Fresh green onions from the garden do for this salad what Elizabeth Taylor did for the movies

I adore the freshness that my garden’s green onions bring to a salad. Walk out my patio door, yank up a few onions, waltz them inside, make a few chops to them on the cutting board, and a recipe gets instant spiritedness. I consider my green onions to be place-holders for the additional garden-fresh veggies that soon are down the road. In my spring garden a few rows over from the green onions, burgeoning tomato plants now wave in the wind. Soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to the produce aisles at the supermarket when our backyard plot moves into its heyday.

I added those green onions to a delightful chicken pasta salad that we enjoyed for dinner last night and probably will dine on throughout the weekend. (For sure this dish will grow better each day as it further marinates.) Whole-wheat penne pasta and chopped, cooked chicken breasts get enlivened with the tomatoes, green onion, red onion, and feta cheese, with a little fat-free Italian dressing to tie it all together.

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad, served alongside some cut-up orange slices and some fresh grapes, made one of the best weekday meals we’ve enjoyed in a while. As we move closer in to the summer, the dining fare will be lighter, so this recipe’s a winner as things “lighten up” a bit.

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

2 cups penne pasta, whole-wheat, dry

cooking spray

1/2 pound skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 1/4 cups chopped Roma tomatoes

4 ounces Feta cheese

1/2 cup fat-free Italian dressing

1/2 tablespoon dried basil

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped green onion

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook pasta according to directions. As you cook omit oil and salt. Drain pasta. Lightly coat skillet with cooking spray and cook cubed chicken until done. Shred the chicken. In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Add pasta and chicken and toss. Best if allowed to chill in refrigerator a few hours before you serve. Makes 9 servings of 3/4 cup each.

Cute bow-ties, healthy tomatoes and herbs make chicken-salad dish memorable

The bow-ties make it cute; the tomatoes and herbs make it garden-fresh.

Hubby almost couldn't find the bow-tie pasta when I sent him to the grocery to purchase some of the ingredients. Finally he discovered it under the label "farfalle", its formal name.

"Mediterranean," was all he could say after the resulting Herbed Pasta and Chicken Salad was prepared and served. Truly the recipe had many the elements (olive oil, herbs, etc.) of the Mediterrean cuisine that many are telling us is health-inducing and life-prolonging.

But the fresh tomatoes absolutely made the salad. I kept looking out the back door and longed for the day when our fall tomato plans are thriving and when all tomatoes that are called for in a recipe can be the fruit of our garden's handiwork.

Allowing this dish to chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight is mandatory. The mixture would have seemed rather insipid if it had not been for the lengthy melding of the flavors. Allow plenty of time; don't get in a hurry (the Mediterranean way, of course). You'll have the salad around forever, so don't rush things here--just as if you were enjoying the more-relaxed pace of the Old Country.

We did. It's still filling up our lunchtime plates after we enjoyed it for dinner one evening.

Herbed Pasta and Chicken Salad

4 ounces bow-tie pasta

1 cup chopped cooked white chicken meat

2 cups small cherry tomatoes, halved (or 4 regular-sized Roma tomatoes, cut into small chunks)

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped black olives

2 ounces diced cheddar cheese

2/3 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh parsley

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Cook pasta according to directions, omitting salt Drin, rinse in cold water, and rinse again. Combine pasta, tomatoes, celery, olives , and cheeses in a large bowl. Set Aside. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients, stirring with a wire whisk. Pour over pasta and toss gently. Cover tightly and chill in at bowl at least 8 hours. Yield: about 7 cups.

Returning to the heritage of the Delta County land brings great fellowship and a fun new recipe to try

OK, I'll admit it. I had an ulterior motive.

Naturally, I scheduled my book-signing this past weekend in Delta County because I needed to launch my book there--the setting for Way Back in the Country Garden--the place in which the main characters, The Three Little Red-Haired Miller Girls, grew up.

Eight years ago, when I launched my first book, Way Back in the Country, the prequel to the new one, we had a fantastic party on the Cooper square at a gift shop there. It was a fitting way to kick off my new book in the locale in which the book's events happened. Of course we'd want to do it all over again in 2010 with the birth of the new title.

Debbie Grider and the folks at The Prairie Rose Flowers & Gifts, Cooper's dynamite new shop right in front of the Delta County Courthouse, were thrilled to be hosts for the 2010 launch. On Saturday they extended wonderful hospitality and gave us a great place to serve cookies made from recipes out of the new book (and Sparkling Holiday Punch from Way Back in the Country).

But truthfully, my sub-reason for heading to Cooper this past weekend went well beyond that of any book promotion. Basically I just wanted an excuse to experience just one more Delta County summer day. The place had been the locus for a thousand childhood summer memories as I grew up (described in the Way Back in the Country Garden chapter, One Smart Indian.) Each year as school ended, I'd start packing my bags to head for the farm of Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bill, who lived about six miles out from Cooper. For a city kid this "summer idyll", as I called it, brought days of sitting on the back porch helping Aunt Bonnie peel peaches, making mud pies with my cousins in the back of Uncle Bill's pickup, and breathing in fresh country air that the typical Baby Boomer of that day didn't get to experience.

Even though the farm long ago was sold and I couldn't return to the exact spot in which I passed those halcyon days, Saturday's stint in Cooper helped me walk down memory lane a bit and reminded me of those pleasurable, lazy mornings in a rare rural setting.

I also knew that the family gathering at my cousins' house after the book-signing likely would be a great place to pick up a new family recipe. Always the time to sample some wonderful and inventive cooking, I almost always emerge with new ideas for something to try--something usually fresh from the garden. I was not disappointed, as on the buffet table was a new item--Pasta Salad. The recipe actually originated with Elaine Wible, the mother-in-law of my cousin Marleene. Back in the spring Elaine had brought the dish when Marleene's baby, Mia, had her first birthday party. The blend of flavors, along with the crunchy bell pepper and celery in the mix, made it memorable. As with many other "in-law" dishes that have been appended throughout the years, this one would be incorporated into our family's regular fare, I felt sure.

The time in Cooper was precious indeed. Among the guests at the book-signing (some guests, I might add, braved a heavy downpour that morning to crowd into the florist shop) was a family friend who remembered my Granddad Wheeler when he (at age 98) was preacher at the Klondike Church of Christ. As though they happened yesterday this sweet visitor could cite lines from his sermons and jokes he often told. She also recalled stories that "Bandad" told on me, his only grandchild. Bandad died in 1978--32 years ago. To imagine that someone, all these years later, could have recalled his exact words astounded me.

I returned from my Delta County book launch feeling a very blessed human being indeed. Great fellowship at the signing, great family memories, a wonderful memory-lane walk, and a terrific recipe to share. Doesn't get much better than this.

Pasta Salad

4 boxes vermicelli, cooked according to instructions on box

3 tablespoons seasoned salt (or salt substitute, such as Mrs. Dash)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons oil (we use olive oil)

Mix together and refrigerate overnight. If mixture is sticky add a little oil.

Next morning add:

1 bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 small jar chopped pimiento

1 small can black olives, chopped

Stir in:

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (we use fat-free)

Makes a large, tasty salad.