Weekend Escape

I went home on Friday night to escape the high stress of the end of the semester. And, of course, to partake in some home-cooked food.

Friday night we had bratwurst fresh off the grill! So good! Talk about a summer dinner on the back porch! I had never made them on my own, but only watched my dad make them. This time I helped, and the satisfaction was even greater.

Just take a look at that plate--->

Does that look like summer or what?

Saturday morning, my dad made juevos con chorizo-- eggs, veggies, and hot chorizo, mixed with mexican cheese and wrapped in a warm tortilla. This is a family breakfast favorite.

Before going back to school, I always like to cook or bake something to take back with me. My personal favorite, to bake and to eat, is oatmeal raisin cookies. I would take an oatmeal cookie over any other kind any day of the week. Not only are the delicious, they also help trick myself into believing that I am eating a 'healthy' version of a sugar and butter packed treat. Seals the deal right there!

I also made pasta salad to share with my Relay for Life team. Relay is a 12 hour event, through the night, in which at least one person from each team must be walking at all times. (All proceeds go towards fighting cancer!) It was going to be a very long night, and we would need sustenance.

Now, I don't know why, but I think pasta salad always intimidated me just a little bit. I think maybe it has to do with summer block parties, and all of the mom's bringing giant pots of it to share. I don't know why this would intimidate me, even in theory it doesn't seem very complicated. Anyways, I made pasta salad for the first time this weekend, and it was pretty darn good. It kind of turned into an 'everything-but-the-kitchen-sink' dish because I didn't really have any idea of where to limit myself. So if something sounded tasty, I would throw it in. This could have proved disastrous, but it turned out fantastic. Although that might also be personal bias and pride speaking...

I used a pound of pasta, a mix of two previously opened boxes. Cooked and drained.
Mixed in olive oil (enough to cover all the noodles) and balsamic vinegar (to taste, which also gave the noodles a darker color).
Mixed in some cooked veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onions), quartered and uncooked cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, red pepper flakes and salt to taste.
The final touch was about a tablespoon of Old Bay. And this made all the difference! The salad seemed like it was missing something until I added this.

We did not have olives or celery in the house, so these traditional ingredients were left out. I don't know that I have ever had pasta salad with mushrooms, but I feel that it gave the dish a nice taste, as well a unique twist. And I think my Relay team agreed. They devoured it almost as soon as we had set up our campsite!