A new pasta salad and easy chocolate fudge

For those of you who like pasta salad, I wanted to share a recipe that Hubby created a couple of years ago. It has been a huge hit everywhere I take it. We even have a few people who pay him to make big batches for their family or events. I posted it about a couple of years ago, but had a request recently to re-post. So here it is again, back by popular demand. 

He uses the Garden Rotini noodles for it. It takes the one pound box size. Keep in mind you could substitute any ingredient or quantity to make it suitable to your own tastes. These are just the way we did it.

This recipe is when he made a double batch , so the quantities are doubled. But you can cut it in 1/2 for a smaller amount if you want. In a double batch he uses four carrots, two cucumbers, one jalapeno, two red onions, two containers of cherry tomatoes (tommy toes), two Granny Smith apples and two red apples of your choosing. We used Jonathan's in yesterdays batch but we have made it with Red Delicious as well. Just pick your favorite apple.

The double batch uses three bottles of the large size Zesty Italian dressing. You can substitute the dressing with your own favorite. This double batch takes 1 1/2 bottles of Bac'n Pieces (Bacos) and a small can of chopped black olives.

Cook and drain your noodles and place them in a big bowl for mixing purposes. 

Peel and chop your veggies. Core your apples and it is your personal preference if you want to peel them or leave the peel on. 

Pour the dressing over the entire mixture. 

Stir it around to thoroughly mix it all together. Be gentle but mix well. 

And you have a nice hearty bowl of pasta salad. 

The first time he made the salad, we were having a "kitchen day". We both were in the mood to cook or bake. So he asked me to make this fudge recipe he found on Pinterest. Yes, that's right, my man is a Pinterest man now. He loves creamy chocolate fudge, but we don't make it a lot because it gets expensive to make and it takes quite a while to make it. But this only had two ingredients. Hershey's milk chocolate chips and Eagle Brand condensed milk. 

All you need is a microwavable mixing bowl, an 8 x 8 baking dish or metal cake pan and a spoon. 

You pour one and 1/2 bags of the chips into the mixing bowl. I use my Pampered Chef pitcher because it is easy to pour out of when I'm done. 

You cover the chocolate chips with the milk. 

Put it in the microwave and heat it until all the chips melt. Take it out a couple of times in the process and stir it to keep it blended well. 

Mine took about 2 minutes, give or take. Remove it and stir really good till all the chips are melted and blended well with the milk. 

It recommended lining your baking dish/cake pan with wax paper. Well, I did. And I didn't like it. Next time I will probably butter the bottom and sides of my pan. That's what I do with all my other fudge recipes. The wax paper kept pulling loose when I was trying to smooth it out in the pan and you couldn't get in the corners as well as you can in a buttered dish. 

Refrigerate for a couple of hours till it sets up and then remove it and cut into pieces. Hubby is a muncher and likes his fudge in bite size pieces so he can just grab a couple when he has the munchies so he cut his up small. I am more of a cocoa fan for fudge but he loves it with chocolate chips. He said this turned out really good. 

Our part of the world is still in the winter madness. We had snow last night around midnight, turned to freezing sleet and rain over night, in a few hours it is supposed to be rain and snow mixed and then turning to rain by 1:00. It is crazy. Our Thirty-One C & C is at 2:00 today and we are finding out about a new line of products so I really, really can't wait to go. Hope the weather gets its act together so we can all get out. In the meantime, all this talk about food is making me want to bake. I may make some cookies for my meeting. Have a great day and stay safe and warm.