A Recipe

Well, we're still in Utah recovering from the wedding weekend. We had a wonderful time with family and still have the opportunity to spend some time with family this week before we go home on Sunday. I promise I have pictures coming - both here and on the photography blog.

Until then, here's a recipe I promised to share. I made it for a post-wedding BBQ we had on Sunday afternoon. It's a recipe of my mom's and I LOVE it. You should definitely try it for your next outdoor/BBQ type meal.

Asian Pasta Salad

12 ounces curly pasta (I use tri-color rotini, but any curly pasta would work.)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup oil, divided
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups cooked shredded chicken (I often use the packaged pre-cooked chicken.)
1/2 cup green onion (Can omit if you want. I do.)
1-2 cups torn spinach

Cook pasta and rinse in cold water. Set aside. In small frying pan, cook 1/4 cup oil and sunflower seeds over medium low heat until slightly browned. (Watch the sunflower seeds carefully. I sometimes take them off the heat when the oil starts to bubble. They keep cooking when the oil is hot and it's easy to burn them.) In another container, stir together remaining oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to create a marinade. In a salad bowl, pour marinade and browned sunflower seeds and oil over the cooked pasta. Toss in chicken, cover and refrigerate. Toss in spinach and onions an hour before serving.

It's even better the second day. If it lasts that long.

Recipe Deliciousness Testing - Father's Day Edition

Normally I wouldn't post more recipes so soon, but really loved the dinner we had tonight. We had london broil, fresh corn, and these delicious potatoes


Found at this fabulous website.


For dessert, we had this new strawberry recipe - strawberries and dumplings


From this stellar food website.
Her recipes are fabulous and her photography is beautiful. I want to make every single recipe I see from her. And I am thrilled to have found a new strawberry recipe. You should make it. It's just delicious. We put my favorite homemade vanilla ice cream on top. (It's the last recipe in the post. I omitted the raspberries. Though it is delicious with the raspberries as well. If you have a large, old-fashioned ice cream maker, use this vanilla ice cream recipe.)

Yummy! Go try one of them! Let me know if you liked the results!

Recipe Deliciousness Testing - Cookie Edition

When Michal posts a recipe, I try it. Like all members of the Miner family, I know she doesn't make or serve anything that isn't delicious AND beautiful. So, when she talked about these cookies on her blog, I knew I had to try them. I've made them three or four times in as many weeks. I love them. The dough is delicious, the cookies are delicious, and they look great. Like Michal says, you have to use the good stuff with this recipe - real butter, vanilla extract and real milk chocolate (Guittard or Ghiradelli) chips. To quote her, "If you're going to substitute margerine or imitation vanilla or Nestle chocolate chips, then don't bother --just use the Toll House recipe."

She's right.

Get the recipe here. Seriously. It's worth the time to click over and see it.

Recipe Deliciousness Testing

I love to bake. I also love to cook, but I really love baking.

I love to read cooking and baking blogs. I'm really in awe of people who can brilliantly tweak and make up delicious recipes. (Especially this blog. She rules.)

I am not one of those people.

I do, however, feel I can recognize what will be a delicious recipe when I read it. So, instead of being a recipe creator, you can count on me for confirmation of recipe deliciousness.

Here is my first confirmation of recipe deliciousness - Pudding Cookies.




I found the recipe on my friend Heidi's blog. (I want to be like Heidi when I grow up. She's amazing.) I knew just because Heidi liked the cookies that they would be good, but I can confirm that they are delicious.

Pudding Cookies
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 package instant pudding
(you can use any flavor to change the taste of the cookies. On Heidi's recommendation, I used chocolate)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups of chocolate chips or 1 package of peanut butter chips
(Again, you can substitute whatever you want in terms of chips. I used semi-sweet.)

Mix the sugars and butter until creamy. Add the pudding, eggs and vanilla and cream again. Add the flour and baking soda until combined. Add the chips. Spoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (I used my Silpat.)

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
(Mine took 11-12 minutes. I have a gas oven. I love gas for cooking, but I'm finding that it is tough for baking. The heat isn't constant. Or maybe I'm making that up. But it seems like I have to raise the heat five degrees or cook a couple minutes longer when I bake.)


They're delicious. I gave the entire batch away THAT DAY. Couldn't have them in the house. It's my new solution - I can bake whatever I want, but I have to give the whole batch away.

This is G-Man wishing he could have a cookie for breakfast:


This is G-Man dragging his chair around the house. It doesn't have anything to do with the cookies. I just thought it was a cute thing he started doing this week.