Recipe: Not Your Regular Pasta Salad

I have never been a pasta salad fan. Pasta, yes! Salad, yes! Together? NO!!! (I think it has to do with all the mustard or mayoinase usually involved.) But then I tried a salad a Black Walnut Cafe. Just reading the description on the menu I knew it would put all other pasta salads to shame.

The other night I decided I would try to make my own version of the salad. I ended up with a delicious dinner (and lunch for the entire week).

You will need. . .
1 bag bowtie pasta
3-4 chicken breasts cooked and cubed (I cooked mine with a little pesto, but it could be grilled or whatever is easiest)
goat cheese

          Diced or cut to your preferred size
              1 cucumber
              1 red bell pepper
              1 green bell pepper
              1-2 Granny Smith apples
              tomatoes - amount varies based on type used (I cut about 10 grape tomatoes in half)


Dressing
pesto
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
This is where you won't like me. I never measure. It was about 2 parts pesto, 2 parts balsamic vinegar, 1 part olive oil. Whisk it together and then taste if you should add anything else. I like the vinegar, but you may want more pesto. Pour this mixture over the pasta while it is still hot.


Once the pasta is cooked and everything chopped mix together in a large mixing bowl. Serve with a sprinkle of goat cheese. Something about the vinegar with sweet apples and creamy goat cheese is just delicious.

I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

TGIF: Love Stories

Getting in the mood for Valentine's Day, Ginger's question of the week:

Love Stories: What are some of your favorite fictional love stories?


I'm a sucker for Jane Austen. In high school my friends and I were totally in love with Edmund from Mansfield Park. 


Michael and Angel from Redeeming Love -  The ultimate love story. 


Dylan aka Faith and Asher from Faking Faith - There was just something about him. . . . 


Elizabeth Holland and Will Keller; Teddy Cutting's love for Elizabeth Holland from the Luxe series. I was totally caught up in that one. 


Ah. .  . Peeta. Who doesn't want to find a guy like Peeta? And yet I feel so guilty because I liked Gale so much. I'm really interested to see how this plays off in the movie.  - The Hunger Games




And quite possibly my favorite fictional love story . . . Cory and Topanga. I know, I know, they were a tv show. But I just loved them. 


I'm probably forgetting someone. I'm a sucker for a good love story. My husband will laugh at me when he catches me giggling as I read. I totally get nervous for my characters when they start to tell someone how they feel. Ah, young love. So glad I'm not in high school anymore. Way more fun to read about others going through those things than reliving it myself!

It's all in the details . . .

I am working my way through On the Bright Side by S. R. Johannes. While I am enjoying the story, there is one little detail that is driving me insane.

Gabby's size.

I know. It's silly.

See, I'm 5'9", have been since the 8th grade. Depending on the day I wear a size 10 or 12. Not bad, I'm fine with that. No one makes fat jokes about me. No one picks on my size. Would I like to drop a few pounds and fit in a size 6 again someday. Of course I would. Who doesn't want to look like a senior in high school again?

What does this have to do with Gabby?

At one point it is noted that she is 5'9", weighs 140 pounds, and wears a size 10. Several times she makes comments about her size and people poke fun at her weight.

Um, no.

My dream weight is 140. At 5'9" weighing that I would easily be a size 6 or smaller. Not a size 10. Not someone who gets picked on or called fat.

Like I said, I am enjoying the book. I am really interested to see how it all wraps up (hopefully tonight if I find the time). I am just having a really hard time getting past this detail. I wonder, if it stands out to me, will it stand out to young girls who read it and are worried about their weight?  I hope that they don't fixate on this detail like I have.

15 years from now . . . .

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future. 

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present. (Taken from Goodreads)

Fifteen years ago I was in the 8th grade and there is no way you could have convinced me that fifteen years in the future I would be a junior high librarian. Facebook came out during my first senior year of college (that's right I took a victory lap) and it is amazing to me how much it has changed things. If you have read my whole blog you know that I recently quit the site. This book was so interesting to me because I think it really tapped into the fact that Facebook doesn't give you the whole story. That we shouldn't judge our lives, or the lives of others, off of the few sentences or pictures shared on any social media site.

I'm curious how this will resonate with my students. I totally connected with it being 1996 and found myself laughing out loud at some of the 90's references. When I left home for college my parents finally let me get a cell phone. I remember when Facebook was only at a few schools. Will students get that? Or to them has it always been there?

This was a one day read. I took a weekend ski trip reading trip with some friends. The boys skied all day and I  read. When the girls decided it was time to go shopping and I had 10% left I synced my Kindle app on my phone and finished the rest sitting in a dressing room. Yup, I needed to know how it ended that badly.