Welcome to another edition of What's for Dinner Wednesday here on the blog! Today's meal is quick, easy, and a great use of leftover tuna salad...Tuna Melts.
Ingredients: tuna salad*, sliced Italian bread, and shredded cheddar cheese.
Spread the salad on a slice of bread and sprinkle a desired amount of cheese over it. Place on a cookie sheet, and bake at 350 until cheese is melted, bread is toasted, and salad is warm (about 5 minutes). Enjoy!
*Any creamy mayonnaise-based spread can be a tasty substitute for the tuna salad.
What's for Dinner this Wednesday? It's big salads here at the Poe House! This meal is a fantastic way to use up a multitude of soon-to-expire items in your fridge.
Ingredients*: lettuce, spinach, cabbage, celery, carrots, green peppers, onions, water chestnuts, green peas, lunch meat, left-over ham/turkey/roast, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, croutons, dressing.
Toss all the ingredients after slicing/chopping (except for cheese and croutons) in a large serving bowl or several individual serving bowls. Add remaining ingredients to individual portions right before serving.
Any leftovers can be refrigerated and eaten another day; however, refrigerating the cheese and croutons in the mix often causes them to be soggy and gross.
*Use your favorites or whatever you have on hand.
It's time for our What's for Dinner Wednesday post. Tonight's dish works well cold, hot, or room temperature...as a side or the main course: Pasta Salad.
Ingredients: 1 box of hearty pasta noodles (Rotini, Penne, etc.), 2 Roma tomatoes, 1/4 of a medium onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1-2 cups of Italian dressing.
Chop the tomatoes, pepper, and onion up finely and place in a gallon-sized zipper storage bag with 1/2 - 3/4 cup of the dressing. Seal the bag and shake it up to coat the veggies with the dressing. Place the bag in the fridge while you make the pasta (or longer; I let mine marinade overnight):
Cook the pasta and allow to cool. Put the pasta in the bag with the veggies and add the remaining desired amount of dressing (1/2 to 1 1/2 cups). Seal the bag again and gently shake/massage to evenly distribute the veggies and coat the pasta with dressing. Refrigerate, serve, or reheats as desired. Enjoy!
The colors in this dish make it a great candidate for a holiday side-dish!
It's What's for Dinner Wednesday tonight on the blog! In honor of the Holleys, I'd like to share with you an easy, tasty salad introduced to us by Mrs. Holley.
Ingredients: cabbage, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (not pictured).
Slice the cabbage thinly using a knife or food processor (about 1/5 of the cabbage*). Put the cabbage in a bowl, pour on olive oil (about 1 tablespoon*), lemon juice (about 1 1/2 tablespoons*), and salt and pepper to taste, and toss to coat:
We particularly enjoy eating it alongside my special green beans and chicken casserole:
What are you having for dinner tonight?
*for two people
How about a salad for dinner tonight? I highly recommend this recipe- it was developed years ago by my grandfather, Grandpapa Wolgemuth.
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic (crushed), 4-6 anchovy fillets, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 egg yolk, 1/8-1/4 cup olive oil, 5 drops of Tabasco, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp red wine vinegar, juice of 1/2 small lemon, 1/2 head of Romain lettuce torn, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, and 1/2 cup garlic or Caesar croutons.
In a large salad bowl, mush the anchovy fillets with two forks:
Mix in the ground pepper, garlic cloves, mustard, and egg yolk together to form a paste:
Add the olive oil gradually, beating in quickly with two forks. Pour in the remaining liquid ingredients, and stir well:
Put the lettuce, cheese, and croutons in the dressing, and toss to coat. Rub individual bowls with the squeezed lemon, add salad, and serve (4 side salads, 2 dinner salads):
Note: For Mr. Poe and my first (dating) anniversary, I made this salad topped with steak. A few bites in, Mr. Poe looked at me and said, "I can't eat the rest of this." Of course I wound up in tears, but the lesson was learned- this dressing has a very strong garlic and anchovy taste. It's excellent, but not for everyone.
