The Home Cook: Spaghetti Salad

I'm not a salad person. Oh, I'll take a small scoop of whatever is offered and push it around my plate...maybe eating the parts of it I like. I like the mac in mac salad and potato salad in general is OK if there aren't any huge chunks of any thing crunchy. I think it ties in with my hatred of food with weird textures; nothing is worse than a mouth full of creamy softish food with little pellets of hard nasty bits. (Yes, I mean you Mr. Celery.) Of course there may also be the fact that most salads are made of foods that are on my "objectionable list" any way...tomatoes, onion, celery, peppers...not foods that I generally like in their raw unadulterated state. Or maybe I'm just kind of picky. Regardless if salads are not part of my food fandom because of texture or composition, I've been trying to rediscover a love for them...with moderate success.

But this salad is definitely a success story, from my mom (again!) it's a pasta salad with tons of crunchy veggies and some great flavor over all. For years and years and years I hated it, but in a fit of desperation last summer I pulled it out and whipped it together for a work-related BBQ....everyone loved it and while I could see room for improvement it definitely wasn't as terrible as I remembered.

With that in mind I set out to make the recipe my own. I think I like it because it never pretends to be creamy, I know going in there is going to be a lot of crunchiness and bite to it. The other perk is how easy it is to personalize this little gem of a concoction. When I make it the veggies are chopped kind of small so as not to offend my texture palate, where as my mom prefers it with a much larger chop. I also substitute rainbow rotini for appearance and because it holds more Italian Dressing for a stronger flavor. (In that vein I prefer the Zesty Italian.) I also tend to leave out the celery, double the cucumber and use sliced olives...to me it's just that much yummier. My mom thinks I've ruined a perfectly good recipe. "To each their own" I guess. Also a quick note on the McCormick Salad Seasoning, it's in the spices section and is a paprika red blend of spices and sesame seeds...it's usually hiding out near the Mrs. Dash but has occasionally been found with the rub on meat seasonings or all alone in a distant corner with the other weird shake on toppers.

Spaghetti Salad

1 lb. 1" Spaghetti, cooked to al dente and drained
1/2 cup Celery, chopped
1/2 cup Onion, finely chopped
1 medium Green Pepper, chopped
2 cans Black Olives, chopped
2 medium Tomatoes, chopped
1 Cucumber, chopped
10 slices of Bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 jar of McCormik's Salad Seasonings
1/2 bottle of Italian Dressing

Blend ingredients together and let sit refrigerated over night. Add a bit more dressing before serving. Serve garnished with tomato wedges.

**This recipe is huge. HUGE, I'm telling you could feed a battalion of soldiers with it. For groups of about 8 I half it, for some around the house I cut in 1/4. Yeah, one full batch is good for about 1 serving each for 15+ people...you need a really big bowl. Very big.**


Happy Thing: I got a Wonderbread T-shirt last night. It is so awesome.