Jacki’s Review of Pasta Salad and Parfaits

As usual I liked both of these recipes.  They were both quite simple and easy to prepare.  I used whole grain penne pasta because that is what I had and I thought it was good.  Instead of flank steak I used a flat iron steak because it was less expensive and the flank steak came in a bigger package than I needed.  The flat iron steak was excellent!- good flavor and tender.  It took longer to cook than the recipe recommended though.  I made the sauce as directed but I didn’t have any sherry vinegar so I used red wine vinegar and added just a touch more sugar because that is what google told me to do.  I added a few grape tomatoes that I had on hand and needed to use up.  I made the sauce and pasta ahead of time so I mixed the two together and heated just a little in the microwave before I added the steak.  I have to admit I knew Rich would not care for this as a whole meal because he doesn’t really like French or Catalina dressing so I made some rice and saved some of the steak for him to eat separate.  He did have a serving of the pasta salad though and ate it.  The Banana Cream Pie Parfaits were good too and easy to make.  I would like to try it using vanilla pudding like Nika did.  I also added some banana chunks as suggested.  I used the whipped cream in a can instead of the Cool Whip because that is what I had and it worked fine.  When pressed for a comment regarding the recipes, Rich said “interesting”. – but he did eat them both.  He really liked the steak :)