Pesto Pasta Salad

 Yesterday I took 

Pesto Pasta Salad

to a birthday luncheon.

The original recipe is from my friend 

Steph (Stuph From Steph)

So many asked for the recipe

that I wanted to share it here.

Stephanie makes pretty food.

This is her version

decorated out with 

designer cellophane on a tray.

Happy Birthday Michaelanne!

My version was a little more casual

in a bowl

but the taste was just as excellent :)

Such an easy recipe that I especially like because it 

can be made the day before.

Steph's Recipe:

Pesto Pasta Salad

what you need:

•1 pound rotini pasta

•1/2 costco-size jar of basil pesto

(or 1 grocery store-size tub)

•1/2 cup craisins

•1/2 cup pine nuts

•1/2 cup shredded parmesan 

(not the powdery kind)

•1 costco-size container spring greens/spinach mix 

(or 2 grocery store-size bags)

•girard's champagne dressing

•rotisserie chicken (optional)

what you need to do the day before:

•cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to package directions 

•drain and rinse in cold water 

•stir in pesto 

•add craisins, pine nuts, and parmesan 

•refrigerate overnight

what you need to do to serve:

•in a large bowl, mix greens with a little champagne dressing 

•don't drown them

•arrange greens on a large platter

(really, you need a large platter for this!)

•top with chilled pesto pasta

•optional: top with a few nice slices of rotisserie chicken

pro: looks impressive; tastes fantastic; nothing (seriously, nothing, unless you use chicken) to chop

con: after the greens are dressed, you can't really save the leftovers

Campfire Cones

 In our church 

we have an annual tradition 

where the men and boys gather for an overnight

Father and Sons Camp Out

They head to the mountains,

pitch their tents

cook food

let the little boys run in packs

(and get plenty dirty)

and tell stories around the campfire.

It's a "GUY THANG"

and I don't know who is more excited to attend

Mr. Cactus 

our son-in-law

or our grandsons.

 I sent along a fun little treat

that I saw on Pinterest.

Campfire Cones

by Laura of Come Together Kids

 You start with a waffle cone

 and frost the inside with peanut butter.

 Fill the insides with a mixture of 

chocolate chips

mini marshmallows

and chopped bananas.

 A mouthwatering blend of flavors.

 Fill as many as needed

for an ooey-gooey time.

 Campfire Joy

 Wrap each individual cone in foil.

 I packed the 

Campfire Cones in a zip-lock bag with 

easy to follow instructions.

 Turning every few minutes, the cones only need 5-10 minutes on the coals

to melt the chocolate with the marshmallows.

 Then be prepared for some happy faces.

 Our grandson Noah said he couldn't decide what he liked more:

Campfire Cones

or 

listening to grandpa tell stories

in the campfire darkness

about aliens

who sucked up camper's tents

and transported them into spaceships.

*fortunately, all ended well  :)

yep, it's a guy thang.

Mini Cheesecake Easter Baskets

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter today.

After church services we went to our daughter's home

where she treated the family 

to the most 

delicious meal

of Cuban food.

For my part of the celebration,

I was asked to bring 

dessert.

 Our family loves cheesecake

so I combined a few recipe ideas together

and made

Mini Cheesecake Easter Baskets

 So easy to do.

 I saw this recipe

Philadelphia 3-Step Easter Baskets

The fam does not like coconut, but I 

liked the idea of using 

shoestring licorice for the basket handles.

 Then I saw this recipe for

Philadelphia 3-step Mini Cheesecakes

and combined the idea 

for the base.

 Instead of using the traditional Nilla Wafer cookies

they suggested

Oreo's 

for a chocolaty bottom.

First, fill a muffin tin with a 

paper lined cup

and drop a cookie in.

 Mix up a batter 

using cream cheese,

sugar, vanilla and eggs.

 Add a dollop of the cream cheese mixture 

on top of each cookie,

 and bake.

Yes, it's that easy!

 I could not find shoestring licorice at the grocery store,

so I improvised and used sections of

 Pull N' Peel  Twizzlers

 They pushed softly into the sides of the muffin cups and stayed in a bow shape.

I also used frozen raspberries and 

blueberries

which kept the mess down.
The berries thawed quickly
and were ready to eat by the
time we arrived at our daughter's house.

 Within about 10- 15 minutes,

Mr. Cactus and I had 

assembled an entire tray.

Add a little decorative toothpick

for a fun Easter treat.

These could also be used for

any Spring Buffet

or even 

a baby shower.

Happy Pi Day

 Mr. Cactus is very analytical and originally went to college on Math scholarships.

This morning he 

 informed me that if 

you hold 3.14 up to a mirror

it looks like this:

How cool is that?

 And to make the day even more perfect for him,

Pie is his favorite dessert.

 For me, Math was my least favorite subject,

and unfortunately I'm not good at making pies, either.

But, I do work at a wonderful bookstore

Deseret Book

with a 

Lion House Pantry

that bakes all day long.

The most wonderful aromas

waft across our aisles

tempting us continually.

 In honor of 

Pi Day

I will be bringing one of these home :)

*And , as a side note,

did you know that in 2009 the

U.S. House of Representatives 

passed a non-binding resolution

that recognizes March 14th 

as National Pi Day?

Grab a fork!

Easy Easter Table Decorations

 Last night I helped teach a class at my church on

Easy Easter Table Decorations

and wanted to share a few of our

ideas with you.

Many times we are looking for fun ways 

to spruce up our tables

that don't take a lot of time or money.

 My part of the program was

to teach

a Proper Way to Set a Table &

Bunny Napkin Fold

 These easy napkin folds only take a minute to make

and add a bright spot to the table.

I followed the instructions from this

You Tube Video

by Better Homes and Gardens

 Dorothy taught us how to make

Baa Baa Black and White Sheep

using cookies and marshmallows.

 One lady liked her sheep so much she named 

one "Marsha" and the other one "Mallow".

(tee hee)

This would be a great project for 

the kids and grand kids to help with.

 Tutorial offered by Tip Junkie

HERE

 And Corrie had the supplies ready for us to create

Easter Egg Carton Chicks

Another easy project perfect

for the kids to make.

Tutorial offered

HERE

 by 

Jeromina Juan of

Paper Plate and Plane

Now What Am I Forgetting?

 There are around 12 of us that meet

in a little quilt group in Mesa once a month.

We each sign up to provide lunch 

for our gathering,

and January was my month.

 I knew exactly what I wanted to cook for

 these wonderful ladies.

My friend Cindy Harris

shared a recipe

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

on her cooking blog

Everyday Insanity

I think I sang out load

the first time I tasted it.

I've made it 3 times in the last month

for various gatherings.

 Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!

It's a 30 minute meal that is easy to make

with ingredients available in most grocery stores.

You can find the recipe

HERE

on Cindy's blog.

 Because our group meets in a church

I needed to bring everything with me to fix the meal.

I thought I was 

so prepared.

I was ready for 

PRESENTATION!

All of the ingredients were chopped in advance.

I brought every utensil 

I could think of.

But, as I walked out the door,

this little feeling kept popping up.

Now What Am I Forgetting?

I went through my list twice.

Check

Check 

 The Mandarin Orange and Green Salad was all made.

Check

 The Cherry Comfort Bars were baked,

(another delicious recipe from Cindy)

and I even remembered a spatula.

Hmmmm....

That feeling kept pestering away...

The ladies arrived,

chatting happily

 and began commenting on the wonderful smells 

wafting from the kitchen.

I smiled.

I was ready for 

PRESENTATION!

Then I looked down and 

noticed I was still wearing 

my old worn out

frumpy

 house slippers.

(Tell me I'm not the only one who has done this)

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

My friend Cindy Harris is a wonderful cook. I love everything she makes, and follow her cooking blog Everyday Insanity faithfully.
One of the things the Harris family is famous for is their cookies.
Her mother keeps cookie jar full of freshly baked delights right by the back kitchen door as an enticement for any family member coming over for a visit.
You can hear the continual clink, clink, clink of the jar lid as one person after another drops by her home, followed by a "Hi Grandma!"

Cindy recently shared a recipe with tutorial for Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies.
This is the perfect recipe if you like a mix of chocolate and peanut butter.
Chocolate outside with a gooey peanut butter filling.
Yum!

My grandson overheard me describing the recipe to his mother and said "Grandma, would you make me some of those cookies?"
Absolutely!
You can find the recipe for Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies over on Cindy's blog HERE.

Steph's Group- June

We gathered together this week with Steph's Quilt Group, minus Steph, who happened to be vacationing at Newport Beach.
(Another smart lady who knows the right time to escape the Arizona heat)
These are the nicest ladies, who always make me feel so welcome, even though I'm the newbie to the group.
This month we met at their local church building, where there was plenty of room to spread out.

Darling Amanda put together this fun and easy quilt where she let the fabric do the talking.

I was thinking this would be a great way to use up scraps.

Amanda also made this BIG Log Cabin Block quilt, where the fabrics, not the block capture your eye.

Fun machine quilting.

Peg was off to the races, and made a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.

So patriotic with Red, White and Blue.

Peg brought a recent baby quilt finish.

Wonky block in soft flannels.

I am learning from these ladies how easy it can be to make simple baby quilts.
Candice whipped this one up really fast.

She used a fun panel for the center.

And spruced it up using Jumbo ric rac around the edges.

And Candice made us the most delicious lunch! Because we met at the church, I probably would have just set things out on the table. But Candice knows how to do things right, and decorated for the upcoming 4th of July holiday.
I wanted to share with you her Sweet Pork salad recipe because it was so yummy.
I loved it so much, this is what I am making for my family for Sunday dinner.
A great summer recipe that can be made in the crock pot instead of heating up the kitchen:

SWEET PORK RECIPE

Marinade(The original recipe call for marinading the pork roast and then cooking it in the crock pot in a coke/water mixture. I don't think you need to do any of that. I did, but I didn't taste anything special about the pork when I shredded it. I think you could just start with 2 lbs. of a pork tenderloin cooked in crockpot - shredded) (if you want)

Put 2 lbs of pork tenderloin in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinade. Add about 1 and 1/2 cans of coke, 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours of overnight. Drain marinade and put pork in crock pot with 1/2 can coke, 1/4 cup water, and garlic salt. Cook on hight for 4 hours or until it shreds easily.

Sweet Sauce

1/2 can of coke

1 can dice green chiles

1 10 oz can of El Paso red enchilada sauce

3/4 cup brown sugar

Place ingredients in a blender. If it looks too thick add more coke little by little. Put in crock pot with 2 lbs shredded pork, Cook on low for 2 hours. Then serve!!

TOMATILLO RANCH DRESSING

1 buttermilk ranch packet (make following directions on packet w/ buttermilk and mayo)
2 tomatillos
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 clove of garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalepeno (with seeds so it's spicy)
Blend all together & refrigerate.

Serve pork with lettuce, guacamole, pico de gallo, tortilla strips, parmesan cheese & a tortilla if you want.