Busy little bee.

For me, everything happens all at once. Appointments, PTA stuff, important packages, social events, new furniture (which means unpacking more boxes) and of course laundry day every Friday. It seems like I've got less and less time to blog, and I don't like that. Not one bit. So, I apologize for not being more attentive here. I've got some really good recipes coming though, so don't fret.

Saturday, I cooked out. It may not sound like a big deal to you, but it was my first time by myself, with my own grill, at my own place. It was a big deal to me. And by myself means that no one helped me. Well, except my daughter. She handed me stuff and helped with picking up trash from food packages. She's awful sweet. But there were no other adults involved, so I cooked alone. No coaching. No one to tell me how to do things. I felt like a big-time grown up! Lol.

We had burgers, and hot dogs, plus some spruced up boxed pasta salad I made. It was the Hidden Valley Southwest Ranch Pasta Salad. I've had it before, but just not nearly this delicious. I made it a day in advance so it'd taste better. It's like chili, or soup, or spaghetti. Always tastes better the second day. I prepared it according to the box, but I added home grown tomatoes (my mom and I grew them), diced organic mushrooms, large dice cucumbers, and home grown basil. I made the cucumbers a bit fancy. I like to take my zester and run it down the cucumber on opposite sides of it until it's all been 'striped'. It looks like this.

Then, when you slice it/dice it whatever, it looks really fancy. So my pasta salad ended up with good flavor, and good presentation. The tomatoes were grown in my kitchen during the spring, then when they got too big for the pots I planted them in my moms garden. So we both grew them. The Basil is all me. I started growing it in early April, and had no idea that I'd produce so much of it. So I use it every chance I get. It's really quite delicious. The mushrooms came from Kroger. This is MY photo of how it turned out. I didn't get a chance to take a photo in a fancy bowl. This was the leftovers. It was delicious!

Anyhoo, my mom and sister came over for the cookout and loved the food. I was pretty worried about it, being my first time grilling out by myself and all. But everything turned out really delicious, and I'm quite proud. Heh. 

Now that we have a grill, I'll probably do this every weekend with other meats. I've wanted to grill a pizza for a while now. Probably wait til the dead of winter to do that. Hahahaha.. 

So I'll go through my recipe books and pick a good'n for you guys. Til then..

Eat up, y'all!