Revisiting My Favorite Pasta Salad

I shared this recipe a few years ago as we were approaching the Fourth of July, touting it as a perfect side for burgers, brats, ribs, chicken or steak, but chances are your July fourth is going to look a little different this year. Though that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some delicious summertime dishes. Like this super yummy pasta salad.

Naturally, the key ingredient is pasta. You're welcome to use whatever you like/have on hand, but I prefer something with a little color so I often opt for the Wacky Mac or some other tri-colored pasta.

Sometimes you can even find holiday pasta, like red, white and blue stars or red and green Christmas trees. I've seen them at places like Homegoods and Cost Plus World Market. They're fun for both cooking and decorating. Simply keep them on display in a sealed mason jar until you're ready to use them. (BTW, I have no idea why my font size changed)

Cook your pasta according to package directions to al dente. Once the time is up, drain immediately and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Then place your cooked pasta into a bowl. 

Add some chopped red onion, bell pepper and sliced black olives. 

These are my veggies of choice, but you're welcome to add whatever you like. But this next ingredient is what takes this pasta salad to the next level.

Imitation crab, which can usually be found in the meat section of your favorite market, is the key ingredient. Chop it up and stir in as much or little as you like into your pasta mixture.

Top everything with some Italian salad dressing (I don't recommend fat-free versions because without the oil the liquid ends up soaking into the pasta, making for a drier salad) and toss again.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator until ready to serve. That means you can make it the day ahead. But when something is this easy, you really don't have to.

Colorful, tasty and simple, making this one of my all-time favorite recipes. Oh, and did I mention it's always a crowd-pleaser?

So what is your Independence Day celebration going to look like this year? I know a lot of the larger cities will be televising their annual fireworks. Somehow, that's just not the same. Ours will be lower than low-key since we'll be celebrating two of our grandsons' graduation on the third. Yes, I have now have two adult grandchildren. And yes, I had my first child when I as ten. 

Award-winning author Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com

Roaming the Black Hills

Jan here, with another virtual hike in the Black Hills!

Last week we hiked the Lover's Leap trail in Custer State Park. The legend is that two Native American lovers leaped to their death from this spot, the highest point in the trail, but legends are legends. You can judge if the story is true or not!

The trail's route has changed since the first time we hiked it several years ago. In November 2017, the Legion Lake fire went through this area, changing the landscape and destroying many of the trees...but not all of them. As part of the clean up after the fire, the park staff rerouted the trail and lengthened it from three miles to four miles.

Now that we know the route, it's time to tie on our hiking boots and set out. Be sure to bring at least a quart of water per person!

We'll start out on the lower part of the trail, along the stream.

These bridges make the many creek crossings easy!

We need to watch out for a couple dangers along the way...

Poison ivy abounds in the undergrowth!

And you always need to look up, too. This windfall branch is right over the trail, and it will come down in a windstorm someday...hopefully when no one is underneath it!

We start climbing up onto the ridge at about the half-way point on the trail. The terrain is drier, steeper, and rockier.

We also see evidence of the Legion Lake fire.

I thought this tree was so interesting, with the bark only covering about half the trunk all the way from the ground to the crown. But it is still alive!

Finally, we reach the top! We've gone about two-thirds of the way, and it's time for a break and a snack while we enjoy the view...and get our sanity back again.

The park has also set these medallions along some of the trails. I think there are about ten of them. The idea is to do a rubbing of the medallions, then turn the set in at the visitor's center for a prize.

We need to remember to take paper and a pencil along with us on our hikes!

From here, we amble along the top of the ridge, and then back down to the trail head. Still a lovely hike!

Some hikers build cairns along the trail. 

If you've been around the Cafe for awhile, you know that I can't get enough of Custer State Park. Since we moved last summer, we're now only a twenty minute drive away. So Friday evening we went for a drive along the wildlife loop.

I didn't get a picture of the baby burros (cute as could be!) but I did get a great photo of this little one. Cinnamon is my favorite color this time of year.

Don't worry - mama bison wasn't very far away!

This time of year, last year's calves also stick close to their mamas, and you'll see trios like this within the larger herd.

But our biggest surprise was when we were on our way out of the park and we came across the tail-end of the park's elusive elk herd.

One even posed for a photo op.

I hope that you'll have the opportunity to visit Custer State Park someday. It's worth the trip! We'll go hiking together. :-)

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and growing-fast border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.

Freezing Peaches--Need Your Input!

Missy Tippens


Well, I picked up another produce box and other products from Georgia Grown To Go  yesterday! And, yay! I didn't embarrass myself this time with car doors that wouldn't unlock. :) (Still can't figure out why they didn't work last time.)

It's fun to see the different produce that comes a few weeks later. This time, the box included corn, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, Vidalia onions, green peppers, cantaloupe, and...a bag of jalapeño peppers! I believe Mindy once shared a jalapeño popper recipe, so I plan to look that up.

So we had our first of the year cantaloupe last night. It was soo good!! Perfectly ripe.

This time they also offered shiitake mushrooms grown not too far from here (up in the mountains in apple country). I roasted them for dinner along with the squash and green peppers and onions.

I also ordered a huge box of Georgia peaches. I'm so excited about these! I plan to freeze some and will be making a cobbler soon.

I'm looking for recommendations for how to freeze the peaches. I think I will do a flash dip in boiling water to help the peel come off. I wanted to see what y'all recommend to keep them from browning. Do you use lemon juice and sugar (that's one recipe I found)? What do y'all think? I plan to freeze them in bags (not canned).

I look forward to hearing from all of you!


www.missytippens.com

Chocolate Stuffed Croissants

Easy and to-die-for!!!!  I did these here a while back, but I like this version better....

Get one package of mini-croissants from your local grocery store.

Or get two packs and make enough for folks to have two!!!

We slice them in half the long way and then stuff them with homemade chocolate mousse which is my homemade delicious chocolate pudding and whipped cream (real whipped cream, darlings) folded together in a 1-1 ratio.

So good!  Here's the recipe you want for the pudding:

Elegant doesn't have to mean hard! But you are not, are not, are N-O-T allowed to use instant pudding for this, that is just so highly wrong that I almost couldn't type the words!!!!

First, you're going to make homemade chocolate pudding, it takes about 8 minutes, and most of that is standing and stirring, so the effort is minimal!

And then whipped cream, which almost makes itself, right?

And store-bought, fresh mini croissants. Or you can make the canned ones, but I like the store-bought ones better for this, and this works even if they're a little stale. You'll see what I mean!

Dark Chocolate Pudding

3 Tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
dash salt
1/3 cup corn starch
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla

In 3 quart saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add to butter. Mix with spoon.

Whisk in milk and eggs.

Return to heat, medium heat, stir or whisk until boiling. Boil and stir about one minute. Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla. Chill Completely.

If you like the skin on pudding, don't cover it. But if you don't like the skin, take a piece of plastic wrap and place it right on top of the pudding while it's hot. The plastic wrap will keep the "fat" from rising and forming the skin, and you'll have skinless pudding when it's chilled!

Whipped Cream:

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar.

Whip at high speed until stiff.

Then take 1 cup of whipped cream and 1 cup of pudding and gently fold together. (For 16 croissants you want 2 cups of each) 

Stuff croissants. Put on a pretty plate. Dust with confectioners/powdered sugar.

Refrigerate until serving.

And there's also a great vanilla/strawberry version where you layer vanilla pudding, whipped cream and sliced strawberries for a whole different kind of fancy!

I like to use the big croissants for this one because they allow a better "landscape" for layering.

Both of these ideas are great for a no-bake summer dessert OR a wonderful holiday treat!

And here's a glimpse of our FUN WITH FAIRIES!!! event coming up this Saturday at the farm!  My friend Taylor Tydings did these prototypes of the "Pick Your Own" kit we'll be selling this weekend.... So kids can use common things (coffee cups and flower pots) to make their own fairy houses to invite fairies to live in their own gardens! 

And then here's Pumpkin, the young kitty, doing her best to turn Honey Bunny (hellacious cat) into a nice cat and it seems to be working!!!! She grooms her and plays with her, then goes all subservient so that Honey Bunny THINKS she's the boss... but we're women, and we know how this works! :)

A dragonfly, up close and personal!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves writing heart-tugging books filled with unforgettable characters and cute kids who act like normal kids most of the time... which means hang onto your hat! She helps manage a pumpkin farm in Western New York and has a gang of people around most of the time during farm season, so she Did Not Like Shutdown because she's actually a people person.... but that's a topic for another day. :) Friend her on Facebook, stop by her website ruthloganherne.com, or email her directly at loganherne@gmail.com. She loves to hear from people!

My New Favorite Quarantine Discovery

Cooking for one doesn't hold much appeal, so I'm always happy when I find something that makes life easier and leaves more time for writing. If I can order it on Amazon? Even better.

My sister mentioned to me that she uses Starkist Low Sodium Tuna packets.

I'm a traditionalist. I've always gotten Bumble Bee Solid White in a can. It was the brand my husband liked, and that was fine by me.

But when I saw I could order a 24 pack box on Amazon, hey, this old dog can learn some new tricks.

But once the tuna arrived, I had to actually do something with it.

A)  I made tuna scampi.

It was so easy.  I heated some butter, garlic and lemon in a pan, added the tuna and simmered.

B) I liked this one even better!

I heated the tuna in some tomato sauce, added some basil, garlic and oregano, and served it over rice. It was good, but I'd made too much so I tossed it all together and stuck it in the refrigerator.

WOW!  That was the really good part. It chilled perfectly and made a cold tuna rice salad that was perfect for lunch. I added a few blue corn chips for crunch!

Apologies for the pathetic photo. I was halfway through eating it when I thought, THIS goes on the blog.


So what do you do with tuna beyond tuna salad?

Lazy Days at the Ranch

Well, we haven't made it to the dog days of summer yet, but things have been kind of lazy here at the ranch. 

This brief rain shower was a welcome treat, knocking temps from the 90s to the 80s. And we really need the rain.

You wouldn't think so by looking at this tank, but the others so low I fear they'll dry up if we don't get some substantial rain soon.

Here at the ranch, you never know what you might see. Exciting things like a doe with her fawn.

Or the deer and the cows hanging out together.

Of course, every cow has to have its bird.

Wherever there are cows around here, you'll find egrets. It's a symbiotic relationship. Bugs are attracted to cows and the egrets eat the bugs, so everyone is happy.

Oh, get a load of this little calf. Isn't he unique looking? And it's pretty cool that he's hanging out with his daddy.

But for all of the exciting things, there are some strange ones, too. I woke up the other morning to find this tree frog watching me.

Here, he looks rather plain and unadorned. Then I opened the door.

He's not brightly colored by any means, but how's that for some camouflage? He got a little perturbed with me though, so I had to shut the door.

And every once in a while we'll have an unwanted guest wander by. Yeah, this is when you are sure to keep the dogs inside.

No real cooking this week. At least nothing I haven't already shared before. I've had my head down in a manuscript while hubby's been out doing some shredding with the tractor. Same old, same old. What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com