Pasta Salad Serendipity

[Stinky The Clown]

What with the DU server issues and my (overwhelmingly sad) obsession with Memorial Day this year, I forgot to post this.

We went next door for a neighborhood wing ding on Sunday evening. Sparkly was supposed to be on deck with her to-die-for deviled eggs, but due to a timing issue ...... well ...... her egg salad was okay.

We decided at the last minute to do an 'atonement' salad of some sort.

I poked my prodigious schnozz in the fridge lookin' fer whatever so's we could make a salad.

Here's what we found in the leftovers bin .......

Grilled red, yellow, and orange peppers, marinated in olive oil, salt and pepper, and balsamico.

Smoked shrimps leftover from the night before. We smoked 'em en-shell with alder chips in the Cameron's smoker.

Chopped parsley, oregano, and basil leftover from a meat marinade I made (for me, cuz Sparkly's meat averse) but still green and fresh looking.

Four nice, red, ripe, plum tamadas (technically, not in the fridge, but in the veggie basket on the shelf)

Haffa onion

Okay, I'm thinkin' ... I can work with this.

So I get a pound of Barilla penne and cook 'em up.
While the penne's cookin' I slice the onion reeeeeeel thin
I cut the pepper hunks into a nice, large julienne
I peel the shrimps an' cut each one into four hunks
I quarter the tamadas and then quarter each quarter

Drain the penne and shock it with cold water.

Put it in a big salad bowl (big as in REALLY big - cuz this wuzza lotta stuff)

Dump everything together.

Add a liddle more olive oil and balsamico, add some salt an' pepper.

Cover with saran warp.

Put it all back in the fridge for the three hours till the wing ding.

The whole messa pasta was gone. The dogs got to lick the bowl. Really clean. So clean I *almost* put it back in the cabinet.

What was sooooooo nice about this was the smoky, grilled flavor that permeated everything. The peppers had a really good grilled taste to them. But the shrimps are what really did it. The smoke flavor really, really got into everything.

It was yummygood!

[NMDemDist2]

1. don't ya just love when your refer yeilds an unexpected treat

i amaze my self sometimes too.. it sounds wunnerful!

my mission for this weekend is chicken/rice enchiladas

I have a lovely Hispanic customer that always brings extra for the "coffee couple" when they do a pot luck and her food is AWESOME!!

so I asked her for the secret... and she told me!! First try this weekend, I'll let you guys know when it's worth sharing...