Easy Penne Pasta Salad

I had completely forgotten about the existence of pasta salads until I spent some time with my sister this past spring and she made one to have on hand for easy work lunches. Needless to say the flame of this old love was rekindled, and the recipe below is the child of that love! (Oh dear...) The keeper recipe I've finally settled on is mostly drawn from Taste of Home and A Southern Soul, but with tweaks to fit my own tastes better. It's not the most exciting dish, but when I'm craving a lot of veggies and needing something that'll fill me up it fits the bill quite nicely! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have this summer!

Kasha with Mushrooms

When I was studying and working in the former Soviet Union I quickly discovered that not eating mushrooms really wasn't an option if I wanted to be a good guest. Thankfully I soon found I enjoyed many of the ways mushrooms are prepared in Russian and Ukrainian cuisine. Today's recipe features one of my favourites: Buckwheat kasha with mushrooms. I've generally followed Olga's lovely recipe with some borrowings from Adina's recipe and adaptations to better fit my own taste. If you try it out I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, and do!

Sauce Algérienne

I fell in love with sauce algérienne on a visit to southern France during which I randomly got a baguette sandwich out and about and discovered the beautiful taste of "Algerian sauce." I think people around the world have a tendency to think of their food, culture, et cetera, as static and pure until X, Y, or Z people showed up (to ruin it, of course!), when in reality food, culture, and people themselves are a constant, churning mishmash of everything. What would Greece be without Ethiopia's coffee? The USA without England's apple pie? France without Austria's croissants? (Or sauce algérienne!)