Recipe Snapshot: Mediterranean Orzo Salad with Grilled Vegetables

This record-setting heat wave is bound to end eventually.  Maybe I'll feel like cooking again when it does.  But in the meanwhile, I'd like to share some more of thr recipes I made last weekend.  Like this awesome orzo salad.

This Mediterranean orzo salad wth grilled vegetables is great because it's adjustable.  The basics--proportions and the dressing--are a good foundation to build from.  You can use whatever veggies you'd like, and you could use goat cheese instead of feta if you prefer.  I left out the olives because my husband doesn't like them, and it was still delicious.  I forgot to add the fresh parsley the first night I served it, and it was still good.  I used a bit of fresh oregano that I grew, as well, and it added a nice touch.

I used 2 small zucchini, 2 small yellow squash, one orange bell pepper, and one medium-sized Vidalia onion.  I probably didn't need all the zucchini, but they looked so pretty at the farmer's market, I couldn't help myself!  The largest time sink in this recipe was grilling the veggies--I used my indoor grill pan, and it took three batches to get them all cooked.

I served the orzo salad with grilled pork chops on Saturday night, and the leftovers with salmon grilled indoors on my grill pan on Sunday (pictured).  It was great leftover.

Click for the recipe!

Recipe Snapshot & Ideas from Around the Web: Summer Salads

We haven't hit it yet, but we know it's coming--that part of summer when it's just too hot to cook.  When you can't bear the idea of turning on your stove, let alone the oven.  The good news is that there's so much wonderful produce floating around this time of year that it's a lot easier to get dinner on the table with little or no actual "cooking" involved.

One of my favorites this time of year is the simple caprese salad--luscious ripe tomatoes, creamy fresh mozzarella cheese, bright fresh basil, and very little else.  I prefer mine with just a drizzle of really good olive oil, and a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

I recommend using a mix of tomatoes if you can--I made this salad last summer, and the plum (Roma) tomatoes and yellow tomatoes complemented one another perfectly.  Yellow tomatoes have less acid in them, and are a bit milder.  I like to think of them as a "gateway tomato" for folks who don't love tomatoes.  (It's sad, yes, but there are many people who don't.)  Also, you need to use fresh mozzarella, which is usually sold in the deli section of your grocery store, with the fancy cheeses--it's spongier in texture than the stuff you usually put on pizza, and is often packaged in liquid.  If you prefer to gussy your caprese up with balsamic or other flavors, might I suggest this recipe from the Pioneer Woman?  My recipe is at the end of this post.

What if Caprese salad isn't really your thing?  Never fear.  Here are some other ideas for yummy hot weather meals that won't even make you break a sweat!

Seared Chicken Salad with Cherries and Goat Cheese Dressing, from Everyday Food  magazine: I've made this a couple of times, and it's delicious and easy. The tang of the goat cheese is perfect with the crisp lettuce and sweet cherries!

Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta, Fresh Corn, and Blueberries, from the Pioneer Woman: I haven't tried this, but it sounds delish!

Thai Chicken Salad, from For the Love of Cooking: This sounds totally delish, and might help satisfy a craving for Asian food while keeping things light.

Squash Ribbon Salad with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts, from Ezra Pound Cake: This is so unique; I wonder if I could get my husband to eat squash this way?

Hope there's something here to inspire you to make the most of the summer's bounty of fresh produce.  I want to head to the farmers' market right now!


Caprese Salad, recipe by Julie
Time: 15 minutes, including washing the basil. Serves: 2-4.

Ingredients

• Mixed ripe tomatoes, about 1 large or 2 small tomatoes per person
• 8-16 oz. fresh mozzarella (depending how much cheese you want per person!)
• 1-2 cups fresh basil leaves, whole (again, depending how much you like).
• Very good extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Sea salt, such as fleur de sel, to taste
• Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Wash tomatoes, remove the cores of large tomatoes, and slice into 1/4-1/2 inch slices using a serrated knife. Arrange on a large plate or platter. (You may add some salt and pepper at this point if you want to focus the seasoning on the tomatoes themselves.)  Since the ends of the tomato don't usually look as pretty, you can just go ahead and eat them right now--no one will know!
2. Slice mozzarella into equal thickness slices and arrange on top of the tomato slices, however you like.  Tip: the trick to slicing the mozzarella is to use the same serrated knife you used for the tomatoes.
3. Rinse and pat dry the basil leaves.  Scatter across the salad.
4. Drizzle the whole salad with olive oil, to taste, and season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.  Serve immediately.

Expanding Nutritional Horizons: Eggplant

Eggplant has always been sort of hit or miss for me.  What is an eggplant, after all?  It's sort of like a squash, but not quite.  I like pretty much all varieties of squash I've tried, regardless of preparation.  But eggplant--not so much. Eggplant is so pretty on the outside, and ugly on the inside.  If it's not prepared just right, it also has a very bitter taste. The only preparation I'd ever truly enjoyied until recently was eggplant parmigiana, which almost shouldn't count--everything tastes good fried.

Then last May, my husband and I were on vacation in France.  We spent a few days in Provence, spending time in the little city of Avignon, and taking day trips to the Côtes du Rhône wine area and the Pont du Gard aqueduct. One afternoon, after doing a tour of the Palais des Papes (where the pope used to reside in Avignon back in the 1300s), we went for lunch at an outdoor cafe just off the place outside the palace. I remember that it was very sunny and windy, just as it was during most of our visit to Provence. (Le mistral was blowing in earnest the whole time.)  Luckily, this cafe had a semi-enclosed patio, so we could enjoy our lunch outside without being blown away!  As most lunches in France seem to be, ours was a relaxed and lengthy event--partly because we went with the three-course lunch special. For our first course, we had a choice between the eggplant provençale (aubergines confites a la provençale) and French onion soup (soupe de l'oignon gratinée).  I'd been wanting to try something in the traditional provençale style, so I ordered the eggplant, but fearing I'd be disappointed.  (My husband, being slightly more risk averse when it comes to food, ordered the soup.)

Imagine my surprise when this dish came out, smelling amazing, and tasting better than I could have imagined.  It was basically eggplant cooked until it was incredibly tender and sweet, and then topped with a garlicky fresh tomato sauce.  My description doesn't begin to do it justice. With a glass of chilled French rosé (dry and refreshing), this was perhaps one of the most memorable lunches I've ever eaten. (I had roasted chicken for my main course, and some kind of caramel dessert--both were delicious, but the eggplant was such a revelation that I rarely recall the rest of the meal!)

I was so impressed by my eggplant experience in Provence that I decided last summer to try to recreate the dish. My result was okay, but nothing like the delicious dish I had discovered in France.  I had a hard time cooking the eggplant sufficiently such that the sweetness would come out without burning it entirely, so it was still a bit bitter. But the sauce? It was fantastic!

The bottom line on my feelings about eggplant: it's not going to be on the top of my list of favorite vegetables, but I appreciate being proven wrong about some things. I won't be so skeptical the next time. And there will be a next time, for sure.

What vegetable or food have you always been wary of?  Did a special dish change your mind?

Step-by-Step Recipe: Potato-Fennel Gratin

My only resolution for the new year was to try more vegetables.  I'm pretty brave when it comes to eating new vegetables, but I've been hesitant to try to prepare them myself.  I'd never tried to make anything with fennel before. But then a friend shared a recipe for potato-fennel gratin with me, and I thought, "well, why not?"  Anything covered in a creamy cheesy sauce has to be good, right?  Right.  The recipe is from the one and only Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa.  It is definitely not low-fat.  But it is delicious!

I served the gratin with sauteed chicken breasts with a creamy mustard sauce and sauteed spinach.  I'll share the chicken recipe later this week.  It was a nice pairing.  The chicken is lighter, but still rich in flavor.  Since I was just cooking for two (plus leftovers!), I cut the recipe for the gratin in half--we still have plenty of leftovers!

Pictures and recipe below the cut!

Step-by-Step Recipe: Creamy Pumpkin Soup

I feel like a bad food blogger.  It's been too long, and I know it.  But in my defense, it's been a crazy week.  Last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind, and then on Monday and Tuesday, I traveled to Portland, Oregon for work.  Yes, 5,600+ miles in less than 48 hours.  And so I've been...wrecked...since then. Then yesterday I had a medical procedure that required anesthesia, so I wasn't allowed to do much in the kitchen when I got home. All I have cooked in the last week has been a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches.  Hopefully that will change today!

In other news, my dark chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin cream cheese frosting won the Halloween Bake Sale/Contest at work in a couple of categories--Most Wicked and Most Haunted; I came in second for Most Creepy, and tied for third for Best in Show.  So that's good, right?

Last weekend was Halloween, and despite the fact that I needed to wake up at 3 in the morning on Monday to make it to the airport to catch my flight, I did want to "celebrate," even if in a small way.  We only had a few trick-or-treaters (anyone want a Kit-Kat?  We have lots!), but luckily that gave me time to whip up a little something for the holiday: creamy pumpkin soup.

I've been making this recipe for years, and have shared it with several friends.  I think it could be a perfect first course at Thanksgiving dinner, but it's also perfect for a simple Sunday supper on Halloween, especially when accompanied by the perfect grilled cheese sandwich (which it was this past Sunday!).

I originally found this recipe online at AllRecipes.com, but I have made some alterations.  First, I don't make the cinnamon croutons; second, I use much much much less cream, as the soup doesn't need it.

More below the cut!