We're invited to a picnic!

Wooohooo! I love potlucks, picnics & bbq's...I've just never been to a virtual one before!!! lol

Here's the deal...Shaye at Smarter than Pancakes is holding a blog event for her birthday because...well, because she can!! ^.~

Here's the invite...

You'll find the deets at her invite post.

Ok...for this we need to bring a dish, drink, etc. Here's mine:

MY TIA'S PASTA SALAD!!!

No worries, people...I actually made it myself...this time!
Although normally...I would just beg my tia to make it for me! lol
However, in keeping with the event, I actually made it myself...with my very own short cuts!!! ^__^

Normally, the ingredients are as follows:
1 large bag, or 2 small bags, of rotini (cork screw) pasta, cooked al dente
1 head of broccoli florets, cut or break apart the florets into bite-size pieces
2-3 tomatoes, we usually use roma tomatoes, diced
1 med can of sliced black olives
1 small bag of shredded carrots
1 6-oz. tub, or 4-5 large, white mushrooms, diced
1 24-oz. Italian dressing, we use Wishbone

This is pretty simple to put together, as I found out today. My thing is that I usually overcook the pasta...but today I got it!
...and my auntie didn't even need to remind me! lol

1. Cook the pasta to al dente: My aunt told me to bring the water to boil first, then add salt to flavor the pasta. Bring to a boil again, then add the pasta and cook for about 8-10 minutes.

2. Prep the veggies while pasta cooking is going on, as described above.

3. Drain and cool the pasta.

4. Toss all the ingredients into a large bowl.

5. Pour the entire bottle of Italian dressing onto the ingredients, and toss.

6. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. This finishes cooling off the pasta, and allows the dressing to be absored into all the little corkscrew crannies!!

Very tasty...and I'm not even particularly fond of dressing, but I eat this!!!

Tips, and family peculiarities...
Not everyone likes mushrooms, so we keep them separate in an airtight container and set them beside the pasta bowl. That way everyone can decide if they wish to toss some into their salad.

Also, my short cut today was that I didn't have all the ingredients, such as the mushrooms and individual carrots & broccoli! I had on hand a bag of California Slaw...which is a broccoli slaw with the florets in it. Love it!!
Oh...the slaw had red cabbage in it...I like the color, so I think I'll be adding that to the list of ingredients!

Also, since this is made sans mayo, it's relatively safe to keep out on the picnic table for a while...barring ants & other critters!!

Bon appetit!!