Southwest Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bowtie pasta

1 14-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 Roma tomatoes, diced or about 3/4 c. of halved cherry tomatoes *

1 large red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, diced

1/2 c. sliced green onions

1/2 c. frozen fresh corn **

zest from 2 limes

8 oz diced cooked chicken, optional

1/2 c Queso Fresco or Cotija cheese or grated jack, cheedar, or pepperjack

* I used 3 tomatoes

** I just used one can of corn

Dressing:

6 T. fresh lime juice (about 3 juicy limes) *

1/4 c. white wine or rice vinegar

4-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 1/2 t. chili powder

1 t. cumin

1/2 t. coriander

1/2 t. kosher or sea salt

2 t. sugar (add a touch more if your limes are extra sour/bitter)

3/4 c. canola oil

1/2 c. roughly chopped cilantro

* I got enough juice out of 2 limes

Recipe:

1. Place pasta in salted water until cooked. While it's cooking, prepare dressing.

2. Zest your limes and place the zest in a large salad bowl.

3. To prepare dressing: place the lime juice, vinegar, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt and sugar in a blender. Process until smooth. *

4. With the motor running slowly, add the oil in a steady stream until incorporated. Add the cilantro and pulse so it gets broken up, but some pieces still remain in tact.

5. Salad: When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse immediately with cold water to cool. Place the pasta in the large salad bowl with the lime zest.

6. Add black beans, tomatoes, diced pepper, green onions, corn, and chicken if desired.

7. Toss with dressing. Taste, and add additional salt and pepper to taste.

8. For best results, chill for 1 hour before serving. Right before serving, sprinkle cheese on top. Serve with extra lime wedges if desired.

* My blender blade doesn't reach low enough to do this, so I just whisked it in a bowl and really chopped the cilantro.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

This is a good pasta salad. Much better than I expected it to be. I really liked it. The lime taste is pretty strong as is the chili powder/cumin. But, still really good. Be warned though, this makes a HUGE batch. As in it's lasted 2 adults lunch and dinner for 3 days and still have some left. A lot. We alternated shredded cheddar and Parmesan on top. Also, plain cheese quesadillas are an excellent side with this. Oh, and I really don't think you need that extra lime wedge. That would be TOO much lime....and I like lime.

Source: OurBestBites.com, Southwest Pasta Salad

Outback Steakhouse's Steak Seasoning

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon Onion powder *
1/4 teaspoon Garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper **
1 dash Coriander
1 dash Turmeric ***

* I didn't have onion powder so I just took dried chopped onion and ground it to a powder.

** I didn't have cayenne pepper so I used chili powder instead and halfed it.

*** I didn't have turmeric, so I didn't substitute it at all.

Recipe:
1. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. To prepare steaks with this seasoning: Preheat a flat grill or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle some of the seasoning blend over both sides of each cut of beef. *
3. Grill the steaks on each side to your desired level of doneness. Be sure to use tongs to sear all the edges of each steak to a rich brown color. **

* I rubbed each side of the steak with olive oil and then srinkled the seasoning. I then seared the meat on both sides for 1-2 minutes.

** I actually cooked the steaks in the oven after searing them. The oven was at 500 and I had them in for about 5 minutes.

Rating: 4.75 of 5

Yeah, they were that good. So good, we almost didn't use A1 sauce.

Source: http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/164169/outback-steakhouses-steak-seasoning

Chicken Corn Quesadillas

Now that I am back in town, I decided to get creative and have an experiment night tonight.

Ingredients:

1 can corn, drained

1 cooked chicken breast, shredded

1 shake of coriander seed

a small handful of dried chopped onion

a small drizzle of olive oil

shredded chedder and mozzerella cheese

tortillas

Recipe:

1. Combine corn, chicken, coriander, onion, and olive oil in a saucepan and sautee. Some pieces of the corn should be browned, but not too much.

2. Thrown the corn-chicken mix and cheese between two tortillas in a pan. Cook until cheese is melted to make a quesadilla.

Rating: 4 of 5

I was loving this tonight. It's got good flavor, thanks to the onion, and is just sweet enough, thanks to the olive oil. I felt so, so, so stuffed after eating a whole one of these. I'll have to see how LaDon likes it when he's around. Ally liked the corn and chicken mixture so that is always a plus!! I'm thinkin' next time I'll make some kind of green chili sauce or some kind of tomatillo sauce to dip in or serve over it.....that could be good.