CABANA BOY COOKS: Summer Pasta Salads

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Summer Pasta Salads

Taking a Dip!

As you can see here, my assistant is taking a little break from our work on this week's blog. It amazes me how she can always get me to give in to a break on a busy day like this with topics and recipes to finish up. But she does. I must be getting soft in my old age. Well it's alright as long as she knows who the boss is around here. Better get back to this week's blog topic.

We're into summer and in fact it's over the halfway mark too. Where does the time go? Well the warmest part of the summer is yet to come (good for some and not so good for others). We're still doing outside meals but may be getting a little bored with some of our food choices.

Shake up your menu and try a few new recipes. Even get out of your comfort zone. There are plenty of places to find and try some new recipes to you. I have over 300 recipes on this food blog and I'm fairly certain none of you have tried them all. So check them over and see what might appeal to you and your follow eaters.

But there are many other areas to look to. Check out the cookbooks in your home. I really don't know anyone that has ever tried all the recipes in a cookbook of 50 of more recipes that's tried them all. Ask family and/or friends for some recipes that they make that you have never eaten. In this day and age, you might try the internet. There are a few recipes out there.

This week I'm looking at pasta salads. When someone mentions a pasta salad, most people probably think of something with "Rotini" in it. Or maybe "Macaroni." The nice things is just about any pasta can work in a salad.

I've got 2 recipes this week that use a pasta that most of you would never think to use. The first one which is for Wednesday is "Israeli Couscous & Tomato Salad." But couscous is so tiny? Not Israeli Couscous. It's much larger than regular couscous. It's about the size of a small pea and works well in this dish.

Thursday's recipe is for "Orzo Salad (Nicoise Style)" and again is not the norm for a pasta salad. Nicoise style just means in the style of Nice, France. It usually involves olives, tomatoes and a vinaigrette in a salad.

"Happy Cooking" until next week when I'll talk "Tacos" to you in "Part 6 of Mexican Cuisine".

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About the Blog

Cabana Boy Cooks is a food blog that gives a little insight and help on Tuesdays. That is followed by recipes on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. This blog is for all who enjoy cooking but is geared towards new & inexperienced cooks.

This food blog came about because I wrote a cookbook for new and inexperienced individuals wishing to learn their way around the kitchen. It is an extension of that cookbook and offers more than 600 recipes here. The cookbook has an additional 125 recipes plus helpful instruction and advise..

I try to offer recipes that cover all aspects of cooking. You'll see on the tabs above that the recipes are broke into categories. Gluten-Free and Vegetarian recipes are marked behind them with a (GF) or (V) sign. Many of the other recipes can be adopted to meet gluten-free or vegetarian by making minor changes.

Please, don't hesitate to contact me through the comments section of the blog with questions or concerns.

Remember to share my link with family, friends and co-workers.

Thank you for following my food blog and "Happy Cooking."

My Cookbook

More Than Your First Cookbook

Every year, thousands of young people graduate high school or college and find themselves on their own for the first time. Amid all the excitement and freedom that comes with this fresh start, many of these newly independent people will find themselves out of their comfort zone when it comes to one critically important area--food.

This cookbook helps those people establish a new comfort zone in the "Kitchen" and learn to enjoy being creative in their culinary pursuit.

The cookbook draws on all the years of my life to collect the recipes, tips, anecdotes and life advice that will help everyone. From safety and sanitation to menu planning and budgeting, I walk new cooks through all the basics of food preparation. A great gift for children or grandchildren just beginning to cook for themselves and a useful reference for more experienced cooks, this cookbook offers readers 125 mouthwatering recipes to match all tastes and abilities. I believe that cooking should be fun and personal, so all the recipes leave room for experimentation. There are even tips on how to make a few of the dishes fit into a vegetarian diet.

Breakfast, soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees, sides and desserts are all covered, along with a few odds and ends. Whether you're looking for the right way to set the table for a formal dinner, you want to take your grilling to the next level or you just want to figure out how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon, The cookbook will help you find the answer.

GLUTEN-FREE Recipes and Information

A few years ago, my granddaughter discovered she has Celiac and needs to be Gluten-Free. I started doing a special week of Gluten-Free information and recipes on this blog then and they appear every four (4) weeks. So if you happen to be on a Gluten-Free diet or know someone that could this help, please check it out.

There is a recipe tab above that holds all the GF recipes (in alphabetical order). It also holds the information posts in the order they have been posted.

All Gluten-Free recipes have this (GF) mark behind the titles. There are many other recipes on this blog that are or can be easily adapted to be Gluten-Free. So you may want to check other recipes too.

I also try and mark VEGETARIAN recipes with a (V) behind the titles as well. I hope these features help many of you that want or need these options for your lifestyle.

About the Blog's Author

I spend over 40 years in the food industry doing everything from pot scrubber/dishwasher to managing around 250 employees. In 2009 I retired from my career to start a new adventure. That adventure was to write and publish a cookbook for new and inexperienced cooks. Many of my years in the industry involved working in "Higher Education." I saw a need for such a cookbook as I watched college students move on to a life on their own. So it has become a mission of mine to help anyone that wants to improve their cooking skills and learn to enjoy being in the kitchen.

In April of 2011 I started my food blog "Cabana Boy Cooks" as a continuation of the cookbook. The blog covers many areas and topics. It also offers at least two (2) recipes a week not found in the cookbook. There is now over 200 recipes for you on this food blog.

Once a month, I write a food column under "Cabana Boy Cooks" in the weekly newspaper, Nodaway News Leader in Maryville, MO that includes a recipe. Some of the recipes are from this food blog and others come from my cookbook "More Than Your First Cookbook"