A salsa made with the best flavors of summer - bell pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, chilies, zucchini and corn - nicely seasoned and tossed with a quality creamy Italian dressing.

Summer Vegetable Salsa

Okay. Question.

Is this a salsa? You know, like meant to be eaten with chips? Or as a condiment for grilled or pan seared proteins?

Or, is it a dip, solely meant to be scooped up on a chip?

Or, is it a salad? Meant to be eaten on its own?

A perfect pasta salad for any gathering, or just because! Rotini pasta, paired with vegetables, meats and cheeses, mixed with a salad seasoning blend and dressed with a quality homemade or commercial creamy Italian dressing. Pictured here with a tuna salad wrap and pickled baby beets.

Party Pasta Salad

It's pretty easy to make a pasta salad, and you don't really need a "recipe" so to speak. You just toss some cooked pasta with favorite vegetables, sometimes some kind of protein and dress it with a favorite salad dressing and voila, you've got a pasta salad!

Of course, you may not be able to recreate that combination unless you wrote it down and that's where a recipe comes in handy.

This pasta salad is one of those that went viral on social media, though, as usual there are lots of comments from folks talking about how they "have been making this all of their lives!" 

Rotini pasta, tossed with a mix of vegetables - broccoli, red onion, sweet bell pepper, carrots and tomatoes here - mixed with a seasoning blend and dressed with a quality homemade or commercial Italian or Ranch dressing.

Supreme Pasta Salad

Whew y'all! It's been super-hot and humid here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and we're heading into a couple of 100+ degree actual temperatures here the next few days. No telling what the "feels like" temp will be with the humidity factored in. Wow.

Many of you have been in a similar heat wave that we have down here, and it sure feels like it will never end, even though summer actually only "officially" started this week! Yeah, okay...

We all seem to be suffering with this heat.

Quick Small Batch Refrigerator Corn Relish

Whether you serve as a condiment alongside grilled meats, or a simple snack with tortilla or corn chips, this small batch, quick refrigerator corn relish will be a refreshing addition to the menu.

Quick Refrigerator Corn Relish

I had a craving for some corn relish, but didn't want a huge batch made for canning. I wanted more of a snack-sized, easy version to enjoy right away!

A cold spaghetti salad, made with angel hair, vermicelli or thin spaghetti, Italian dressing, fresh tomatoes and a variety of add-ins.

Cold Vermicelli Spaghetti Salad

Many of my blogging colleagues are all abuzz about fall recipes right now - every form of apple and pumpkin and oatmeal, caramel and maple syrup, soups and stews and chili, casseroles, butternut and acorn squash recipes are all already starting to appear.

I've been blogging since 2008, and it begins every year right about mid-August, but... as I write this, it is 105 degrees on the heat index down here in mid-afternoon and, well, I just ain't ready for that yet y'all!