Bowtie Pasta Summer Salad with Feta Cheese and Greek Dressing

For Father’s Day every year we do a barbeque. I don’t know why we always make dads do the work on Father’s Day. But they like it at my house. So we do. And this year we decided to do hamburgers after asking all the dads what they would rather have. I had 3 dads for dinner; my son, son-in-law, and my hubs. Great Grandpa came for dessert after visiting one of my hub’s siblings for dinner.

I don’t know why dads always like a good burger but they do. So I made some side salads to go with them and we had fresh corn on the cob, watermelon, potato salad, and chips and cream cheese and chili dip too.

Here is the hubs with 2 little grandkiddos who do NOT want to pose for a picture. Isn’t this a funny one anyway? Dylan is trying hard to squirm away. I think I got one decent shot of about 8 tries.

Grandpa and his 2 newest grandkids on Father’s Day 2014. Lena and Dylan both just over a year old. (Lena is 17 months)

This is the Greek dressing that make this pasta salad so delicious. This dressing mixed with the Feta Cheese of course. It is hard to find. And it is wrapped up like a bottle of wine. But it is thick and really rich with herbs and spices and really kind of pricey too. It is $4.00 or more a bottle. I usually find it at Target or Smiths Market.

Recipe for Bowtie Pasta Summer Salad
1 pkg bowtie pasta boiled and drained
3/4 bottle of Girards Greek Feta Salad Dressing
1/2 cup quartered cucumbers
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (or grape tomatoes sliced in half)
3/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup finely diced purple onion
salad seasoning just a few shakes (or season salt and pepper)
A shake of dried parsley
Mix up and toss and let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving. Makes 10 – 12 servings.

Then you can buy the Feta Cheese in a brick or already crumbled. I had a small brick of it so I just chopped it up into crumbs.

I boiled up a package of bowtie pasta too and then drained and cooled it.

I sliced and quartered a long, hothouse cucumber I got from Costco and added that to the Pasta Salad.

Then I chopped up a few tomatoes and added them to the Greek Pasta Salad.

Gotta have some purple onion to add some zest!

I dice it up really really fine though. I don’t like large chunks of onion in salads. It seems to overpower them. So I dice them tiny.

Then I added the dressing and about 3/4 cup of Feta Cheese. I usually use 3/4 of a bottle of the Girards Greek Salad Dressing to the Pasta Salad. It takes a half hour to marinate in the fridge. Then it is ready to serve.

Last thing I do is add some Salad Seasoning. I just shake it on and toss and shake it on again and taste. Sometimes one more shake is needed. If you don’t have any of that use some Lawry’s seasoning salt and pepper to taste.

Here’s me and my most local grandbabies. My first two on the left and my only grandson on the right. I lub these critters sooooo much! Can’t you just die looking at that cute little vest Dylan is wearing? I think it is just the cutest little preppy look he’s got goin on! You should see him trying to walk. He looks like a drunken sailor. It is super cute.

Two of the grown boy cousins. My nephew Tyler on the left and my son Devin on the right. There’s a lotta love in this family. 😀

It must have been a plaid shirt convention. Even my son wore one! My hubs on the right and his brother on the left and his daddio in the middle. Behind him is a giant flat screen we got great grandpa for Father’s Day along with John’s siblings. He was so surprised! And who can’t use another bigscreen T.V. around the house? Hmmmm?

Great Grandma Merlene and my daughter Tiff and hubs Gary and Marisa my first granddaughter. Hope you all had a fun Father’s Day. We sure did!