Kaitlyn's Favorite Antipasto Salad

Kaitlyn's Favorite Antipasto Salad
Serves: 8
Level: SUPER EASY


Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 1/4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 1/4 cup dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pound corkscrew tri-colored macaroni
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 2/3 cups broccoli florets
• 5 ounces mini peperoni 
• 1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 
• 1 can sliced black olives

Directions:

• Cook pasta in salted water until al dente.
• In a large bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, basil, and salt & pepper(s); mix well. 
• Toss the warm cooked pasta in and coat well.
• Toss with the Parmesan cheese, then refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
• After chilling for a few hours, add the broccoli, pepperoni, tomatoes, and olives; mix well.
• Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese then serve. 

This salad goes well with your summer bar-b-que functions and most meals. My daughter Kaitlyn begs me to make this for her almost on a weekly basis.

How to Cook a Pumpkin

Start with a fresh pumpkin, cutting tools (I like to use standard pumpkin carving tools - they work really well!) and a covered dish to cook the pumpkin in. 
 

 Cut open the pumpkin.

 

Using this tool, take out the seeds and clean them off. 

Once the seeds are clean salt them. Then you can put them in the oven to toast them to eat at a later time. Yum!

  

A clean pumpkin looks like this:

Cut the the pumpkin into pieces that will fit inside a bowl that will fit into your microwave, add about 1/2 cup of so of water. The steam from the water helps soften the pumpkin.

Cover the dish and put it in the microwave for 15 minutes to start. Check it after 15 minutes, but be careful, it's H*O*T!! You may need to cook it longer depending on how much you put in the dish and how your microwave temperature runs. 

Once the pumpkin is ready it should just fall off the skin, again, its HOT so be careful you don't burn yourself.

Once its cooked make sure you peel it from the skin, put the pumpkin meat into a bowl and use a hand mixer to puree it.

I usually cook a few pumpkins and put them in a 2 cup container and store them in the freezer. This way I have "fresh" pumpkin all year long and it's so much cheaper (and tastes better) than store bought canned pumpkin.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

Ingredients

1 cup butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling: 

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2-1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
5 to 6 tablespoons milk (enough for a creamy consistency) 

Directions

Mix the peanut butter, shortening, and sugars in a mixing bowl. Add the vanilla. One at a time, add eggs and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix dry ingredients into the sugar and peanut butter mixture.

Using a cookie scooper, place one inch balls onto ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with a fork to create a criss-cross pattern. Bake for 8-9 minutes at 375 degrees.

 

Cool on a cooling rack.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, be cautious not to overheat and burn the chocolate.  Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a mixing bowl and mix until creamy, if the mix is too stiff, add more milk. I just experimented with this part of the recipe. Spread on one cookie and top with another.  Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.

Be ready, these things are BIG! 

Sit back and enjoy!