Two Orzo Salads...and One (rerun) Rice Salad - that are REALLY Good

orzo w/roasted veggies, feta and pine nuts

Our wonderful goddaughter, Hailey, had a combined 25th birthday party and "We're leaving the East Coast and Moving to San Francisco" party this past Saturday night for around 70 of her and her Peter's nearest and dearest folks. 

Needless to say, her mom and all of us were all knee-deep in food preparation! While Jules (and daughters Hailey & Lauren) took care of the protein side of the meal, my crew took care of the salads! Daughter Brynnly, old nanny Sheila (who has been in the family for around 30 years now), other-daughter Kat and I rocked out 4 salads! I made the top roasted veggie salad, Sheila made the lemony orzo salad with cucumber and feta, Brynnly and I made the panzanella salad (photos were horrid, not going there!) and we all made the confetti rice & veggie salad (recipe also here). Nice thing about all of these salads is they can be changed to make bigger and/or smaller amounts to fit the number of folks you're feeding. 

2 eggplants, cut into 1" cubes
1 each green, orange and yellow peppers, cut into 1" cubes
2 red peppers, cut into 1" cubes
1 large red onion, cut into 1" cubes
4 garlic cloves, diced
2 lbs. orzo, cooked to perfection, and drained
1 lb. block of feta, chuncked
more crumbled feta to taste
1/2 C. or so toasted pine nuts
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
handful of fresh basil leaves, julienned
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425º.
Place all veggies in a  bowl and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread over 1 or 2 cookie sheets and put in the oven. Roast for around 40 or so minutes, until veggies are well and done.  In a large bowl, combine the cooked orzo and veggies. Just before serving, stir in the feta chunks, pine nuts and basil. Dress the salad with lemon juice and olive oil. Stir to mix, taste to correct seasonings.
Serve at room temperature.

(Original recipe from Sarah Leah Chase)

orzo w/feta, red onion, cucumbers, parsley & mint

1 lb. orzo, cooked and drained, al dente

olive oil to lightly coat the pasta

juice and zest of 1 to 2 lemons, your choice

1 large English cucumber, seeded and diced

1/2 red onion, diced

handful fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 - 1 C. or so crumbled feta cheese

handful fresh mint, chopped (optional)

salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Toss cooked pasta with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and correct seasonings. Serve at room temperature.

Original recipe from Fork Knife Swoon

Confetti Rice Salad
I originally posted this salad recipe back on July 5, 2016. It's basically the very same salad, but one uses only red peppers, while this one has yellow and orange peppers as well. The first one uses a purple onion, this one doesn't. Amazing how the ingredients are nearly the same, but they look entirely different! 1st recipe/photo here.

4 C. cooked and still warm Basmti rice

2 recipes (plus more) "Our Favorite Vinaigrette"

1 red pepper, diced

1 orange or yellow pepper, diced (or both)

1 medium red onion, diced

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 package frozen petite peas, not thawed

handful fresh dill, chopped

handful fresh basil, julienned

handful fresh parsley, chopped

Put warm rice in a big bowl and toss with 1 recipe of "our favorite vinaigrette".  After the rice cools, mix in the veggies and toss with more vinaigrette. Taste and correct for seasonings.

This calls for at least 2 recipes of "Our Favorite Vinaigrette".

"Our Favorite Vinaigrette"

2 T. Dijon mustard

8 T. red wine or balsamic vinegar

2 t. sugar

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1/2 C. or so olive oil

Whisk all together to combine.

Original recipe, tweaked a lot by my sis and I, from The Silver Palate Cookbook by Sheila Lukens and Julee Rosso

As for the Panzanella, that's a recipe in the making....not worth posting....yet!

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again! 

xoabb

Veggie Drawer Clean-Out Stir-Fry

what you get when you clean out the veggie drawer

Yesterday afternoon (and long into the night) we had a 40th birthday party here at our home for daughter Brynnly's beau, James. Enormous amounts of food were prepared - and completely consumed; there wasn't one container of leftovers, much to our disappointment this morning! Brynn and Kat did the majority of the cooking, from pulled brisket to jambalaya to both tomato and watermelon salads to a bunch of other stuff. And then there was cousin Jules who came over with a big bag of veggies from her house. She had cleaned out her fridge's veggie drawers and decided if we cut all of it up and seasoned well, we could put all in a ginormous (no problem, we have several of them) iron skillet, and then on the outside grill and have a very tasty side dish. And it was said to be very tasty....according to other folks...I never even got a bite of it as it was gone about 3 minutes after it hit the buffet table! (The ultimate compliment!)

The truly throw 'n go: 

Whatever's in your fridge - in Julie's:

zucchini, sliced

yellow squash, sliced

multi-colored carrots, thinly sliced (mandolin) so they'll cook evenly

red & yellow peppers, cut in 1" julienned pieces

shallots, sliced

a lemon zested and the juice squeezed over all

fresh rosemary

fresh thyme

salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

grape seed oil to well coat the bottom of your iron skillet

Put all the veggies in the skillet, add the lemon zest and juice, the seasonings and toss to coat. Place on your grill (or your stovetop) and cook, stirring often, until the veggies are crisp done. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve while hot. Since you only use oil, I'm sure this would also be wonderful at room temperature as well. 

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again! 

xoabb