Cool Summer Pasta Salad

Thank you to everyone for you wishes! We have settled down and boxes are unpacked for the most part and the kitchen is back up and running. Even though the commute time is significantly more, I have been peeking at fellow bloggers' posts and relishing the delicious and beautiful recipes!

We are still getting a sense of the place, and we've discovered a beautiful park close to where we live. I will post pictures soon. And there is a farmer's market that runs through the year. I've heard about Michigan blueberries, morel mushrooms and the cherries. I can't wait to try them all!

The blogging break has been busy, but I didn't want to miss any of the great events coming up. So here is a cool summer pasta salad, with organic vegetables bought from local market . The only thing you need to cook is the pasta! We all have to do our part, and we do ours with regulating our heat, electricity, recycle paper, bags, and oh growing our veggies (sometimes), herbs and keeping plants.

The original recipe is from Naked Chef featuring Jaime Oliver. The show is casual, fun and irreverent. We enjoyed the show and instantly tried one of the recipes, with a little modification. Here is how I made it.


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups small pasta (I used Orzo, you can also try small shell)
3/4 cucumber - thinly chopped
8-10 grape tomatoes - thinly chopped
1 medium carrot - thinly chopped
mixed greens - thinly chopped
Small onion - thinly chopped (you can also use chives)
cilantro - thinly chopped
2 garlic cloves
salt to taste

For dressing
2 tbspoons Olive oil
2 tbspoons lime juice (they used vinegar in the show)
1/2 tspoon freshly ground pepper
salt to taste
1/4 tspoon sugar

Method:
I learned this cool trick from the show. Boild water with olive oil and salt for the pasta. Also drop in the garlic cloves with the skin on in the water along with pasta.

In the meantime, chop all vegetables. , Mix the ingredients for dressing together in a bowl.

Before draining the pasta, take the garlic cloves out and remove the skin. Since they've become soft, use a fork to make a rough paste. It has a subtle taste and goes well in the salad.

Mix all the vegetables and the pasta together. Add the dressing and mix well.


Serve warm or cold. This is going to the Monthly Mingle Earth Food hosted by gracious Meeta at What's for Lunch, Honey? Thanks for hosting.

Instant Food!

What do you do when all your furniture, kitchen stuff, and so on is sitting in a warehouse waiting for the next truck that will head in the direction of your new home? You could eat out, but that burns a hole in your pocket sooner than you realize. So we decided to pick up some of that "ready to eat" stuff that Indian stores stock. We went with Gits Rava Dosa and Priya Madras Sambar.

We've tried other Gits products before and they turn out pretty good (especially the rava idly). Add some freshly chopped cilantro and onions, and the rava dosai mix makes for a decent meal.


But Priya's Sambar was just horrible. When you first tear open the packet, it smells a bit like hotel sambar, if you know what I mean. I can deal with that, but that's about the only thing good about it. And what's more, the packet says "three servings" and you think ok, this will do fine for one meal. But no, it barely fills half a small cereal bowl! Having grown up eating at darshinis in Bangalore where one never thinks twice about getting a second or third helping of chutney or sambar, this was just terrible.

Anyways, the good news is all our boxes have arrived. We have a lot of unpacking to do, but should be able to get back to full-fledged cooking soon!

A New Start...moving!

The last couple of weeks have been busy as you may have noticed from my sporadic posts. The reason being we have been planning our move, packing our boxes, making calls to movers and packers and crossing items from an endless to-do list.

The good news is Aswin and I have new jobs and are moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

So I'm taking a break from blogging for a month to settle down in the new place. See you all in August.


Needless to say, I will keep visiting your blogs for all the goodies!