Pasta salad wears a blended dressing
Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
So far there have been no responses to Barbara Garot’s request for the house dressing like that served at U.S. Pizza Co. However, while browsing the Internet I came across a discussion about the dressing.
One person suggested mixing equal parts creamy Italian dressing and buttermilk ranch to make similar dressing at home. Both salad dressings are available bottled, but I think preparing the dressings from a mix would achieve better results. If memory serves, the dressing at U.S. Pizza Co. has a tinge more ranch flavor than Italian, so it might be better to try 2/3 ranch and 1/3 Italian. And speaking of ranch and Italian dressings, this pasta salad recipe from Mitch Caver calls for one cup of each.
Easy Pasta Salad
1 (14 ½ -ounce) package multigrain penne pasta 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 1 cup Italian dressing 1 cup ranch salad dressing 6 green onions, chopped 1 small red onion, chopped 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Rinse in cold water.
In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and toss with the pasta. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
Makes 12 servings.
Katie Doherty, a member of the newspaper’s online staff, recently baked these cookies and shared them with newsroom employees.
“These are a cookie my grandmother used to make, and all I remembered was my mom’s description of them, that they were a ‘brown sugar cookie with walnuts, coconut and orange jelly slices.’ I think she’d sent me the ‘real’ recipe at some point, but I just made something up instead.”
And the results were delicious.
Katie’s Grandmother’s Cookies
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 1 ¾ cups brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract About 1 cup chopped walnuts About 1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut 1 bag orange slice candies, chopped
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick mat.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix thoroughly. Stir in walnuts, coconut and orange slice candies. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes.
Send recipe requests, contributions and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; email: Please include a daytime phone number.