Mother's Day, 2009!

Since my Mom enjoys hotdogs we decided to have an indoor picnic for Mother's Day in her honor! We had hot dogs, chips, pretzels, rhubarb salad, pasta salad and strawberry shortcake! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!

The menu consisted of a pasta salad that I doctored up with a variety of fruits and vegetables. My husband purchased sea shell macaroni and it cooked up nice. To that I added diced sweet onion, green onions, halved red grapes, diced carrots and celery, pineapple tidbits, and chopped red pepper. I thawed peas and corn (about 2/3 cup each) and added to the pasta. I hard boiled six eggs, keeping two of garnish. I chopped the other four eggs and added it to the pasta mixture. I poured Zesty Italian dressing, to taste, over the mixture and sprinkled with dill and thoroughly mixed and placed in fridge to blend the flavors.

Recently, I purchased a rhubarb cookbook, and found an interesting recipe for a molded rhubarb salad with fresh strawberries and orange. Our family found the salad tasty and we will serve it again.

Rhubarb Salad

4 cups diced raw rhubarb
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
2 - 3oz. packages strawberry gelatin
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 cups fresh sliced strawberries
Strawberries, mint, cream for garnish-if desired

Combine rhubarb, water and sugar in saucepan. Cook until tender over medium heat. Pour hot rhubarb mixture over gelatin and stir until completely dissolved. Add orange juice and peel. Chill until syrupy. Fold in the sliced strawberries. Pour into a 6 cup mold. Chill until set. I made this the evening before. Garnish before serving. Serves at least twelve.

HINT
I always unmolded salads like my Mom using a hot towel but I never had great luck. Something struck me today when I prepared to unmold the salad...why not use my hair dryer for the source of heat. Don't laugh, it worked like a charm! You have complete control of using warm heat and believe me it was amazing!