We rarely participate in blogging events, but when I recently learned about Barbara's LIVESTRONG With A Taste of Yellow event, I knew we had to make something yellow for LIVESTRONG day (May 13th). As an avid cyclist, I'm a Lance Armstrong fan, but I'm a bigger fan of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides survivorship services for people affected by cancer.

Over the years, I've had a few friends battle and survive cancer. And I've had a few relatives lose the fight. For the last four years, I've worn a LIVESTRONG bracelet every single day in support of people living with cancer and each year, I make a donation to the LAF. I know it's not much relative to the funding required to fight cancer, but every penny counts. So if you have the means, please make a contribution to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It's a wonderful charity with a great cause.

For our yellow food, Hungry Bear and I made a spicy fresh corn salad. It's a simple salad made with corn, red onions, basil and a vinaigrette. For a spicy kick, I threw in a few Thai chili peppers. We usually make this salad with sweet white corn, but this time we obviously used yellow corn for the Taste of Yellow event. Either way, the corn salad is really delicious. It's a light, refreshing salad that's perfect for a picnic/BBQ or a hot summer day.

Now for true inspiration about fighting cancer, check out Use Real Butter by Jen Yu. She's one of my absolute favorite food bloggers with a great wit, a never-quit attitude and of course fabulous food!

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One of my favorite ingredients is hot Italian sausage. Hungry Bear loves sweet petite peas. Add some mushrooms, garlic, orecchiette, a sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano and you'll have a tasty pasta dish that can be prepared in 30 minutes.

Hungry Bear likes pasta dishes without tomato sauce because the individual flavors of the ingredients are not dominated by a tomato taste. Recently, we've made most of our pasta without tomato sauce. Our current favorite pasta is an orecchiette with hot Italian sausage.

This pasta dish is simple to make. We really like the spiciness from the hot Italian sausage complimented by the sweetness of the peas. The orecchiette gets coated by the juices from the sausage and mushrooms, so the pasta dish isn't completely dry. I try to make the dish a little healthier by draining off some of the fat/juices from the sausage. But if you remove too much juice, you'll lose a lot of flavor and there won't be enough juice to coat the orecchiette. It's a fine balance between flavor and fat.

To complete the meal, make a side of sautéed broccolini with garlic. You can also combine the broccolini with the pasta and have one big bowl of happiness and deliciousness!

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