Summer Orzo Salad

I'm the only person in my immediate family that really likes pasta salad. I can get everyone to eat it, but they don't LOVE it. Which is a shame, because it's one of my favorites, especially in the summer when I have fresh veggies and herbs from the garden. I guess that just means more for me, right? Makes for great lunches at work.

This batch features all fresh herbs from the garden...by end of summer, nearly all the veggies will be from my garden as well.

Please note that this is really flexible to what you have on hand. I use different cheeses every time, and sometimes I add tomatoes. This time around I only had a little bit of fresh basil upstairs and didn't feel like going back down to the garden, so I supplemented with some fresh marjoram. Tasted great.

2 cups orzo pasta

1 medium cucumber, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1/2 cup diced mozzarella cheese (provolone is also great)

2T chopped fresh dill

2T chopped fresh basil

1T fresh thyme ( the leaves are so small I don't chop, just pull off the sprig)

3T olive oil

3T red wine vinegar

1/2t garlic powder

1t pepper

1/2t kosher salt

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, and allow to cool for a moment. Meanwhile, prep cheese, all veggies and herbs. Place pasta, veggies, cheese and herbs in a bowl. Whisk oil, vinegar and garlic powder together in a small bowl. Pour over pasta salad. Add salt and pepper, and mix well. Chill for an hour before serving.

Freezing Broccoli

Broccoli crowns without the big stalk are on sale at Fareway this week for .99/lb. This is a great price, and we eat a lot of broccoli here, but I'm not sure we're going to get to it for a few days, so I took 10 minutes when I got home from the store to make sure the broccoli will be ready when I am! First, you want to wash it and cut it into spears or florets like I did here. Next, bring a big pot of water to a roiling boil.


Once the water is boiling, you drop the broccoli in for about 90 seconds, til it turns a pretty bright green. Drain
To stop the cooking process and to keep the pretty green color, make sure you rinse well in cold water. Let the excess water drain, and then you can divide into freezer bags to your liking.
I purchased 2lbs. of broccoli exactly. I was able to divide it up for 3 dinners. .67 each for nice broccoli spears at dinner. I will pop this into a steamer to cook. Easy!

Yay! The garden giveth veggies!

Finally a couple of tomatoes and a couple of jalapenos, along with a wall of cucumbers. About to make bread and butter pickles for the first time. Please wish me luck!

I quickly used the camera on my iPhone, and it just didn't capture the thing in the background I'm most proud of...the zinnias I grew from seed that are just surprising the heck out of me because they are PERFECT cutting flowers! These are a keeper!

The Garden is starting to produce!

Yay! I get so excited when I finally get to see the rewards for my labor! The cucumbers are rolling in now. My first roma is there....looks like it will be a little while before I see more tomatoes.

The peppers are coming along nicely, but I think I'm going to have to write the green beans off this year---again. Darn bunnies! Hopefully we'll get that figured out for next year---I guess 3rd time's a charm, right?