Earl Revives Party Pasta Salad for "Turkey"

As you may have read here, my wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") does not care for most pasta dishes. She thinks "pasta" is well named, as Webster defines it: "paste in processed form". I have managed to get her to like some pastas when cooked right with the proper sauce. In the 1980's pasta became SALAD. Not a dish served hot, with a rich, meaty & cheesy sauce but cold and mixed with veggies and, unbelievably - uncooked ramen noodles!

At Daughter #2's birthday party last week, we ate well and laughed hard. We ate burgers and all beef hot dogs cooked to perfection by my son-in-law (a.k.a. "Rutt") and pasta salad made by my daughter. We also had a Texas Sheet Cake, expertly crafted by my son-in-law's mom. The wind kicked up and the candles looked like a mini forest fire. What a great way to spend an evening! Family - Friends - Food, an unbeatable combination.

All of this leads me to the reason for this post. We came home with some pasta salad leftovers and I was able to make it into something "Turkey" ate and enjoyed. To the basic pasta salad I added:

• Avocado
• Tomatoes
• Pepperoni
• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Italian Cheese Mixture
• Fresh Spinach

If it seems like I made a whole new salad, I did add lots of components to make it a refreshing dinner on a VERY hot summer's evening. Thanks to my daughter, we I ate two very different  pasta salads that week, both of which were much better than those of the 80's!