Tag: summer

Cucumber Pasta Salad

This cucumber salad recipe is light and refreshing. By letting the cucumber and onion sit in the vinegar, they get to absorb some of the tartness. However, paired with the pasta and other dressings, you end up with a flavorful and balanced side. It’s also very easy to make and you can easily double or triple it for your next cookout! It even tastes great the next day. I used 1 cup diced cucumbers, 1/4 cup shallots/onion, and 2 cups uncooked rotini.

  1. Dice up 2 small cucumbers, and 2 shallots. Add 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar, stir and set aside.
  2. Bring water in a large sauce pan to a boil. Add 16 oz rotini and cook for 15 minutes. Strain and rinse with cold water.
  3. Add pasta to cucumbers and onion. Add 1 1/4 cup mayo, 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, and 2 Tbsp Italian dressing. Stir and serve.
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Chicken Parm Sandwiches

This is a quick and easy meal. I used Aldi brand chicken patties, and they were very good. I used American cheese, and my sandwiches were assembled in less than 15 minutes. I recommend getting a good toast on your bread and adding the sauce to the chicken and cheese and not directly to the bread, or it will get soggy.

  1. Cook chicken patties as recommended on packaging.
  2. Toast your bread.
  3. In a sauce pan, add tomato sauce. Add 2 tsp garlic powder, and 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning. Stir and heat over very low heat until boiling.
  4. Stack your chicken with cheese and 2 Tbsp sauce, top with bread, and enjoy!
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Strawberry Shortcake with Homemade Strawberry Syrup

Strawberry shortcake is a great summertime treat. Fresh strawberries are only here once a year in the north, so when they come around you should always enjoy this sweet treat. You can freeze this syrup to preserve it, or you can can it. But, if you plan to use it, just simply store it in the fridge. Simply chop some strawberries and heat for a while and then you’ve got a diverse topping for ice cream, filling for pastries, or the main ingredient for strawberry shortcake. Find my recipe for pound cake here and stay cool!

  1. Clean your strawberries.Using a cutting board, cut the tops off your strawberries, then cut your strawberries into slices. Cut about 1 to 1 1/2 cups (more if you prefer it less sweet).
  2. In a medium saucepan, add 1/2 cup of sugar and your sliced strawberries. Heat over medium heat and stir often. Remove the syrup from heat when it thickens up to your desired consistency.
  3. Remove from heat, let cool at room temperature for 1 hour, or place in a container, and cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. Serve with pound cake.
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Homemade Pound Cake

Pound cake is delicious on it’s own, and this one certainly is no exception, however, pound cake is also the base for another popular treat, strawberry shortcake. Tomorrow’s post will be how to make the strawberry syrup for your sweet treat. The only weird thing about this recipe is the need for 1/2 an egg, to accomplish this, I beat an egg in a side bowl, then added 1/2 to the mixture, and fried the other half for an egg sandwich. This cake is very sweet, and can be served topped with ice cream, or just powdered sugar.

  1. Heat your oven to 350 F.
  2. In a bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup of softened butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 1/2 egg.
  3. Once mixed, add a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of milk and mix. Add 1/2 tsp baking powder, and while mixing, slowly add 1 1/2 cup flour, then mix until the batter is smooth.
  4. Grease a loaf pan. Pour batter into your greased pan, then bake for 55 – 60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
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Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Smoothies are a sweet treat, and are especially refreshing in the summer. Smoothies use fruit and usually ice and some other liquid base. Milkshakes use milk and ice cream. I did use a dairy base for my smoothie, but you can feel free to use any alternative you’d like. I had recently gone to the store and bought strawberries and bananas, but my strawberries were starting to go bad, so the best option Josh and I had was smoothies, to make a dent in the remaining carton. Josh and I also don’t have an Ice cube tray yet, so we improvised by freezing the fruit instead. You can add more milk if you want a thinner smoothie, but this recipe will make 2 very large and thick smoothies.

  1. Place 3 bananas and 1 1/2 cups of strawberries in the freezer, and leave until frozen solid, about 3 hours.
  2. Remove the fruit from the freezer. Cut off the banana peel, and slice all 3 bananas. Rinse off the strawberries. Cut off the tops, and half. Place cut fruit into a blender.
  3. Add 2 cups of vanilla yogurt into the blender. Add 1 cup of milk, and add the blender lid.
  4. Pulse the blender 4-5 times to begin to crush the frozen fruit, then turn the blender on high and blend for 1 minute.
  5. Place in large glass and serve with a spoon!
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