Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Think I've got writer's block. There's few that would believe it, but it appears to be true. I've started this post several times, only to erase my words and try again. Guess it just means that I'd best just get 'er done and move along.

Last night's dinner was another combined effort between the big guy and his wiff. He cooked some lovely little lamb chops on a cast iron grill pan in his outside kitchen, and I whipped up a pasta salad. A darn good thing he cooked the lamb outside too - those little morsels certainly would have smoked us right out of the house had he done it inside, and then I would have had to nag.

 
When we married, the big guy brought a huge collection of cast iron cookware to the party - everything you can think of from several different sizes of dutch ovens, some with legs some without, to a multitude of many sized skillets and some things with strange shapes that I had no idea what their purpose. At first I was hesitant to use the stuff. I mean it looked kind of ruff, some of it a little rusty or grubby and "hello" I have this thing about scrubbing everything with SOAP. That's not something that you're supposed to use on cast iron. Well now I have my favorite pieces of the stuff that I use all the time and the secret's up. I do scrub the heck out of it but when I'm done I spray it with cooking spray and put it back in a warm oven to re-season. There's lots of things that just wouldn't be the same made in any other cookware - the stews and braises in my favorite little dutch oven are amazing, the cornbread cooked in a 9 inch skillet is perfectly crusty on the outside and moist and tender inside and then there's the fried chicken in the 12" skillet, the pancakes done on the grill pan, the peach cobbler in the 10" and, oh well it just goes on and on. Guess I'm converted, aren't I?

But I digress - so much for not having anything to say. We kind of knew that wouldn't last, mmm? The pasta salad is my take on a mediterranean pasta salad from myrecipes.com and I made it pretty much as the recipe said, except I cut it in half because I didn't want a ton of leftovers. I also added 1/4 cup of minced sweet onion and some roasted red peppers to the sun-dried tomatoes, green olives and feta cheese already sharing the bowl with shell macaroni. Along with some fresh basil from my outside herb garden (OK - so now I'm bragging aren't I), in a light vinaigrette dressing, it was a fitting accompaniment to the big guy's grilled lamb chops and a darned easy Sunday night dinner.

Comments

[Mags]

OMG...lolol! I just now realized that the "Steve" that commented on my chocolate creme brulee post is your Steve. The "wiff" thing finally got me to make the connection. (I'm a little slow some days, especially today...lol)

The salad looks fab Juney! (great photo too...hint, hint)

[June]

Yup, that's my big guy. If he wins your candle, I'm not sure where he's gonna' be wearing it. LOLOLOL

[noble pig]

Looks so yummy, love pasta salad.

[June]

We never seem to get tired of pasta in any form, do you?