On one of my numerous trips hauling kids to there and from here this past week, a neighbor offered some bounty from their garden. Jay packed up a bag half full of tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, cucumbers and onions. This was at roughly 2:00 in the afternoon and he just helped me solve the this evening's dinner dilemma.

When it is topping 90 degrees everyday like it has been for most of the US, something cool is nice for dinner. This is a very easy pasta salad to make. I use the term pasta loosely. Elbow macaroni is much more accurate. The following recipe is created to feed a large army. At the time of its creation I had 7 teenagers at the house, and God only knows how many sub 12 year olds, somewhere around 7 or 8. Our home is becoming the "hang out" for the neighborhood kids. It's hard on the grocery bill but good on the "know what your kids are doing and who their doing it with."

Ingredients:

• 6 large tomatoes or 12 Roma tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 3-4 medium yellow and / or bell peppers
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 big box of elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup of Salsa
• 1/2 cup of Ranch dressing
• 2 plus cups of mayonnaise or miracle whip.
• 1 lb of bacon
• Salt and Pepper

Recipe:

1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil for the pasta. While waiting for this to happen start cleaning and chopping the vegetables.
2. Cut and clean the seeds and white membrane from the bell peppers
3. Cut the veggies into 1/2" - 1" chunks. Dice the onion into micro pieces to hide from the kids.
4. I like to use Roma tomatoes because they are nice and firm and don't have the watery mess that others have. The taste very nice and stay together in the salad too.
5. Place all the chopped veggies in a large bowl.
6. Pour your noodles into the boiling water. Boil according to the package directions.
7. While the noodles are boiling, cut your bacon into small bite size pieces.
8. Fry the bacon up in a pan, stir often.
9. When the noodles are done rinse in cold water until they are all cold to the touch.
10. Remove bacon when done and place on paper towels to drain the grease.
11. Put the bacon in the bowl with the chopped vegetables.
12. Now add the macaroni to the veggies and bacon. Mix this together well.
13. Now add the salsa, ranch and mayo. I use a half mayonnaise and Miracle whip. It appeases the masses. Add half the mayo or M-Whip at first.
14. Mix this all up. because it is a large quantity it may take some brute force. Add the remaining mayo, and more if you like, until it is all mixed and creamy textured.
15. I like to add a pretty healthy amount of pepper. Add salt to taste.
16. Now place in the refrigerator for at least a couple hours.
17. Serve as the main course.

I love the red bell pepper and bacon combo it it tastes remarkable. The salsa and ranch add just a hint of tang to this summer salad. You could easily add any other vegetables you like to this, celery, carrots or zucchini. I am just so sick of zucchini this year. I have eaten more of it this summer than I have in my entire life.