.

I posted my favorite piece first - last year's bean supper piece - and it's had nearly 100 hits today.

It's not really a huge deal, but this band geek feels like a rock star.  Just wanted to share.

Make new friends, but keep the old

We attended a cookout today. My husband and I live in a town about thirty miles from our hometown. Strangely enough, one of my closest friends from high school lives in town, about three miles from us, with his wife and son. They had us over today, along with another friend I'd not seen since graduation, and his three sons. He swears it won't be another twenty years 'til our next get-together, and I'm going to hold him to that.

I brought cupcakes and a pasta salad. I think the cupcakes might need a little tweaking - the flavor was good, but they were a little dry.  The pasta salad was yummy; good thing, as we had about twice as much as we needed. I ever-so-slightly tweaked a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that was originally published in America's Test Kitchen's The Best Make-Ahead Recipe. I didn't make it ahead; made the dressing the night before, then made the salad this morning.

Summer Garden Pasta Salad with Feta

Serves 12 to 14

Cook the pasta until it is completely tender, as pasta becomes tougher as it sits in the salad overnight. Make sure you have a LARGE bowl in which to mix this salad!

Dressing
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1-2 lemons)
1 medium shallot, minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Salad
Salt
1 pound farfalle
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated over the large holes of a box grater
1 large yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
8 ounces crumbled feta cheese (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pint grape tomatoes (about 12 ounces), halved or quartered (depending on size)

For the dressing:
Whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.

For the salad:
Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Stir in 2 tablespoons salt and the pasta and cook until completely tender. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta in a colander. Transfer the hot pasta to a large bowl.

Stir the reserved pasta water into the dressing. Pour half of the dressing over the pasta and toss to coat. Stir in the carrots, bell pepper, feta, and parsley. Scatter the tomatoes on top of the pasta (do not mix in).

To Store:
Cover the pasta salad tightly with plastic wrap and poke several vent holes. Transfer the remaining dressing to an airtight container. Refrigerate the pasta salad and reserved dressing separately for up to 2 days.

To Serve:
Microwave the pasta salad on high power to remove the chill, 1 to 2 minutes. Shake the reserved dressing to recombine, then pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Add the remaining dressing as needed to keep the salad moist.

The journey begins...

So, at this point, you've all seen my LOVELY orange countertops.  If you haven't noticed them, you are quite possibly blind.  Take a look, over there, on the right, with my teapot from the Isle of Skye, two of my favorite mugs, and my cooking Bible.  A new reader (waves at Johanna) was kind enough to tell me that she likes my countertops.  Well, perhaps I'll present them to her in a couple of months - because they will be GONE from my kitchen!

*fanfare*

I posted about a month and a half ago about the fact that we were finally looking at the kitchen redo we'd started thinking about as soon as we moved into the house.  I wasn't having much luck with the IKEA website.  Turns out, we've had a lot more luck with the cabinets my friend told me about.  We will be tearing out our old cabinets, and replacing them with new cherry-stained birch cabinets - all wood/plywood construction, no laminate!

(I love how my counter looks pink in this picture.)  That's a sample of the new doors, propped up against the coffee maker.  I. Love. Them.  Love love love.

We're also looking at granite for the countertops and the new island; we've found a local place that has a good deal on it, and are continuing to look around to see what's out there.

*does the happy dance*

We are thinking about either continuing the wall color from the family room (Benjamin Moore's Nantucket Grey) into the kitchen, or possibly a light caramel color.  I'm leaning more and more towards the caramel.  Our kitchen faces south, so it's nice and sunny.  The darker cabinets and granite are going to make the room feel darker than it has in the past, so I'm thinking the lighter, warmer walls are a better option.