Pasta Salad for a crowd

This is so good, I'm so excited for our potluck tonight at my grandparents' house!

I love making pasta salad because you can do it ahead, don't have to keep it particularily cold and I generally have all the ingredients on hand

Boil up 2 boxes of pasta (I use whole wheat, the regular gets a little mushy sitting around in italian dressing) then cool them down, either run under cold water, put in the fridge, etc.

Drain the following ingredients and stir together in another bowl:
1 can of diced tomatoes (you could use fresh, we don't generally like tomatoes, so I keep canned on hand), you could also substitute with some sundried tomatoes.
1 can artichoke hearts or two small jars or about 1/3 of a Costco jar of them
1 can olives, I use black, and prefer a large jar of Klamata but depends what I have on hand
about 1- 1 1/2 cups of shredded or cubed cheese-I prefer white-you can use mozerella, feta, parmesan, whatever you have and/or like. You must cool the pasta before adding the cheese or it will melt and then get lumpy, which is not very attractive.

Mix the veggies with the pasta, very carefully. I usually put 1/2 the pasta in, and slowly stir in the rest as I go.

Then add the dressing, based off this recipe:

First make an italian dressing base, you will not use all of it, so safe the rest for another day...

1 tablespoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon white sugar

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon celery salt or seed

Stir all these up then take 2 TBSP out and put in another bowl and wisk with it... (I used one of those glass carafes they sometimes sell with Italian dressing mix and didn't measure)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons water

Wisk up or shake and pour ALL of it over the pasta.  Let refridgerate until you serve your crowd :)