Summer Pasta Salad

It's still spring on the calendar, but summer heat came to the F&P this week with daytime temps in the mid to high 80s the past two days. That's way too warm to light the stove, so pasta salad was perfect for dinner tonight. This salad was so easy to do early in the day while the kitchen (and the rest of the house) were cool.

Cook and drain pasta - your choice. My recipe included 2 C of corkscrew pasta. Chop assorted veggies such as broccoli, celery, carrots, scallions, peppers, cukes or whatever you have on hand. Mix veggies into pasta. Add canned tuna fish (drain first). Chop green stuffed olives and add. Season with Italian salad dressing and fresh or dried herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Since there was no bottled Italian dressing in the pantry, I mixed assorted dry herbs and onion powder with some olive oil and a tough of lemon juice and used an immersion blender to mix everything before pouring on the pasta and veggies.

Mix well and place in fridge. Take out about a half hour before serving so the oil will warm up. Serve with a tossed salad (optional) and fresh brewed iced tea (mandatory).