Spring Pasta Salad

MADDIE DAY here, with a warm-weather dish. Yes, it's only mid-May, but we had a heat wave here this week, and I couldn't bear much cooking in 93-degree weather. I turned on the vent above the stove and boiled a pot of pasta, then threw together this salad once the pasta cooled.

It's adaptable to whatever vegetables and herbs you have around.

Spring Pasta Salad

Ingredients

Half a box of shaped pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 cup diced cucumber 

3 small tomatoes, cubes

1/4 cup diced yellow pepper

1/4 cup diced feta cheese

1 teaspoon capers

salt and pepper

Directions

Cook the pasta according the directions on the box. Rinse, toss with the olive oil, and let cool. Combine all other ingredients and toss, then add salt and pepper to taste. Fresh slivered basil would be a nice addition, but I didn't have any.

We ate outdoors with grilled salmon and chilled white wine. Bon appetit!

Readers: What do you like in your pasta salad?

🥗🍷🥗

A Poisonous Pour is out and available wherever books are sold!

Next up is Murder at the Toy Soldier, Cozy Capers Book Group #8, which releases in late August.

My most recent releases are Murder at Cape Costumers,

Scone Cold Dead, #13 in the Country Store Mysteries,

and A Case for the Ladies.

Check out all my writing.

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Libby's Summer Pasta Salad #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

  Libby Klein I wrote you the loveliest post about this Pasta salad and somehow lost the entire thing. This is a pared-down version of the original - which was a delight - because I'm busy throwing a fit over the lost hour I spent. Try to enjoy it in the spirit it was intended. Pasta Salad can be whatever you want it to be. All it takes is three things. 1. Pasta - any kind you like. I used this gluten-free rotini I found at Whole Foods and it was amazing. 2. Fresh Veggies or Fruits. 3. Dressing - vinaigrette is traditional but you can make it whatever you want. One of these days I'll make a dessert Pasta Salad. What would you put in your pasta salad? Let me know in the comments.

Libby's Summer Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

12 oz cooked Pasta
1 cup chopped colorful cherry tomatoes
1 chopped yellow pepper
1 chopped orange pepper
1 sliced scallions
1/3 cup sliced kalamata olives
1 ear fresh corn, steamed and de-cobbed (is de-cobbed a word?)

 

Dressing:

1 cup of good quality olive oil - if it doesn't get thick in the fridge be very afraid
1/3 cup of nice vinegar - I used orange blossom vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
Sweeten to taste - I used 1 tsp liquid stevia
1 Tbsp herbs - I went with an Italian blend

Directions:

Cook Pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, set aside. A word about gluten-free pasta - In my opinion, a blend of rice with other grains like corn or quinoa will always have a better texture than rice pasta alone. Gluten-free pasta has come a long way. It used to feel like you were eating a rubber hose. This brand from Whole Foods held it's texture even after tossing it with the veggies and dressing.

Chop all vegetables and toss them together in your mixing bowl. Add the pasta on top. Gently combine.

 

Put all dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight lid or a single-cup blender. Mix together and pour over the pasta salad. Toss gently to combine. Salt and Pepper to taste. 

Serve chilled, but remove the pasta salad from the fridge a few minutes before serving so the olive oil has time to melt down. If your olive oil stays liquidy in the fridge you need to be very afraid. Gently toss again to re-dress the pasta.

 Poppy McAllister discovers that gluten-free Halloweens can scare up another case of murder in the latest installment of this delightful culinary B&B mystery series! - Kirkus Reviews

Poppy is none too pleased when her B&B is coerced into participating in the Cape May Haunted Dinners Tour during Halloween season. Though her knack for finding dead bodies has given the place a spooky reputation, the Murder House is a completely undeserved nickname. At least it used to be . . .
 
While Poppy wrangles with some guests who can’t stop squabbling with each other—including a paranormal researcher, a very quirky pet psychic who freaks out her portly Persian, and an undercover tabloid reporter eager to catch her staff in a lie—one of them winds up facedown in a plate of tiramisu. And now she has bigger worries than getting her house TP’d . . .
 
Includes Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen!
 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Orzo Salad from @MaddieDayAuthor plus #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, delighted to bring you a recipe from Batter Off Dead! 

The book takes place amid a hot July. The present-day murder happens during Friday night fireworks in South Lick, Indiana. Eerily, it echoes an unsolved murder from long ago. Will Robbie Jordan be able to solve one or both? You'll have to read the book to find out. Luckily, you don't have long to wait - it releases February 22. 

And look - my box of books arrived early!

Read down for a giveaway.

As a few of us discussed around the kitchen table last Sunday, it can be hard to find summer ingredients while iced-in during the winter - like now. This easy yummy salad calls for fresh basil. But, oh, my. The only basil I could find this week was tired, indeed. And I was fresh out of lemons. So I took the liberty to transform the salad into a delicious side dish served hot.

Orzo Salad

In Batter Off Dead, Robbie’s husband Abe makes this easy side dish for a July Sunday night dinner.

Ingredients

3 cups cooked orzo, tossed while warm with 1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved

½ cup sliced marinated artichoke hearts

Fresh basil leaves, slivered

2 additional tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or rice wine vinegar

Directions

Toss all ingredients and serve at room temperature.

Adding the pesto

Option one: Add other Mediterranean vegetables like halved cherry tomatoes, diced sweet red pepper, and diced roasted eggplant.

Option two: In the winter, add a tablespoon basil pesto and omit the lemon juice or vinegar. Serve as a warm side dish. This is what I did last week.

We enjoyed it with sauteed chicken, a green salad, and a glass of chilled white. Plus a good book, of course!

Readers: What's your favorite side dish with chicken? I'll send one commenter a signed copy of Batter Off Dead! 

I hope you'll join me and nine other cozy mystery authors in a fun Facebook party on February 22 (2-22-22!) with chat and games and giveaways. We'll not only celebrate my release but also the tenth book birthday of the Country Store Mysteries. Find us here.

My most recent release is Murder at the Lobstah Shack, the third Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery.

The next up is Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10, to release on February 22,  2022. Preorder your copy now!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Fresca's Tortellini Salad, from Treble at the Jam Fest

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: This pasta salad is one of the first dishes I deconstructed and made on my own, based on a salad from a long-gone deli called Pasta & Company. It had several locations in Seattle, including one on the 4th Avenue side of the building often called “the box the Space Needle came in,” where my law firm had offices. (It’s actual name was the Seattle First National Bank Building, and it was too short for the Needle, but I suspect Sea-First financed the construction, and the name stuck.)

I felt like such a city girl eating there, especially if my suit allowed me to sit on a stool in the window and watch the people!

I’ve given that space to Laurel, who runs the deli and catering company Ripe in my Seattle Spice Shop books, but I kept the recipe for Erin and Fresca in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries. Fresca makes piles of it to sell at the Merc, and in TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST, they take it on a picnic for the outdoor concert at the annual Jewel Bay Jazz Festival.

Imagine my surprise when I bought a different brand of tortellini recently and found a very similar salad on the package!

And even though it’s a summer favorite at our house, I also like to make a batch during Christmas week when it’s great to have something easy and different to pull out of the fridge—and because the colors make me happy.

I hope this salad makes you happy, too.

Tortellini Salad

2- 8 ounce boxes tortellini (tri-color is prettiest)
1 to 1-1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, lightly drained and chopped
2 cups chopped tomatoes (we like grape or cherry tomatoes, because they hold their shape and stay firm)
½ cup green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons capers
1 cup Parmesan, shredded
1 cup hard or Genoa salami, stacked and cut in strips (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or basil
1/4 cup olive oil OR oil from the artichoke marinade
salt and fresh ground pepper

Optional: 1/2 bell pepper, chopped (I like to mix red and green, but any color will be lovely.)

Cook pasta as directed; rinse with cold water, and drain, stirring to release steam and stop pasta cooking.

In a large bowl, combine the artichoke hearts, tomatoes, green onions, capers, Parmesan, salami, fresh herbs, and the bell pepper if you're using it. Add the pasta and mix. Stir in the oil and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 8. Keeps well.

From the cover of TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST, Food Lovers' Village Mystery #4 (Midnight Ink, June 8, 2017):  

Erin Murphy, manager of Murphy’s Mercantile (aka the Merc), is tuning up for Jewel Bay’s annual Jazz Festival. Between keeping the Merc’s shelves stocked with Montana’s tastiest local fare and hosting the festival’s kick-off concert, Erin has her hands full.

Discord erupts when jazz guitarist Gerry Martin is found dead on the rocks above the Jewel River. The one-time international sensation had fallen out of sync with festival organizers, students, and performers. Was his death an accident?or did someone even the score?

Despite the warning signs to not get involved, Erin investigates. And when the killer attacks, she orchestrates her efforts into one last crescendo, hoping to avoid a deadly finale.

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. The past president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by my website and join the mailing list for my seasonal newsletter. And join me on Facebook where I announce lots of giveaways from my cozy writer friends.

The Keys to Pasta Salad That I Never Knew

There are a few dishes that bomb every time I try to make them. One of them is pasta salad. Try as I might, I always end up with something heavy that isn't quite right. So with forgiving pasta-loving friends coming for dinner, I thought I would try again, and I perused the net for helpful hints.

The first lucky hit was an article by Sheela Prakash at Epicurious called The Italian Secret to a Great Pasta Salad. When she was in Italy, she learned that instead of chopping garlic and putting it in the salad, the wise Italians use essence of garlic by slicing a garlic clove in half and rubbing it on the bowl! Brilliant! I've read that technique before but it never occurred to me for pasta salad.

Then I stumbled upon Rochelle Bilow's article for Bon Appetite, How to Totally Ruin (Or Upgrade) Your Pasta Salad. She gives seven great tips. A couple of them stood out to me because they were things I always do.

Don't rinse your pasta under water! Instead, drizzle it with olive oil and toss. What a great tip! Less work and you're already dressing the pasta while keeping it from sticking together.

The other thing that I did in my disastrous pasta salad past was add corn or peas. Ixnay! Rochelle is so right. They're too small and they end up left over in the bottom of the bowl.

So, armed with this information, I set out to make my own pasta salad. Feel free to use whatever items speak to you. This is a matter of mixing a few things that are fabulous together, like olives, red peppers, bits of cheese, zucchini, or nuts. Be creative! I'm thinking baby spinach and kale leaves next time!

I used 4 slices of Applegate Farms' Good Morning Bacon with more meat and 60% less fat. Your favorite bacon will work fine. I happened to have Italian Herbs from Penzeys, which is a blend of oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary. I sprinkled it over the top liberally, added a dash of salt and a good bit of pepper and tossed it all together. Don't skip the herbs. They infuse the dish with flavor. This is very much a taste-and-see kind of dish. Go with what tastes good to you.

The best news? This is the first time in my life that I didn't drown the poor pasta in mayonnaise. It was delicious and light.

Simple Pasta Salad

1/2 pound fusilli pasta
4 slices bacon
1 garlic clove
good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 avocado
8 ounces cherry tomatoes
generous sprinkle Italian spice mix
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Cook the bacon. Slice the garlic clove in half and rub the two sides all over the inside of a large bowl.

When the pasta has cooked, do not rinse with water. Drain and flip into the garlic-infused bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss the pasta to coat. Crumble the bacon into the bowl. Cut the avocado into bite-size pieces and add to the bowl. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the bowl. Toss to blend. Generously sprinkle the herbs across the top of the pasta, add a little salt, and pepper to taste. Try the pasta and add more olive oil or herbs or salt if needed. Toss and serve.

Toss with olive oil while warm so it won't stick together.

Avocado Bacon Pasta Salad

Company arrived this weekend. My poor friends were subjected to a fall menu because I was testing recipes for a book. Their main course was going to be Meatloaf Mummies, but what to serve with it?

Sure, you're thinking I should throw something on the grill. That would have been my inclination, except it was our third straight day of pouring rain. For some reason, I kept thinking of guacamole and how nice the creamy avocado would be with pasta. So I went with bow-tie pasta and added avocado, tomatoes, and red pepper. And I discovered a package of leftover bacon. Perfect!

This is super simple but it turned out great. You can cook the pasta and bacon ahead of time, which simplified everything. In fact, you can make the whole thing ahead of time, except for the avocado and cherry tomatoes. The avocado is likely to turn brown if it's not added at the last minute, and we all know tomatoes lose their flavor in the fridge.

Avocado Bacon Pasta Salad

6 slices bacon
8 ounces bow-tie pasta (or rotini or shells)
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
5-6 cherry tomatoes
1 ripe avocado

Cook the bacon until crisp and cook the pasta according to directions on the package.

When the pasta is cool, crumble the bacon into it. Add the onion, red pepper, garlic powder, and mayonnaise and mix thoroughly. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at this point if you are not going to eat it right away.

 Before serving, add the chopped avocado and halved cherry tomatoes.

Quick Pasta Salad

While I was visiting family in Alabama, we enjoyed a tasty pasta salad that my husband’s family served cold alongside of sandwiches for an oven-free meal. And if I thought it was hot in North Carolina, Alabama was like an oven, itself!

The only hot part of this meal is the cooking of the pasta on the stove. After that, you’ve got a delicious side dish…or even a main dish. It filled me up pretty well (pasta always seems to.)

The pimentos make it Southern. :)

Quick Pasta Salad

1 16 oz package Vermicelli
1 T all-purpose seasoning
1 T seasoning salt
3 T lemon juice
4 T oil
4 oz. chopped pimento, drained
1 pepper, chopped fine (green or red)
3/4 cup green onion
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

Mix all the ingredients and chill overnight.

Stay cool! :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (Riley Adams)
Finger Lickin’ Dead—June 7 (book 2 of the Memphis BBQ series!) It’s here! Download it on Kindle: http://amzn.to/kh7MAp
Mass market paperback: http://amzn.to/lfUE2N

Tortellini Pasta Salad

It’s the potluck supper time of year for those of us at the Craig/Adams household. :)

Both Scouts and my church love to have potlucks around the holidays. The food is always amazing there, and I sometimes go home with new recipes, if I’m lucky.

The challenge, for me anyway, is what to bring. I’m not a huge fan of wrestling a crockpot or a chafing dish into my car, so my plan is usually to go with something more portable that wouldn’t have to be kept warm.

Pasta salad is perfect.

It’s also a little bit healthier than some of the recipes I’ve featured lately. :) You’re still getting your carbs in, of course, (I’m a firm believer in carbs!), but you can put in a lower-fat dressing or cheese and that would help even further.

Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad

1 can quartered artichoke hearts
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup green onions
1/4 cup sliced black olives
3/4 cup red onion
19 oz. uncooked cheese-stuffed tortellini (I used frozen)
2 oz. chopped salami
1 cup Caesar salad croutons
8 oz. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup Caesar salad dressing
1/2 t pepper
Romaine lettuce to serve on

Cook frozen tortellini according to package directions and let cool.
Combine all the ingredients and chill. Serve on Romaine lettuce.

Yes, it’s another quick and easy recipe! And this one is actually pretty. :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (July 6, 2010) Riley Adams
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig

And Don’t Forget About….

Krista's Christmas
Cookie Contest
Krista Davis is celebrating the upcoming release
of her new holiday mystery, The Diva Cooks a Goose.

She's holding a delicious contest!

Send Krista your favorite cookie recipe
at Krista at KristaDavis dot com and you might win!