Archive for July 2010
Perfect Pasta Summer Dinner Salad
July 31, 2010 | 
Author 
Hey, its almost August. Time for a cool meal. I invented this salad years ago by looking at a pasta salad in a deli. I figured I could do it better and cheaper. It is a killer salad and I have lots of compliments over the years to prove it too. It is really delicious and is a full meal. Let me know how it works for you.
Perfect Pasta Salad
Corkscrew pasta, 1 ½ lg pkg, cooked and drained, (about 12 oz)
Sweet, spicy uncooked Italian sausage, 1 pkg or 5 sausages, casings removed, fried and crumbled into small pieces(may need oil in the pan first)
Ham strips (optional, amount to taste)
Cherry tomatoes, 1-2 cups
Marinated artichoke hearts, drained (2 lg jars)
Red Onion ½, chopped
Broccoli heads, 2-3 cups- bite sized pieces, steamed only til crisp
Fresh basil coarsely chopped, amount to taste (try 1/2 cup)
Olives, drained, 1 can
Feta cheese, original or traditional, buy chunk but crumble, 1 pkg
Salt and Pepper to taste
Good Seasons packaged salad seasoning, Zesty or regular Italian, 2 packages
All these ingredient amounts can be adjusted to your own taste. Prepare the ingredients as directed, and mix all but the dressing in large salad bowl. Make both packages of dressing separately according to directions on package (I use white wine vinegar and corn or canola oil. Olive oil is too strong).
Toss salad with one made package of the dressing. You might need to use a little of the second batch of the dressing if it seems too dry, though it should be lightly dressed.
Chill several hours to develop flavors, tossing a couple times.
Serve salad in the bowl for guests to help themselves, and have the rest of the dressing on the side to drizzle over the top.
Serves 10-12 hearty eaters, and maybe more.
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PA: From Lucinda to Pittsburgh
Every summer my aunt and I meet in Clarion, PA for a girl’s weekend. Why Clarion? It’s our half-way point. She lives in eastern Indiana and I live in metro NYC. This year, our two dining experiences of note occurred in two completely different settings.
Friday, dinner, Lucinda, PA, population 1,200. We returned, for the eighth summer, to The Wayside Inn Restaurant and Lounge (est. 1873).
Aunt Candy at the Wayside Inn
Don’t let the picture fool you. This place is charming.
The owner always greets you at the door and it feels like a family establishment. With only one vegetarian option on the menu, stuffed eggplant, I needed a vegan option. I asked the server if they could prepare a pasta dish with no dairy. They prepared two. For my aunt, linguine tossed in olive oil with yellow squash, green beans and basil.
And for me, the same veggies, in marinara sauce.
We both devoured our pasta. The food is consistently good at the Wayside and you can get a reliable glass of red wine. Three glasses of wine and two huge pasta dinners = $39.
The next day we took a day trip to Pittsburgh, population 310,000+. After a trip to the Andy Warhol museum we went to Abay for Ethiopian food.
Streetview of Abay
Inside
We started with an appetizer special, cold kale and black-eyed peas with lightly fried injera.
It was pretty good, but I realized that now that I eat so much cold kale in salads, I’m less fond of cooked kale. We did, however, eat almost all of it! We also enjoyed a cup of pumpkin soup, which was delicious.
We shared (as you do at an Ethiopian restaurant) a combination platter with four vegan dishes: Kay Sir Dinich (Potatoes and fresh beets stewed and blended with garlic, ginger and onions), Shiro Wat (Finely ground split peas, lentils and chickpeas simmered in berbere and a combination of seasonings), Tikki Gomen (Lightly spiced cabbage, carrots, onions and tomatoes stewed in a mild sauce) and Ye’ Abesha Gomen (Kale, peppers, ginger, garlic and onions slow-cooked in a mild sauce).
Every single dish was perfect. We ate each bite with as much injera as we could stand. But, finally, we had to ask for forks. We wanted to taste all of the dishes but simply couldn’t stand another piece of “bread.”
From rural Lucinda, PA to Pittsburgh, we had terrific meals. Though I had more pasta and “bread” within 24 hours than I normally have in a week. I think I’ll recover.
Wayside Inn Restaurant and Lounge, 1123 Old Fryburg Road, Lucinda, PA 16235
Abay Ethiopian Couisine, 130 S. Highland Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15206
JL blogs about her vegan transition at JL goes Vegan, and other musings.
Tags: A vegan gets a real meal at Oliva Cafe, New Preston, CT
As a dietary vegan it is often difficult to find a good meal at a restaurant outside of a metropolitan area. I have just returned from a week on lovely Lake Waramaug in New Preston, CT. Most of my meals were in our rented apartment, where I could cook for myself. But, thankfully, of the three meals I had out, one was actually delicious.
Oliva Cafe is located in the heart of the village and is inviting from the moment you walk in the door.
We ordered a $56 bottle of zinfandel (as in red, thank you very much) and were delighted when they came to the table with a Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin—for only $20!
I decided that I would order exactly what I wanted and hope they could “make it vegan.” Lucky me, all three dishes were prepared vegan. I started with a special of the day, Grilled Corn Salad.
Absolutely divine. I ordered a chilled soup and a side of beans as my entree, to enjoy together while my husband ate a hen. (Actually, it was Roasted Stuffed Moroccan Chicken, which he claims was delicious.) The cold Carrot and Dill Soup was fresh and light
and the side of White Beans, Garlic and Sage was worth the price of admission alone!
I ate the entire bowl.
Actually, I ate every bite from all three dishes, but who’s counting?
Oliva, 18 East Shore Road, New Preston, CT 06777-1628
JL blogs about her vegan transition at JL goes Vegan, and other musings.