Small, local "baby" or bay shrimp are appearing up and down the Oregon and Washington coasts. I'm seeing fresh, never frozen shrimp between $3.00 and $4.00 a pound at both local fish markets and chain grocers. Quite often they're already cooked, but these will cook in a jiffy in some boiling lightly salted water; it's pretty much a matter of dip them in the water, wait three or 4 minutes, and cool them down with running cold water. You want to watch the shrimp carefully; they'll change color when they're cooked, and you want to remove them from the water immediately, and cool them down so they don't over cook and become rubbery.

They're perfect for chilled-make-ahead pasta salad. You can use elbow macaroni, or zitti, rotelle, or my favorite small or medium size shells, cooks and drained, then dressed with salad dressing of your choice (vinarette? lemon and garlic? seasoned mayo? The options are almost endless), add some chopped fresh herbs, a few fresh veggies (olives, peppers, cucumbers, halved cherry or grape tomatoes, celery, sweet red onion . . . even frozen peas!), mix gently, and chill at least a few hours, or better, overnight and then pack a cooler for the beach or the park.

The variations are endless, in terms of what to put in your shrimp and pasta salad, and how to dress it. I'd suggest looking at a few recipes, and decide on what your salad will have based on what you like and what's locally available and fresh. In general, I'd suggest 8 ounces of your favorite bite-sized cooked pasta, drained and cooled, and about a pound of cooked baby shrimp. This recipe uses a lemon-herb dressing with Mint and Tarragon, and slices of cucumber and fresh nectarine. This one uses cucumbers, tomatos, olives, red onion and fresh dill with a mayonaise dressing. This one uses grape tomatoes, pecans, arugula or spinach, fresh parsley or basil, and a lemon garlic dressing.

ETA: One of my all time favorite food bloggers, Elise of Simply Recipes, has just posted her own Shrimp Pasta Salad recipe. Mind, she starts out with frozen shrimp, but the poor woman lives in Northern California, where fresh local shrimp aren't nearly as easily come by as they are in Oregon and Washington.