Grilled Vegetable and Orzo Salad

This is quite possibly one of the easiest BBQ sides I have ever put together.  I knew a few things: I wanted grilled vegetables, and I didn’t want them on a salad, and I didn’t want them plain. While I love grilled vegetables plain I wanted to spice it up. When you put grilled vegetables on a big salad they all sink to the bottom and end up making the lettuce soggy. While a grilled vegetable salad can be plated nicely individually, it’s not as successful as a big dish.

This salad was also met with rave reviews; it’s been awhile since I had such a rush of requests for a recipe. A few other great things about this recipe: it can be made ahead, and I can attest to this because I ate every last bit of the leftovers. It can also be eaten warm or cold (versatility at its finest). It’s a GREAT summer salad because there is no mayo in it or anything to get all nasty when you leave it out in the sun while you are distracted playing bags (I know I’m not the only one). You can feel completely safe about eating round two hours after this salad has been sitting out. Feta cheese is one of those great cheeses that never really melts and never gets the greasy sweat that other cheeses sometimes do. Perfect for something like this.

By far- the best part of this recipe is how damn easy it is. Cook some orzo, skewer some vegetables, and crumble some feta…delicious amazing salad complete.

Grilled Vegetable and Orzo salad

Ingredients:

1 cup orzo pasta, cooked and drained

¾ to 1 cup block feta cheese, crumbled

1 zucchini, cubed

1 yellow squash, cubed

10 asparagus spears

15 (or so) cherry tomatoes

1 medium Vidalia (or sweet) onion chopped in large pieces.

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

Skewer the zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, and onion. Skewer only one kind of vegetable together. The onions will take a little longer, and the tomatoes will take the least amount of time which is why I keep like vegetables together. For the asparagus, prepare a foil packet for the grill and toss the asparagus with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper before sealing up. Drizzle the skewers with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a healthy grind of pepper. Over medium heat grill each of the skewers until each of the vegetables has a nice light char. Onions first; asparagus, zucchini, and squash at the same time, and tomatoes a quick turn last. While the vegetables cook (or before) cook the orzo according the the directions on the box.

In a large bowl top the orzo with the vegetables and the feta cheese and toss.

Add a drizzle of olive oil and a few grinds of pepper (no salt is necessary, the cheese has plenty) and serve.

A few notes:

You could use any kind of vegetable here. Bell peppers would be lovely (if I liked them) along with eggplant, or any other vegetable (I can’t think of any other vegetables you grill, but maybe you can).

I love grilled (or roasted) tomatoes, but this salad could also be served with them fresh.

I highly recommend trying this as is first, but a bit of fresh basil, or other fresh herbs, would be wonderful.

-Sue

Chipotle Pasta Salad

I would like to start by saying, that I love bbq season. Every little thing about it, love it. We have this fantastic roof top deck that is perfect for summer get togethers. We set up bags, and grill out, and it’s wonderful. I hate you winter, please stay away for a long time this year.

So yesterday we were having one of those rooftop bbq’s and I was trying to decide what to make, when I came up with this. It’s deeeelicious, I’m eating some leftovers of it right now…and it’s still delicious. As you know from bbq week, Cat and I collectively have lots of bbq recipes, but I wanted something new. So here we have it.

Ingredients:

1 box rotini (any shape will work)

3 links of sweet sausage (the big hotdog size links)

1 cup corn (I used frozen)

¾ cup mayo

1 chipotle pepper

2 tsp of adobo sauce (from the can of chipotle peppers)

Juice from ½ of a lemon

2 Tbs brown sugar

Salt and pepper

Handful of cilantro, chopped

Method:

Grill and slice the sausages, or slice and Pan fry them. Cook the pasta according to the box, while you prep the sauce and the corn. In a food processor, or blender, combine the mayo, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, brown sugar and lemon juice.

Taste it and then add salt and pepper to taste. Steam and drain the corn (or cook the corn however you would like depending on the type…grilled corn would be great in this!). Chop the cilantro. Drain the pasta, throw it all in a bowl, and mix it up.

Simple, easy, and SO tasty.

Now for a few notes:

Do you know what these things are?

They are little bundles of chipotle peppers and adobo sauce. Cat taught me this little trick last summer. It’s pretty rare that you ever use an entire can of chipotle peppers, so this is a great way to save the leftovers. Place one pepper, and a spoonful of sauce onto a square of plastic wrap, twist it up, and freeze it. When my super market was out of chipotle peppers yesterday, I was happy when I remembered I had these little gems in my freezer.

Speaking of my grocery store being out of things…I usually buy raw sausage made by boulder sausage company if I can, but all they had yesterday was chorizo, and hot Italian. Not going to work for me. So I got one of those links of hillshire farm sausage (the ones that look like a U). It was smoked sausage, and it was precooked. I’ve got to say, I was fairly impressed. But in general, I prefer fresh sausage. My point is, use whatever you want, but i think a sweeter smoked style, compliments the flavor the best.

-Sue

BBQ Week: Dad’s Tuna Mac

This is kind of a silly recipe to post, because it isn’t even really a recipe, as I realized the other day when Sue asked me to email it to her so she could keep it in her electronic recipe file. I had to make it up. She also asked that I make it, and then overnight it to her in a box packed with dry ice. I think she even checked online to see how much such a thing might cost. Surely then, this plebeian recipe is worth sharing, if Sue felt compelled to actually check the price of having me mail some to her. Tuna mac is delicious; when you come home at any time after any activity and realize you have some in your refrigerator, it is exactly like waking up and thinking it’s time to go to work, and realizing it’s 3:12 am.

Let me give you some tuna mac exposition. So, my dad makes tuna mac. It is sort of his specialty, though he cooks many things very well, including steak and spaghetti. Tuna mac is famous in my family, so much so that my dad and I have had multiple conversations regarding what we will call tuna mac when I have my own children: Pop-pop’s tuna mac? Grandpa’s tuna mac? The debate rages on. Additionally, my mom is not allowed to make tuna mac, only my dad. We all remember with horror the time she made it and put red bell peppers in it, if you can imagine such an atrocity. Typically tuna mac is made to accompany hamburgers and hotdogs, which is the meal I request most often when I visit my parents (it is also required that my mom make baked beans). Sue, having spent a lot of time with my family as well, also has a deep and abiding love for tuna mac. So here it is, how I make it, anyway:

Dad’s Tuna Mac

1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked and cooled

4 hardboiled eggs, 3 chopped finely, 1 reserved

2 cups finely chopped carrot

a big onion, also chopped finely

4 or 5 ribs of celery, chopped finely

2-3 cans of tuna in water, drained and fluffed so it’s not in big chunks (if you have a cat, I suggest giving the cat a can to lick, they like it)

1/2 cup or so of sweet pickle relish, as much as you like, really

a whole bunch of Miracle Whip, a dollop at a time until the consistency looks moist, but not overly Miracle Whipped

a little dry mustard, and some ground pepper (I don’t think my father does this, he’ll probably be mad that I do)

So you mix everything together, then you slice the last hard boiled egg lengthwise and lay the slices artistically on top of the tuna mac, because that’s what my dad does. I douse mine with salt and pepper and enjoy liberally, mostly at 3 am after drinking. Or now that I’m old, at 11 pm after drinking.

i sent this picture to sue on my phone when i made it and she wrote back: oh lord!! box some up and send it to me.

– Cat