Thunderstorm Orzo Salad

These two love the rain. The more lightening and thunder, the better.

 This one...not so much. 

When the sky gets dark and the rumbles start, Bean tends to look like this. Pathetic, I know. At least it's not bed time. That's the worst. Well, it's the worst right after the fingers in her ears all-out screaming attacks that occur every time we get a middle of the night storm.

Bean requires more than a little distraction to cope with the booms. Like, a whole lot of boiling, chopping, stirring, whisking, pouring kind of distraction. Come on, Bean. Let's go make a salad while these guys look for worms.

Thunderstorm Orzo Salad
inspired by Cooking Light

1 cup orzo or other small pasta
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled (divided)
1/4 cup red wine vinaigrette (recipe below)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water. Combine the cold pasta, spinach, onion, olives, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and 3/4 cup of the feta cheese in a large bowl. Pour the red wine vinaigrette over the top and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with remaining feta sprinkled on top. 

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp agave (or honey, or granulated sugar)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more to taste, I prefer a vinegary vinaigrette)

Combine the vinegar, mustard, agave, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream whisking all the while until you have a thick, tasty dressing. Serve on the orzo salad above or crisp baby greens.

The worm hunters back in time for dinner.

Roo's Steamed Artichokes

Roo has a new fave vegetable.

Hello, lovely.

I can not express how giddy this newfound love for artichokes makes me. Artichokes were, and quite possibly are still my own most favoritest vegetable. So, there's that.

But the real reason I cannot get over the fact that my kid, my boy, is sucking down artichokes like they're going out of style is that they have a really complicated texture. I mean, you have to get the teeth involved to effectively scrape the yummy yet decidedly gunky meat from the leaves. This is not something that comes easily to my child, Mr. Textural Sensitivity.

Yet, here he is, clamoring for artichokes, demanding his own full artichoke to disassemble and then savoring every last bit of heart dripping with bright yellow lemon butter. It makes a mama's heart swell with pride.

So totally worth the butter stains all over that sweater.

Roo's Steamed Artichokes

3 whole artichokes
1 quart chicken stock (or water)
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
2 whole lemons, halved
1 or 2 bay leaves
Several sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Wash and trim your artichokes. If you're unsure how to do that, take a look at this video. Rub the cut sides of artichokes with one lemon half to prevent discoloration.

Combine the stock, wine, oil, garlic, 2 lemon halves, bay leaves, and thyme in a large pot with a lid. Bring to a simmer and season the liquid with salt and pepper.

Place the trimmed artichokes, bottoms up, in the simmering liquid. Cover the pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. They're done when a knife slips easily into the base.

When they're nice and soft, use tongs to remove the artichokes from the cooking liquid and drain. Flip them right side up onto a serving platter.

Melt the butter in a small dish. Squeeze the remaining lemon half into the butter and use as a dipping sauce for the artichoke leaves.

To eat the artichokes, pull off a leaf. Dip the soft end in lemon butter and use your front teeth to scrape the meat off. Discard the tough leaf. When you get to the small purple-tinged leaves in the center, remove them. Use a spoon to scrape out the hairy choke, trim and tough edges and eat the tender heart.

artichoke carnage

Mediterranean Farro Salad

Thanks to a traipsing bunch of monkeys swinging from my cart, my grocery store focus was somewhat disjointed the other day and I did the unthinkable. I bought fat-free feta cheese.

It wasn't until halfway though chopping spinach, artichoke hearts and Kalamata olives that I realized my error. In a bit of a tizzy I tossed the hunk of glubber (I really don't know how else to describe it) onto the counter. And it bounced. There is no excuse for fat-free cheese. Moderation is fine. I can get behind reduced fat dairy products of all kinds but fat-less cheese? Why not chew on a Kong instead. At least it will clean your teeth.

Three mandatory bathroom visits, two ponytail adjustments, one argument over who gets to ride which bike to the store, and thirty five minutes later we were back in business with a block of real honest to goodness Greek feta cheese sloshing in cloudy brine. It was worth it.

The beauty of this salad is multifarious. It's nutritious, full of flavor, quick and painless to make, easy to scale to a crowd, can be deconstructed for picky kids, and super versatile. I've made it with orzo, brown rice, quinoa, and farro but I imagine it would be just as tasty with whole wheat rotini, penne, basmati rice, bulgur, kamut or just about any other grain you can think of, but please, no fat-free feta!

Mediterranean Farro Salad
adapted from Cooking Light May 2010

1 cup farro, uncooked
2 cups baby spinach, washed, dried and chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 small red onion, diced
3 tbsp. Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 (6-ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts, reserve the marinade
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1. Rinse and cook farro according to package directions. Drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Combine cooked farro, spinach, tomatoes, onion, and olives. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Drain artichokes by pouring the marinade into the bowl over the top of the farro mixture (this is the dressing). Chop artichokes and add to bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the feta cheese and toss everything together gently. Top with remaining 1/4 cup feta cheese.

Makes about 4 servings of 1-1/4 cup each.

Aside from Bean (who prefers no feta), my kids won't eat this salad all mixed together. Looly loves grape tomatoes, pasta, and feta cheese. She'll tolerate the spinach and artichoke hearts on a good day as long as everything is kept separate. Roo digs pasta, feta, and olives. The other textures are still a challenge for him though so I typically chop avocado for him to eat on the side. Sometimes I feel like I need a spreadsheet to keep it all straight. But in the end, they eat theirs their way, I eat mine my way and we're all happy.