Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad

Guest Chef: Mom

For the last Friday of a vacation week, we were heading to my parents for lunch and relaxing on their patio. A couple days earlier, my mom had called me, very excited about a recipe she saw for a pasta salad in the Toronto Sun. Not wanting to ask why on earth she was reading the Sun, I asked her about the recipe and it sounded great. She prepared it for the Friday lunch.

The salad tasted great. The flavour mostly comes from both roasted and picked vegetables. My mom was especially excited about the recipe because it's very easy to prepare ahead of time. The vegetables can be roasted a day or two in advance and refrigerated, and the rest of the salad comes together quite easily. Mom also switched things up a bit and used roasted garlic (and more garlic than the original recipe stated) and was more liberal with the balsamic vinegar (but she didn't remember how much more liberal).

Although the recipe calls for some parmesean cheese for garnish, I actually think that adding 1/2 cup feta cheese immediately before serving would really do the trick. Not having any feta on hand, we weren't able to try it.

Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad

• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 zucchini, cut lengthwise into thick strips
• 8 stalks asparagus, ends trimmed
• 1 250g package cremini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt
• pepper
• 1 package (500g) rotini pasta
• 1 medium jar (340ml) marinated artichokes, drained and roughly chopped
• 3 roasted red peppers, skinned and cut into strips
• 4 cloves roasted garlic, minced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2-3 basil leaves, chopped
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup feta cheese (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400-degrees and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss onion, zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper and transfer to cookie sheets.
3. Grill the vegetables in the oven for 5 minutes, turn and continue grilling for another 5 minutes until tender and crispy
4. Remove vegetables from oven and let cool. Roughly chop vegetables and transfer to a container if preparing in advance. Cook pasta until al dente following the package directions, rinse and drain.
5. When ready to serve, in a large bowl, toss pasta, grilled vegetables, artichokes, roasted peppers, garlic, tomatoes, olives, oil, vinegar, parsley, basil and feta cheese and serve.

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Chocolate Chip Squares

Getting ready for a day-trip to Jackson's Point in July with some friends, Meredith wanted to bring some goodies for the kids. Her first idea was to make cookies, however, she realized that making squares would be less work. Fewer pans, and I could still pack the result away in a container for the car.

The recipe is mostly from the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus recipe book (you may remember the Welsh cakes). For Jacob's sake, Meredith held back on the nuts.

Chocolate Chip Squares

• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar (packed)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. Using a stand mixer, mix the butter and brown sugar. Add white sugar and mix again. Add egg and vanilla and continue to mix.
3. Add flour, baking soda and salt and continue to mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Transfer mixture into 9x9 greased pan.
6. bake for 25-30 minutes until set and top is light brown.

Can be cut into up to 36 pieces (6x6).

Based on the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus. Original recipe by Cye Beechey.

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Review: Elwood Bar & Grill, Detroit, MI

Another restaurant from the Boys' Weekend Trip in Detroit. After a night out and sleeping on a hotel room floor (one bed, four people), we were off to see the Tigers play the Angels. It was just after 11:00 a.m., and we were heading out to breakfast after picking up our tickets at Comerica Park.

We didn't go very far to find our breakfast - there was a diner right across from the park's front gate: Elwood Bar and Grill. It looked authentic (probably the oldest structure in the area) and there was a patio.

Perfect.

Aside from starting with our breakfast beers, I wanted to get something as close to breakfast as possible. It was a tough call because Elwood specializes in burgers, sandwiches and other bar food. They were even selling beers, hot dogs and chili to pedestrians from a little booth right outside of the diner.

Since we were there before a game, the place was pretty packed and the service was probably slower than usual, but that's expected. It just gave us all more time to chat on the patio and enjoy the sun and our breakfast beers.

The server was especially helpful when I asked for something as close to breakfast as possible. He recommended the Monte Cristo sandwich.

I wasn't expecting much considering how busy the place was, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was served on sourdough bread with turkey, ham and Swiss cheese. The bread is dipped in egg and the whole thing is lightly fried on their grill. The sandwich was presented with a pickle and tasted excellent.

It was a perfect start to game day.




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