Grandma’s pasta salad recipe is a summer backyard bbq tradition

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Growing up in my household, summer was synonymous with pasta salad.

At every backyard barbecue, birthday or casual lunch, my grandma’s version is requested. And every friend that gives it a try begs for the recipe.

Tri-color rotini pasta makes a bright base for a bounty of Italian toppings, (everything but the kitchen sink) like black and green olives, mozzarella, artichokes and pepperoni. The best part is seeing what ingredients picky people leave behind on their plates. My brother isn’t a fan of celery, while I usually leave the black olives behind. But each component is crucial to the formula.

A couple of years ago, we made a cookbook featuring all of our grandmother’s recipes, and the most worn-out page is already the coveted pasta salad recipe.

We pretty much eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if one family member makes it for themselves, the rest come flocking with Tupperware in hand. I don’t remember a life without Anita Schneider’s pasta salad, and I don’t want to. So, if you want to be the MVP of your next summer party, test out the recipe below:

Anita Schneider’s Pasta Salad:

This recipe takes 40 minutes of prep time and 20 minutes to cook. Serves 8.

Ingredients

1 1-lb package of Tri-color Rotini Pasta (Pasta LaBella)

1 can sliced black olives (3.8 oz)

1 jar sliced green olives (10 oz)

1 can quartered artichokes

1 carton of grape tomatoes (halved)

Small packaged sliced Pepperoni (mini if you can find)

8 oz package of mozzarella cheese

Chopped celery (1 or 2 stalks)

Black pepper to taste

1 bottle Creamy Italian salad dressing (Kraft)

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Steps

Cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain and briefly rinse with cold water and drain well. Stir to cool.

If full size, cut pepperoni slices in half. Cut cheese in approximately 1/2-inch cubes. Drain olives and artichokes. Larger pieces of artichoke can be cut.

Reserve ingredients (not celery) for topping. Reserve 1/2 package of cheese for the top.

Mix all except salad dressing. Add salad dressing to moisten all ingredients. Can refrigerate at this time.

Before serving, add more dressing, if needed, and place in serving bowl.

Suggestions for “dressing” top of salad with reserved ingredients. Place middle of hard-cooked egg in center or use cherry tomato. Arrange 4 or 5 artichoke quarters around center. Cut approximately 1/4 inch or less slices of mozzarella cheese. Slice diagonally to form triangles. Arrange around artichokes (points toward artichokes). Place pepperoni halves around the edges of the bowl for a scallop effect. Use olives wherever.

Enjoy!

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Trump’s been convicted. Now Hunter Biden’s gun trial is set to start

posted in: Politics | 0

Chris Strohm, Jef Feeley and Jordan Fabian | (TNS) Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden is set to become the first child of a sitting U.S. president tried for crimes, just days after the historic guilty verdict against Donald Trump — two events that may inject fresh uncertainty into the 2024 election.

A jury was seated Monday in the first of two cases Hunter Biden has tried to avoid for years, both to stay out of prison and spare his father, President Joe Biden, political and personal turmoil as he runs for a second term most likely against Trump.

The trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on three federal gun violations is expected to plumb the depths of the younger Biden’s drug use. During that period, prosecutors allege he lied about his substance abuse on a federal form to illegally purchase a firearm.

Special Counsel David Weiss has indicated he plans to raise painful events from the Biden family’s past related to Hunter’s conduct and events that involve the president. Still, White House officials largely view the trial as a private matter for Biden’s son tied to his personal behavior from years ago.

The president, who is expected to travel to France during part of the trial, will be monitoring it primarily as a concerned parent who has supported his son’s recovery from addiction, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

There are no plans for the White House to publicly engage with the trial, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss how the president and his staff view the legal matter. But those plans could change, and the person did not rule out the possibility of the president reacting to developments in real time.

Plea possibility

While the possibility exists for a last-minute plea deal between the two sides, Hunter Biden’s legal team is prepared to argue the charges are unconstitutional and violate the Second Amendment, as well as point out flaws in the government’s evidence.

Dick Harpootlian, a Biden ally and former South Carolina prosecutor, said jurors in Biden’s home state might wonder why prosecutors brought the criminal case against him now that he’s shaken his drug addiction.

“It only takes one for a hung jury, and I can definitely see one or more jurors questioning the propriety of bringing this case,” said Harpootlian, who now serves as a state senator.

Biden’s trial represents another highly politicized spectacle following the former President Trump’s criminal trial in New York, which ended Thursday with his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with a porn star during the 2016 race.

Hunter Biden also has been charged by Weiss in Los Angeles for nine federal tax violations and is scheduled to go on trial in that case in September.

The gun trial is expected to be short but dramatic, with prosecutors airing details about Hunter Biden’s drug-laden years that include excerpts from a book he wrote about it, “Beautiful Things: A Memoir.”

“His book is replete with admissions that establish he knew he was an addict and knew he was using crack cocaine throughout 2018, including in October 2018 when he purchased and possessed the gun,” prosecutors wrote in a May 20 trial brief.

Fordham University law professor Cheryl Bader, an ex-assistant U.S. attorney who now runs the school’s criminal law clinic, said Biden’s chances of winning an acquittal are slim given his acknowledgment in his memoir.

Biden has been open about his struggles with alcohol and drugs but said he has remained sober since mid-2019.

Federal prosecutors “only bring cases that they are confident they can win, and they are known for dotting their I’s and crossing their T’s,” Bader said.

Two of the gun counts carry maximum prison time of 10 years; another is punishable by as much as five years. However, judges rarely impose maximum sentences.

Biden’s lawyers plan to challenge the government’s charge that he bought the gun while a drug addict as constitutionally vague. They are set to argue that he wasn’t using drugs when he bought the gun. They also plan to contend that the seller didn’t comply with legal requirements in the gun sale and documentation.

“Intoxication from too much alcohol or using drugs, legal or illegal, may make it too dangerous for people to drive a car, operate heavy machinery, or possess a firearm one day, but they may be perfectly sober enough to do all those things the next day,” according to a May 23 trial brief by Biden’s lawyers.

Weiss was nominated by Trump to serve as the U.S. attorney for Delaware and kept on by Biden. He was appointed as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2023 to manage the cases against Hunter Biden.

Biden and Weiss had agreed to a plea deal last year to resolve both allegations, but the agreement fell apart under questioning by the federal judge overseeing the case. Biden’s lawyers and supporters have argued that Weiss then bowed to political pressure by Trump and conservatives in bringing the charges.

———

The gun case is U.S. v. Biden, 23-cr-00061, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).

___

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

New Gophers baseball coach Ty McDevitt: ‘We are going to do things differently on the field’

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Ty McDevitt has tried to take a few quiet moments to himself to reflect on his new role as the University of Minnesota baseball coach. But then the task of returning the Gophers program to a high level intervenes.

When McDevitt tries to sit back, his phone seems to ring almost immediately. “It snaps me out of it pretty fast,” he said Monday.

McDevitt was named the successor to John Anderson on May 22. McDevitt, an Apple Valley native, pitched for the Gophers from 2012-16 and was the U’s pitching coach for six seasons before his promotion.

Since winning a Big Ten championship and advancing to the NCAA tournament in 2018, the Gophers have posted only two seasons with winning records (29-27 in 2019 and 25-23 in 2024) and four losing years, including a 6-31 bottoming out in 2021.

McDevitt, 31, is only the Gophers’ fourth head baseball coach since 1948 and the program’s first since John Anderson took over in 1982, 10 years before McDevitt was born.

As a coach, McDevitt wants to continue Anderson’s level of authenticity and transparency. On the field, McDevitt believes the strength of the current team is in its young pitching staff, and he will be looking to make improvements in other areas.

“We are going to do things differently on the field,” McDevitt said. “We are going to operate at a much higher speed than we have before. I’ve got a different vision for what we are going to do offensively.

“Defensively, (Anderson) has established a long-standing tradition of playing quality defense — we have to get back to that,” McDevitt said. “We haven’t played very good defense these last few years. We haven’t picked up the baseball and haven’t thrown it well. We’ve got to get a group of guys out there who are committed to playing catch on the field.”

McDevitt estimated the Gophers lost 10 games this spring because they “didn’t operate very well under stress.” McDevitt said they didn’t make the big play. We didn’t make the big pitch. We didn’t make the big hit.”

McDevitt said if that upshot came, it would be the difference in making the Big Ten tournament and maybe even having the wherewithal to make the NCAA tournament.

“We’ve got to create an environment in practice daily that stresses that component of getting guys comfortable operating under stress,” McDevitt said. “Not just to a level where they can survive, but to a level where they can thrive.”

Within an expanding Big Ten Conference, McDevitt will be tasked with rebuilding a roster in the NCAA transfer portal era. Part of the reason he hasn’t been able to reflect much on his own promotion is an abundance of time spent combing through the “thousands” of players in that database..

“You have to make a commitment to going through that and making a lot of phone calls and getting a lot of guys on campus,” McDevitt said. “You’re going to find guys that want to be here and want to be here for the right reasons.”

The Gophers weren’t able to play early-season games at U.S. Bank Stadium in March because the Vikings were replacing the turf. It’s unclear if the U will be able to play at U.S. Bank Stadium in spring 2025.

“It minimizes the travel; it’s a true home venue for us,” McDevitt said. “It is important long term for us to have some stability here as a program (with that venue). … If it’s this year or next year or (in the) years to come. … It’s how can we get the best team on the field that can operate in any environment — whether we’ve got to play in a parking lot or we get to play at U.S. Bank Stadium.”

Gophers news

The Gophers-Hawkeyes football game on Sept. 21 likely will be played in prime time on NBC at Huntington Bank Stadium, per Brett McMurphy on Monday. …. Men’s basketball freshmen Isaac Asuma and Grayson Grove arrived on the U campus last weekend. Head coach Ben Johnson still has one scholarship available with guard Cam Christie staying in NBA draft. … Freshman football players who did not enroll early in January are also expected to be on campus now as well. Summer classes started Monday. … The volleyball team just concluded a 12-day trip to Turkey, Slovenia and Italy in May. … Former football center Greg Eslinger is back on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot in 2025.

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A Mazda, a gift bag of $120,000 and a dismissed juror

posted in: Adventure | 0

WASHINGTON — A woman drove up to a Minnesota home in a Mazda on Sunday night with a bag of cash totaling $120,000, ready to hand it to one of the 12 jurors in a multimillion-dollar charitable fraud case in the Minneapolis federal courthouse.

“This is for Juror 52,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson quoted the woman saying, according to a story in the Sahan Journal. “Tell her there will be another bag for her if she votes to acquit.”

The juror was not home at the time, so the woman left the cash and the message with a relative, Thompson said in court, according to accounts from journalists in the courtroom. The U.S. attorney’s office said in an interview with The New York Times that the accounts were accurate and that more details would be forthcoming.

Prosecutors said the juror reported the apparent bribery attempt to local police.

That revelation roiled the trial of seven defendants accused of stealing $41 million from government programs meant to feed hungry children, through a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors have accused them — and dozens of others — of stealing $250 million by claiming to have served nonexistent meals to nonexistent children.

So far, 18 people have pleaded guilty.

Earlier: Former St. Paul nonprofit leader pleads guilty in Feeding Our Future fraud case.

The current case is the first related to that scandal to come to trial. After six weeks, the trial is nearing its end. Defense attorneys are expected to make their final closing arguments this week. In court Monday, defense attorneys said they were troubled by the allegations, according to accounts from the courtroom.

In response to the revelation, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel dismissed the juror, and quizzed the remaining jurors and alternates about whether they had been contacted in a similar way, according to an account from the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune. All said no, the newspaper reported.

Police in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota — where the bribe attempt took place — referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

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