Happy graduation, birthday, anniversary, independence, vacation day...and orzo salad with lemon, feta and pine nuts.

Well, you know I have a lot of catching up to do.  So, after friendly nudges, sweet "we miss you" e-mails, comments from my mom and husband, and straightforward "when are you going to start blogging again?," I am finally going to give up my blogging hiatus and get things back in gear.  I have no excuse, but that I work better on a schedule, and have been largely schedule-less since May. 

Here's a quick re-cap, in pictures.  

Summer Starts with a Graduation Celebration!

We celebrate our 6th Anniversary in Chattanooga, TN with a stay at Chanticleer Inn, great food, hiking, and city-exploring.  

Visits with family include a trip to Arrington Vineyards near Nashville, the Naval Museum in Pensacola, pre-Independence day celebrations, family meals, and time with friends.

 Independence day celebration in Philadelphia include a picnic near the Philadelphia Museum and a fireworks show over the Schuylkill River.  

Since returning from our Southern tour, my days have been relatively unhurried.  Window units notwithstanding, the heat still seems to slow things down to a molasses speed.  The job search, household chores, cooking (and apparently blogging) have all responded in kind, following snaillike paces of their own.

While I've occasionally turned on my oven for an occasion (pulled pork for Independence day, cookies for Bible study, brownies for my husband's guy-weekend retreat), it has been largely avoided on account of it's kitchen-stifling tendencies.  So, we've enjoyed our fill of grilled fare, sandwiches, and dishes which require minimal heat, like this delicious orzo salad.  

This has to be one of my favorite summer sides, one that I make often in warmer weather, and always elicits recipe requests.  The flavors just work so well together, it can be served cold or at room temperature, and goes well with almost anything you could throw on a grill.  

Orzo Salad with Lemon, Feta and Pine Nuts

Barely adapted from Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup orzo
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons chopped kalamata olives 
1/4 finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup basil, julienned 
2 ounces good quality feta cheese, crumbled

In a medium pot, cook the orzo to al dente in salted water.  Drain pasta.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and sugar.  Pour over the warm pasta, and let the pasta cool to room temperature.  

Add the pine nuts, raisins, olives, onion, basil and feta to the pasta, stir well.  Store Orzo salad in the refrigerator.  

This salad can be made up to two days in advance.  Salad is best at room temperature, but can be served cold.  

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Thankful Days...(Leftover) Turkey Soup

I hope that this day is full of blessing and thankfulness for you and your family.  One thing that has been on my mind recently is that a spirit of thankfulness kills a spirit of selfishness.  In selfishness, I seek what I can get from others and want the world to revolve around me.  In thankfulness, I realize the blessings that I have been given, and I want to bless others in return.  I pray that attitude of thankfulness will be predominant in my life, and in yours.  I also hope that you are enjoying sweet time with family today, large or small, in person or via Skype, immediate family or a "family" of friends.  I just hope it's sweet. 

Today, we're spending the day watching the Macy's day parade in similar fashion to last year, but are so happy to have family along for the ride this time.  Even though we did it all last year, I still get super excited about the parade and floats, and especially the grand entrance of Santa, bringing with him the official start of the Christmas hustle and bustle. 

After our busy day in the Big Apple, I don't think we'll be jumping up at the wee hours tomorrow to participate in that hustle and bustle with much of America.  But, like many, we will have a refrigerator full of leftover turkey to contend with.  If you find yourself in the same boat, and can't imagine eating that many turkey sandwiches, do I have a soup for you!  This recipe, from my grandmother, is a perfect foil for whatever ails on the day after Thanksgiving: too much rich food, too much of a blustery day, too much chaotic shopping, too much turkey in your refrigerator.  It's nice to sit down with a bowl of this soup, and remember to be thankful. 

Turkey Soup

Bones from 1 whole cooked turkey
3 quarts of water
Leftover turkey, pulled (as much or as little as you have left)
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 lemon, sliced and seeds removed
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons sherry
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 cup of Basmati rice

In a large pot, simmer the turkey bones with 2 quarts of water for about 30 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the bones from the pot.  Pull any remaining meat off of the bones and return the meat to the pot; discard the bones. 

Add the remaining pulled turkey, plus the next ten ingredients (through parsley flakes).  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the rice and simmer for 15 minutes more, or until the rice is done. 

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Off the Beaten Path in South Alabama

I cannot believe that our time here at my family’s beach house is coming to a close! It is amazing how quickly time passes, when you spend your days laying out, boating, shopping, reading, cooking and eating.

But that’s not all we’ve done. Our trips to this house are full of traditions.  Not only do we savor the fresh produce available from the surrounding farmland, enjoy boat rides and lazy meals, and love listening to my dad recount days of childhood trips to this same house, but we also have a few places off the beaten path that we must visit each year.  Otherwise, it would not be a complete trip. 

One tradition goes back, well, before I was born: dinner at Wolf Bay Lodge. This once-dive-of-a-restaurant has grown in popularity over the years, and as far as I’m concerned, has some of the best shrimp that you can find at a Gulf restaurant. Unfortunately, the original building (in Wolf Bay, of course) burned a couple of years ago, but that hasn’t kept the restaurant down, nor kept us away. We gladly made the drive to their new location in Orange Beach to keep our tradition going strong.

In addition to Wolf Bay, we made a time-honored tradition of visiting a little cheese farm located on Highway 98. We all have our favorites at Sweet Home Farm, (mine are Perdido Ash and Tuscany), and love the taste-tests of different cheese varieties as much as we like “talking to” the chickens and turkey on our way into the tiny shop. Another reason that I love this little treasure: we served cheese from Sweet Home Farm at our wedding reception!

A new tradition that we have added to the list is blueberry picking. Just before we moved to Pennsylvania last year, my husband and I joined my mom in picking just over 8 pounds of blueberries. This year, we went with my brother and sister, and the four of us harvested almost 20 pounds! As we’re preparing to pack leave, I’ve bagged and frozen about six quarts of the fruits of our labor to enjoy throughout the rest of the summer.

If you find yourself in south Alabama, looking for something to become your family vacation tradition off the beaten path, I highly recommend these little hidden jewels to you!

Savor Sweet Days of Summer with a Low Country Boil

One of my favorite family pastimes is a family trip to the beach each year.  These trips are full of tradition, laziness, sun, and of course, good food. 

This experience has me spoiled for life.  Yes, there were times in my teenage years when I wished that we could spend our family vacations with the masses on the crowded condo Gulf beaches, but I have long since come to appreciate those childhood years when we could roam up and down the bayside "beaches," our sunburned bathing-suited bodies running in and out of our house and the houses of our friends down the beach. 

I spent hours (and days!) on the swinging bed on the porch.  It is here that we told ghost stories, played hours of cards, had fashion shows of our recently purchased outlet mall attire, had family reunions, and screamed or ran when large bugs came out of the woodwork.   

It is here that I fell in love with fresh shrimp (and like Bubba Gump, I literally could eat gulf shrimp every day in every way for my entire vacation and beyond). It is here that, as far as I am concerned, the sweetest corn is grown and can be bought at roadside stands and family farms.  With such good, local fare, it only makes sense to enjoy it in tried and true fashion.

 

Low Country Boil

3 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 vidalia onion, cut into four wedges

1 lemon, halved

6-8 small new potatoes, halved

1/2 pound spicy link sausage, cut into 2 inch pieces (Conecuh brand is my favorite)

3 ears of sweet white corn, shucked and halved

2 pounds of small, fresh, unpeeled shrimp

Fill a large pot 2/3 full of water.  Add old bay seasoning, salt, and onion.  Squeeze the lemon over the water, and add the halves to the pot.  Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil.  When the water boils, add the potatoes.  Cook for 25 minutes, then add the corn and sausage.  Cook for 6-7 minutes, then add the shrimp.  Cook for no longer than 1-2 minutes (until the shrimp turn opaque all the way through), turn the heat off, and drain the water from the pot.  Serve with cocktail sauce, and along side lots of fresh, seasonal fruit. 

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It's 5 o'clock somewhere...have some Grilled Island Shrimp Kebabs

Well, it has been quite a week!  Not only did we have the final week of classes and papers galore due (papers which always take a good twelve hours more than I expect), plus "good byes" for the summer to classmates, but also the honor of being the featured blogger on Tasty Kitchen, as well as my first blog award!  Unfortunately, I haven't really been able to spend much time thinking about these last two, nor my poor neglected kitchen, nor you, my friends, because of the tyranny of those papers and last classes.  And I'll be honest, I haven't spent enough time in my bed this week, either. 

But I am delighted to say that the papers are in, and all I have before me now is exam week!  So, in celebration of a Friday night, the end of the semester, an upcoming trip home, and my recent cooking accolades, and at least a little time to be back in my kitchen, I present to you Grilled Island Shrimp Kebabs, which are perfect for both a celebratory meal as well as one that whisks you away to the beach, if only for a little while, in a momentary denial of impending exams (or whatever you have coming up)!

Grilled Island Shrimp Kebabs

Adapted from Spicy Recipes

3/4 cup rum
1/2 cup pina colada mix
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
2 dashes Liquid Smoke
zest of 1 lime
Two pounds peeled medium shrimp

In a small bowl, mix the first twelve ingredients. 

Thread the shrimp onto double skewers (to make flipping easier).  Place the kebabs in a 9 x 13 baking dish, and pour the marinade over the shrimp.  Marinate for about 20 minutes (no more than 30).  Grill over medium heat for about 8 minutes, flipping half-way through. 

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