Archive for February, 2010

I love pasta salads.  But I have one problem with them.  Many recipes wind up tasting really bland.

So when I come across a pasta salad with lots of wonderful flavor it goes right into my favorites list.

I love this salad even more because I love Greek flavors.  I got this recipe from a friend, and I couldn’t help changing it up a bit to suit my taste.

Greek Orzo Salad

• 1 bag of orzo pasta (1 pound) – cooked
• 1 cup tomatoes, cubed
  
• 1 large cucumbers, cubed
  
• 1 can black olives, sliced
• 6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts (you can also use artichoke heart packed in water)
  
• 8 oz. feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh dill
• 1/2 medium red onion, diced
  

Dressing:

• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 lemon, juiced
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 tsp garlic, finely minced
  

Cook pasta according to package instructions.  (Do not overcook.)  Drain.  Whisk together the dressing ingredients until emulsified.  Pour dressing over pasta while it is still slightly warm.   Place in the refrigerator while you prep the rest of the ingredients.  Toss all the ingredients into the pasta and chill before serving.

I love the smell of red wine vinegar and olive oil.

And lemon.  I love lemon.  I usually hold my hand beneath to catch any seeds, but I can’t do that and take the picture.

When it’s raw, I always mince the garlic really fine.  I love the flavor, just not biting into a chunk.

Salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk it good. Pour over warm drained pasta.  Then put the pasta in the refrigerator.  I missed the picture of the pasta somehow.

I love how this looks.  You just know it’s going to taste good.

Just a note:  I like the red onion diced into really small pieces, especially if it’s strong.

And I love how this looks.  Because I love feta and artichoke hearts.  This salad just keeps getting better and better.  I rough chop up the artichoke hearts and chop up the feta into small piece.  I didn’t have fresh dill, so I used a teaspoon of dried dill.

And toss it all together.  Thoroughly chill before serving.

We had this salad last night with grilled chicken.

It made me think of warmer days…

The party invitations went out this week for my girls’ 8th birthday party.  I wanted to make them homemade…. and I wanted to keep them simple.

A bowl was my best friend for this project.  I used it to trace the toadstool cap.  Then I drew the bottom of the toadstool free hand.  Once I had one template, I used it to trace the rest.

I used inexpensive red, kraft and white colored cardstock.  I used my 7/8 inch circle punch for the white dots, but white round price tag stickers from the grocery store would have worked just as well.  The girls punched and glued all the dots on the red mushroom tops.  I try to get them involved in my project whenever possible, especially when it’s for them.

I wanted to print the invitation directly onto the kraft cardstock.  But guess what?  My printer must hate cardstock.  The pieces came out streaked.

So I printed on vellum…. which was one more piece to trace and cut, but at least it wasn’t streaked.

I love “Little Days Font.”  It’s my “go to” font for many invitations.

I love little red brads too.  Which is what I use in the corner of the mushroom to attach it all together.

And last but not least, I purchased wonderful green American Crafts envelopes (on a 40% off coupon at Roberts of course.)  And in the end, these invitations were very inexpensive.

I tried to use these sweet little Martha Stewart stickers on the cards… but they just didn’t look right.  Darn, I guess I’ll have to find some other use for them….

Now it’s time for creating the rest of the party…  I’ve got some fun projects in the works.  I can hardly wait.