my favorite pasta salad

As I was walking around the grocery section of Wal-Mart last night grabbing a few things that we were out of, I just kept on thinking to myself that I wanted something really yummy to eat.  The first thing that popped in my head?  Pasta Salad!  It's so yummy!  Cold pasta tossed in Italian dressing, mixed with fresh veggies, and all tied together with some tangy Feta cheese!  YUM! 

I proceeded to grab the following at Wally-World (minus that half cut-up red onion that I already had on hand!  I just don't think they sell those at the grocery store!  ha!):

1-12 oz. box of your favorite pasta.  I prefer the tri-color rotini for color!  (Isn't it all about presentation too?!)

Green Bell Pepper

Cucumber

Red Onion

Tomatoes

Italian Dressing

Feta Cheese

Now let me just say this about pasta salad.  I think pasta salad is just like a green leaf salad.  You have your base of lettuce and then throw on whatever toppings you like for your salad.  I think it's just the same for pasta salad.  You've got your base of pasta and then you add to it whatever your heart desires!  The ingredients I added are just what my heart desires.  I think they all have a great combination of flavor and texture which makes for an excellent pasta salad in my mind.  Again, you could add or take away from this with whatever you fancy in your pasta salad!  :)

Here's how I assemble mine:

First I boil my pasta for right at 9 minutes.  I don't like very al dente, but I also don't like it mushy.  I then drained my pasta and sat it in the fridge to cool quickly.

Once my pasta was cool, I added about 1/4 cup of my dressing to get the pasta wet.

Then I added my chopped veggies and another 1/4 cup of dressing.

Then I tossed all of that together...

and sprinkled some feta cheese in...

...and then I dished out a yummy bowl all for myself!

I think it's a yummy lunch with crackers or fruit, or even dinner if you added chicken.  This would even be good to take to a summer picnic too!  You can store this in the fridge for about 3-4 days.  Typically the flavors get stronger as each day passes.  Hope you enjoy this recipe and try it our for yourself with your favorite veggies!  :)

I can't wait to post some things that I've done lately because of being a little bored around the house....I think you might get a good laugh or two!  Let's just say I'm starting to feel like Pablo Picasso!  Ha!  :)

Enjoy your day!

Love,

The Preacher's Wife

things I'm looking forward to...

Top 4 Things I'm Looking Forward to the rest of this month:

1.  Warmer weather.  It's cold one day and hot the next day here....kinda like Tennessee.  I'm really ready to kick things into gear for spring!

2.  March Madness starts on Thursday!  My bracket is ready to go!  I think Duke is going to bring the Championship home again this year!  I'll have my highlighters ready to mark my wins and loses on my bracket..I am ready!!  This is always an exciting time of the year!

3.  I'm ready to grill, grill, grill!  Since we got our new grill I am so excited about grilling anything and everything!  Steaks, burgers, chicken, fish, veggies!  Can't wait to try a bunch of new recipes out with this thing!  I'll let you know if anything turns out good. 

4.  My family is coming to visit soon!  I can't wait for them to get here so I can show them around the area and what life is like for us here...not to mention I'm sure we'll have some yummy food and good times!  :)  Can't wait!

I decided to do 4 things just because I like to be different!  Ha!

Have a wonderful day!

Love,

The Preacher's Wife

we had cake :)

It was a GORGEOUS weekend in North Carolina!

Spring time weather was all around.  No need for a jacket...just beautiful sunshine and a crisp breeze.  Ahhhhh!

And just in case you were wondering...we had cake!  A fun, yummy, cute, ice cream cake for Preacher Man's birthday!  And it was TASTY...even if I did make it! 

My idea for the cake turned out rather swell!  It turned out to have five layers and it looked like a giant, fluffy marshmallow.  Here's the finished product....

 I had everyone in the kitchen helping me put together the cake because I didn't want it to melt.  My sou-chefs (or so I like to call them) were:  Preacher Man, Andrew (P.M.'s BFF), Maw (P.M.'s Grandmother), and Nancy (P.M.'s Mom).  Maw and I stacked the cakes quickly, Andrew helped me frost it, Preacher Man put the sprinkles on it, and Nancy captured every moment on camera.  I was very grateful for their help!  If I would have done it by myself, the cake would have probably turned out to be a big, melted puddle!  Ha! And just in case you were wandering about the sprinkles...Preacher Man put those on the cake.  It was very comical to watch!  He would take handfuls of sprinkles and throw them onto the side of the cake in hopes of them sticking to the side.  His method kinda, sorta worked I guess you could say.  He makes me laugh so much...it's one of the things I love most about him.

Here he is smiling with the cake:

(I love whoever turned the lights off!) :)

and then about to make a wish.....(I think this picture is hilarious even though it's a bit blurry!)

Are you laughing yet?

Here's how the inside turned out with the five layers:

That poor bottom layer...he had a lot of weight to hold up!

And it sorta took up almost the entire freezer!

Other exciting happenings that went on this past weekend were:

1.  Shopping spree with Nancy and Maw in downtown Wake Forest, the mall, and a fun fabric store!  I had so much showing them around the area and I think they had a good time too.  We found all kinds of goodies that we liked and maybe even a few ideas for a new craft project for Maw and myself!  :)  One of the funnest parts of our shopping spree was the Shoe Department in Belk.  Nancy has the perfect size foot for all of the shoe models on the floor so I made her try on some outrageous shoes.  If they were the least bit cute I think I made her try them on.  It was hilarioius!  She'd put on a shoe with a ton of straps and a zipper up the back and I would try to convince her that she needed them!  So much fun!  She didn't buy any of the crazy shoes, but we did get some shoes!  Thanks for my new flip-flops Mom #2!  :)

2.  I finally got to use my plate that we got as a wedding gift (or well I picked it out with a gift card)!  It's my You Are Special Today Plate.  We used it for Preacher Man's birthday dinner.  It comes with a pen so you can write the special occassion on the back of the plate too!  This way we can pass it down in the family and then our future children can pass it down to remember all of the special things in our family!  So fun!   Here it is:

3.  We got a new grill!  Whoooo hoooo!!!  It's the cutest thing too!  It is so perfect for us right now.

We grilled filets on Saturday night and they were delish!  I also made twice baked potatoes, rolls, and salad to go along with it!  YUM, YUM, YUM!  It was sooo good!  I'm pumped about this grill!

4.  The High School that I graduated from won the State Tournament in Girls Basketball!  Go Chargerettes!  :)  So exciting!!  Then Duke won the ACC Tournament!  Whoo hooo!  Go Blue Devils!!  I am sad that Tennessee lost, but still happy about them being in the tournament!  It was a pretty good weekend in basketball!  :)

5.  Brackets came out for March Madness!!  Whoo hoooooo!!!  I LOVE this time of year!  I printed off my bracket and got right down to filling it out....this is what I did:

I like Duke!  Just a little!  :)

I didn't take a picture of my husband's because his is just dreadful.  He has North Carolina (gross!) winning the whole dance.  I just don't think so!!!

It was a fantastic weekend!  So good to have family in town!  March is gonna be a good month because we've got visitors almost every weekend!  Yay!!!

Now we start a new week....back to the real world!

AND I think it's supposed to get in the mid 70's later in the week here!  Sweet!  That'll make for a good week!

Everyone enjoy your Monday!

Love,

The Preacher's Wife

we shall have cake!

I'm in the process of baking a cake right now....for an ice cream cake!  I just kinda made the recipe up in my head.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Help me, Rhonda!  (whoever you may be!)

Here's the stuff I'm workin' with...

Yes, you do see Blue Bunny Ice Cream...it was buy one, get one free this week!  I just couldn't pay $12 to get a gallon of Mayfield's Ice Cream.  If I can't have Mayfield's, Blue Bunny is a good second choice!  :)  And please note that the large bottle of sprinkles were purchased at our trip to the grocery store this weekend.  I told Preacher Man that I needed sprinkles for his birthday cake and that is what he picked out!  I didn't complain, I went with it.  You can't tell in this picture, but the sprinkles are in the shapes of all theses different animals.  Lucky me!  I have a huge bottle of animal sprinkles!  Please let me know if you are having any animal themed birthday cakes like we are!  I'll be sure to let you borrow my sprinkles!  :)  Ha!

I'm hoping and praying this turns out to be a good birthday cake for Preacher Man.  He specifically asked for an ice cream cake and the baker in me insisted on making his cake instead of buying one.  I'll let you know how it goes...but whatever happens, we SHALL and WILL have cake!  :)  I even bought candles.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!  We're going to spend it hangin' with the fam!

AND gettin' a grill for Preacher Man's birthday!  You know what that means?!  We're grilling steaks, baby!  Whoo hooo!  :)

It's gonna be a good weekend!

Wishing you a weekend full of lolli-pops and gummy bears,

The Preacher's Wife

:)

cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning....

I loooooove to cook,

but I haaaattteeee to clean up the mess!  :)

Company's a comin' this weekend!

We are excited!  :)

I'm getting a head start on the things we are going to eat this weekend.

And I'm cleaning today, too!  Bleh.  At least Preacher Man is helping.  That makes it a bit easier.

Honestly, I'm glad we're doing a good cleaning today...it makes me feel good!

Check out the things that I'm doing...

Laundry.  Gross.  Actually, Preacher Man did all the laundry...washed, dried, and even folded it!  Now it's sitting on the bed to be put away.  I'm glad it smells so good though!  :)

Doing a little cooking for our fam coming this weekend....

I'm making some lasagna today to put in the freezer so it's a quick and easy meal!  :)

My house smells incredible!!

And underneath this pot on top of the dryer is my cinnamon roll dough rising!  These are good ones to freeze, too!  I'm making meals a lot easier for this weekend!  And I think they'll be very tasty, too!  :)

It's also a dreary day here, so it's good that we are trapped inside to get everything done today!  :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thursday!

Go VOLS!!!

Love,

The Preacher's Wife

yummy chicken salad

I LOVE Chicken Salad...like LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

I think it's the best lunch time meal ever.  Seriously.

I especially love Ingle's chicken salad.

Unfortunately, I don't have an Ingle's in North Carolina that is close.  :(

BUT......

Fear not---for I have made very, very similar chicken salad!  :)

It's YUMMY!

And I just had to share it with you today!

But before we start cooking, I must share some exciting news!  We finally got cable!!!  Whoo hooo!!!  The cable man came yesterday to install everything and we couldn't be more thrilled about it!  We have over 250 channels and it's awesome!  I don't think I've ever had 250 channels all to myself before.  This could be dangerous....very dangerous!  I've gone too long without my Food Network shows and I was glued to the TV for quite some time yesterday...it was a wonderful feeling!  Ha!  I don't know many people that get so much joy out of watching the Food Network like I do.  So that's our exciting news for the day...just had to share....oh, and we got to eat at The Cheesecake Factory last night as well.  It was AMAZING!  Fried Mac & Cheese, Salad, Cheesecake, and they even sang to Preacher Man for his birthday!  YUMMY!  Yesterday was a real good day, reeaallll goooooood!  :)  On to the cookin' now!

Let's get cookin' ya'll!  (I sound like Paula Deen...haha!)

Yummy Chicken Salad

Source:  A combination of the chicken salads that I've ever had!  :)

I really just played around with everything until it tasted just right!

Here's the line-up...

and all of the somewhat exact measurements....

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

3/4 cup -1 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1/4 tsp.- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 cup-3/4 cup mayo

salt and pepper to taste

*I think the measurments really depend on how you like your chicken salad.  Start with less and add more if you like.  Also, if grapes or pecans are your thing, it might go very nicely in this recipe.

Now for the directions:

First, boil your chicken until it is cooked all the way through.  It normally takes about 25-30 minutes on the stove-top.

Next, it's time to chop up the veggies.

We'll start with celery.

Run your knife down the celery stalk length wise to make long, skinny strips.

Then stack them up and finely chop your celery up like so...

Then get out your onion goggles so there won't be any tears.

Kidding.

Onions really don't bother me, but if they bother you, I once heard a trick where you could put the onion in the freezer for a bit before you chop it to take away the smell.  I've never tried it before but it may be worth a try.

Here's how to get it chopped real, real fine!  :)

First, chop off both ends of the onion and it will look like this...

Then chop that in half and lay each half flat on it's belly like this...

I really, really love the color of purple onions.  I think it's just simply gorgeous and I wouldn't mind having a nail polish color like this pretty, purple onion!  :)

Back to chopping...

Next, take you knife and make little slits in the onion all the way across it like the picture above.

Then take your onion and turn it to the side like this once your slits are all the way across...

When your onion is turned to the side like this, take your knife and make slits all the way up the onion horizontally.

Then it's time to chop away like this...

This way of cutting an onion is the absolute best when you need really small pieces.  It's also easy to hide onions in food like this as well.  (Preacher Man HATES onions and I've gotten really good about sneaking them into things!)  Lastly, I just really like chopping onions.  I don't know why, but I do.  :)  Yes, I know I'm a strange person!  :)

On to the chicken....

I like my chicken cut up pretty finely for chicken salad, but if you prefer chunky chicken salad, go for it! 

Next, it's time to add all of your ingredients together in a bowl....

Add in your chicken, celery, onions, mayo, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

And taste test with a spoon or cracker!  And add a little more of anything if it needs it...

Delish!!!  Almost as good as Ingle's!  :)

Hope you enjoy!

Now I must go start my cooking for my weekend visitors!  :)

Love,

The Preacher's Wife

P.S.  Yes, dear family of mine, I will make this when you come visit me!  :)

P.P.S.  Here is a picture of our cheesecakes last night!  (Sorry it's dark...the place was dimly lit and my camera wasn't cooperating and I just didn't feel like playing with the settings to get a beautiful picture of this cheesecake that was so beautifully sitting in front of me waiting to be devoured, but at least this gives you a glimpse.  Wow that was a long run on sentence.  Sorry for my grammar and punctuation.  Ooooppsss.  I just got excited about that cheesecake.  :)

Classic Cheesecake with Strawberries, Key Lime Pie Cheesecake, and Vanilla Bean Cheesecake for the Birthday Boy!  It was all so wonderful!  :)

Happy Birthday, Preacher Man!

Today is my Preacher Man's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Babe!  :)

I love you!

We're celebrating all week long!  A trip to the Cheesecake Factory and a visit from his family this weekend is going to be a blast!

I think he's a pretty cool guy.  I'm a very blessed girl to get to be married to him!

Here's some pictures...

The day we got our marriage license!  We had to drive all over Knoxville till kingdom come to get this darn thing but it was still so exciting!

Driving to Atlanta to hop on a plane...we went to a resort in the Riviera Cancun!

We love Tennessee Football!!!  Or well I love it...he kinda likes it!  :)

Don't worry folks, I'm working hard on him!

He is the best Uncle EVER!  He would play with this little guy until one or both of them passed out from exhaustion!  :)

and I just noticed that it kinda looks like he has something stuffed up his shirt in this picture...ha!

We were Jon & Kate Plus 8 for Halloween!  (This was pre-divorce....aren't our babies precious?!?!?!  They were actually Jon's Mom's when she was a child!)

Our first Christmas together as a married couple....and it was a White Christmas!  It couldn't have gotten anymore perfect!  :)

Moving out of our first little home together to head to North Carolina...it was a great little place!

And now we're in North Carolina...and it's been a lot of fun so far!  This is probably our most beautiful picture ever taken of us.  I'm not sure how many hours of sleep we were going on or when we had our last shower!  Haha!  Please look at the next picture or the ones above to know that we can look semi-human!  Ha!

And a picture from our Wedding Day...I just love 'em!  He's just so stinkin' cute!  :)

 

Soooo......this post is for you Preacher Man!  (Everyone else just gets to read along about the birthday fun!) ;)

I kinda like you!  (and everyone else, too!)

I hope you have a very Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

Love,

Your Wifey :)