Chocolate Butterscotch Nests.

Easter is just a week away, these quickie chocolate & butterscotch nests are something we LOVE to make at our house.  Just a couple ingredients and a few minutes, they are so easy, it is one of our favorite Easter traditions.  The kids can even help… or if they’re like mine, steal the chocolate eggs and leave you to do the nests yourself. 

I might even try to use them as Easter place cards with names written on the eggs in edible marker.

  

You will need:

• 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips {I use dark chocolate but, milk or semi-sweet are just fine too.}
• 12 ounce bag of butterscotch chips
• 12 ounce bag of chow mein noodles
• Decorate:  small egg shaped candies, peeps, toasted coconut

If you aren’t making a bunch, you can easily halve the recipe by using half a bag of chocolate chips and butterscotch with one of the 5 ounce cans of chow mein noodles. 

Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.  Place the butterscotch and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at 50% power for a minute, stir, then continue to microwave at 20-30 second intervals, stirring between until completely melted and smooth. In a large bowl, pour the melted chocolate and butterscotch chips over the chow mein noodles.  Use your hands or a rubber spatula, mix the noodles, coating evenly, being careful not to break, if possible. 

I typically use a heaping tablespoon of the noodles, it makes for a cute 2-3 bite nest.  You can also make a larger size if you want to share and tuck in a marshmallow peep or two.  Drop onto the baking sheet, I’ve found the more haphazard, the more natural they look.    Add decorations such as small, egg shaped candies, pushing them into the chocolate slightly so that they stick as it dries.  You can also sprinkle some with toasted coconut to add to the nest look if you like.  I really love the Cadbury chocolate eggs because they are tiny, have little speckles, pretty colors, and look like real eggs.  Also pictured are the Whopper eggs, these are a little bigger, also have speckles and come in brighter colors.  You can even use jelly beans or other chocolate eggs, just check your grocery store for options.   

Pop these in the fridge and they harden up in just a few minutes, ready to eat

 

Easy Beef + Broccoli.

This recipe is a delicious take on the original, the flavors are a little brighter and the salty sauce is absent.  It’s a quick and easy cheat, too.  Instead of stir frying, the steak is grilled and the broccoli roasted in the oven.  With just about 15-20 minutes of active cook time, it couldn’t be easier to get dinner on the table.  It can be completely prepped the night before and left to marinate in gallon sized zip lock baggies in the fridge.  I would really encourage you to tailor this to your family, add in more garlic or more spice, you can also add in a julienned carrot or onion with the broccoli when you roast it.  You can’t screw it up, trust me.  It serves four and we usually have a little leftover.  Add a green salad with a store-bought tangy ginger dressing and you have a healthy dinner pulled together in about half an hour. 

Pro parent tip:  pick up some chopsticks at the grocery or get extra when you have takeout… it’s AMAZING how fast chopsticks can change a picky {2.5 year old} eater’s mind about trying a ‘new’ dinner.  {You can whip up a pair of cheater chopsticks like I did with Tate’s with just a rubber band and the sleeve from the disposable chopsticks.}

 

Prep Ahead

For the Steak You Will Need:

• 1  lb sirloin {flank, tri-tip, tip blade, top round, or tip steak also work}
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• zest and juice 1/2 of an orange
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon Sriracha {you can sub in hot pepper flakes or add in much more heat if your family likes it}
• 4 cloves of fresh garlic {I buy the pre-minced jarred stuff and used 2 tsp}
• 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar {or sub in apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, even balsamic would work if that is what you have on hand}
• 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 inch piece of FRESH ginger, peeled and roughly chopped {found in the produce department}

Combine all ingredients, cut the steak into 3-4 large sized equal pieces to make grilling and slicing easier.  Put everything into a baggie and allow to marinate at least 2 hours, or up to 24 hours. 

 

For the Roasted Broccoli You Will Need:

• 1lb – 1.5 lb head of broccoli  {or pick up a bag of fresh broccoli florets in the produce department}
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha {sub in 1/2 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes or add more if your family likes heat}
• 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
• zest and juice of 1/2 an orange
• 6 cloves of garlic {1 heaping Tablespoon of jarred pre-minced fresh stuff}
• 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger {feel free to add more if you love ginger}
• 1 Tablespoon of honey {or brown sugar}

Trim the broccoli into bite sized florets, these will shrink down slightly during cooking, so don’t make them too tiny.  Mix up the marinade, dump it all into a baggie and marinate up to 24 hours.  As an option, you can buy a slightly smaller head of broccoli and add in a small sliced white onion and/or a julienned carrot or two.  Roast all the veggies together as above just as you would the broccoli alone.

 

Pulling it all together

Take the marinated steak and the marinated veggies out of the refrigerator and allow them to come up to room temp while you start prepping everything else.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with foil, use one with a lip since you don’t want any of the marinade to spill in the oven.  {The foil just makes clean up easier, you can skip it if you like.}

Begin the rice.  We just use a white rice or jasmine rice, but even minute rice is fine here.  

Preheat your grill to medium.  {If you don’t have a grill, you can always roast the steak in the oven, just adjust cooking times.}

Pour the marinated broccoli onto the pan and roast in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes. 

While broccoli is roasting, you will grill the steak.  Remove from the marinade and place on the hot grill.  As a guide, our steak was about an inch thick.  Dave grilled it for 2-3 minutes on each side at medium/medium-low, then cranked it up and grilled it for another 2-3 minutes per side to get a nice char on the outside.   We wanted it to be slightly more ‘done’ than our usual medium/medium-rare, but you can grill it to your liking.

When steak is done, remove from grill and tent it with foil.  Allow to rest until the broccoli is finished, then slice the steak into thin pieces against the grain.  This just means that if all of the lines in the meat are running one way, you slice the meat perpendicular to that.

 

Serve the roasted broccoli and steak slices over rice.  Add a couple shakes of toasted sesame seeds over the top of the broccoli if you like.

My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes.

Each of these recipes are really easy to throw together. 

And speaking of favorite recipes, what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?  I am a turkey girl myself, that and my Meme’s stuffing.   

Let’s start with drinks, this one is a cranberry martini creation that my sister Lyndsey calls Cranberry Sauced.

Then we can move on to this salad with pears and pistachios with a maple, red onion vinaigrette that is to die for.

My favorite recipe from Dave’s family is his Oma’s Corn Casserole… it totally counts as a vegetable, right?

Make this cranberry sauce if you’re up for something fresh and definitely not your mama’s canned shaped cranberry sauce.  It’s fantastic for topping those leftover turkey sandwiches.  Try it for yourself, go on.

Then the easiest dessert ever, these Rolo Turtle Candies. Three ingredients and about 10 minutes of time for an entire tray… make a double batch because I guarantee these will be devoured. 

These Pumpkin Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing are rich and chocolatey and very different from the pie version of pumpkin that everyone else will be making.

If you have a favorite Thanksgiving of your own, please feel free to link it here!

Meme’s Sloppy Joes.

My grandma Meme has a few dishes that over the last 89 years she has perfected.  No one can do them like she does and she doesn’t have a recipe for any of them.  I have called her often and to ask for the recipe for her Beef Stew and her Lasagna.  I’ve watched her do the Thanksgiving stuffing for the last four years and I still manage to screw it up.  I can usually keep up with her pinches of this's and handful of that’s but it makes my cousin’s wife and my sister crazy because they are recipe followers. 

I always forget about the Sloppy Joes because she still makes them often enough herself that I rarely need to.  It’s so easy to throw them in a crockpot to cook half a day so people can eat when they’re around… a must in a family with six children, six grand children, and six great-grand children, and that isn’t counting spouses.  I’ve made them for parties, they’re great for college football Saturdays, and it’s a great main dish recipe for those pot-luck functions.  They are fantastic for leftovers the next day and you can also freeze them if you are so inclined, go ahead and make a double batch. 

Dave asked me to make them this weekend so I did, and I took dinner over to Meme too.  A little payback for all of those years of her making them for us.  A couple months ago, I also painstakingly tasted and tested the right amount of ingredients to have a written recipe for my sister and Amanda so they can make them too.  Now, we enjoy them without any onions or peppers in them, but if you’re so inclined, you could throw in 1/4 - 1/2 cup or so of each, just sauté them after you sauté the ground beef.  Our family will tell you that they’re perfect as they are, but to each their own.

Meme’s Sloppy Joes Recipe

• 1 lb ground beef
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 3 TB brown sugar
• 1 Tb Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 TB balsamic vinegar
• Seasoning: garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt

First, you will sauté the ground beef, seasoning with garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt.  {You could also just use black pepper and salt if that is what you have on hand.}  Break it apart as it’s cooking with the side of the spatula so it makes smaller crumbles.  I usually use a lower fat beef so I don’t have to drain it, but if you use a higher fat content, drain off any excess fat.  If you are making these in the crock pot, turn it on low, you can put the ground beef in after it is thoroughly cooked.  You can also just leave it in the sauté pan if you don’t want to mess with the crock pot.  If you do that, turn the burner to low.

While the ground beef is cooking, throw a can of tomato sauce, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon each of Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, and a quarter cup of ketchup into a sauce pan and heat, stirring until everything is blended together and the sugar has melted completely into the sauce.  Allow to simmer for about five minutes and then pour it over the cooked ground beef. 

Let it simmer on the stove or in the crockpot for 10 – 20 minutes and serve.  You can also leave them for hours warming on low in the crockpot, you really can’t mess these up and I think they taste fantastic with a little more time cooking.  Coleslaw and potato chips make super easy side dishes!

Pumpkin Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

This dessert deliciously screams FALL!  I rarely use cupcake recipes, I’m more of an easy, ‘from a box’ kind of girl when it comes to baking.  This recipe for pumpkin chocolate stout cupcakes with pumpkin cream cheese frosting is worth the five extra minutes it takes to make though. 

Promise.

I started making this chocolate cake recipe four years ago at Dave’s Surprise Beer Tasting Party, chocolate and Guinness, what’s not to like?  But, I wanted to update it and add pumpkin since it’s fall.  Now, I’m not sure I want to go back to the original.  The pumpkin adds a rich, but undetectable flavor, and makes it virtually impossible to produce a dry cupcake.  Make these soon, they are fantastic.

 

Cupcake Recipe:

• 12 oz stout beer {I usually use Guinness}
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/4 c canola oil
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 1/2 c pureed pumpkin
• dash cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder {I usually use Valrhona}
• 2 c sugar
• 3 c flour
• 1 1/2 t baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

Prep two cupcake pans with liners.  I usually give the liners a quick spray with Pam for Baking, but this isn’t necessary if you don’t have it on hand already.

Whisk together cinnamon, salt, cocoa powder, sugar, flour, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the stout beer, milk, and oil.  Then add the three slightly beaten eggs and mix to incorporate before adding the sour cream and pumpkin.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet making sure to scrape the bowl so that everything is completely incorporated. 

This is a really liquid batter, don’t worry, you didn’t screw it up.

Then fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter.  Because I think it’s easier, I fill a gallon sized Ziploc with batter, then snip a tiny bit of the corner off to make filling them easier.  You can always use a measuring cup or spoon to fill too.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Mine usually take the full 30 minutes.  I touch test the tops at 25 minutes, if they are springy, they are done, if not they get a few extra minutes.  Pull them out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then take them out of the pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe:

• 1 brick of cream cheese {I use Philadelphia cream cheese}
• 1 stick of butter
• pinch of salt
• dash cinnamon
• 1 TB vanilla
• 1 TB pureed pumpkin
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1-2 TB remaining stout or milk for consistency
• Americolor food coloring gels, optional

Allow the cream cheese and butter to sit out for 20-30 minutes until softened.  Add the pumpkin, vanilla, salt and cinnamon to the cream cheese and butter and whip until everything is incorporated.  Then, add the powdered sugar and beat on low, increasing to medium high.  You will likely need to add a little liquid, but it depends on your pumpkin, etc… I usually just add some of the leftover stout, but if you took the last swig, you can always add a little milk starting with a teaspoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Easiest way to eat a cupcake? 

Take the bottom off, put it on top, sandwiching the frosting in between!  I hope you enjoy this recipe half as much as we did.

Meme's Beef Stew.

My Meme is a good cook.  I remember watching her throw a handful of things in wondering how she knew it would taste good, she rarely measures anything.  She has this intuition and even more than that, a knack for using what she has on hand, making substitutions and experimenting.  That is probably both the result of growing up during the depression and having six children of her own to feed.  She still cooks for all of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, though now, at 89 years old, she’s more than willing to pass along the tasks to others. 

Lasagna is her signature dish, she always makes one with meat, the other vegetarian, but that isn’t the dish I love the most.  My favorite is her beef stew.  On the best fall or winter days, we would come home from grade school and it would be waiting in the crockpot.  Lyndsey was always banned from getting her own because she’d pick out all of the potatoes and the meat, leaving veggies for everyone else.

It’s really one of those recipes that is so forgiving that it’s virtually impossible to screw up and you can really tailor it to your own family.  Once you get the basics down, feel free to experiment as much as you’d like.  For this one, I’m using all fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market since everything is in season right now, but you can use frozen with great results.

 

You will need:

• 1 – 2 pounds of stew meat, cut into chunks
• 1 – 2 small white onions
• 2 carrots {you can use baby carrots or the pre-sliced carrot chips if you like, or you can also use parsnip}
• 2 – 3 cups potatoes {use any kind here or substitute in sweet potatoes, turnips, or Hubbard squash if you like}
• salt, black pepper, and about 1 – 1.5 Tablespoons of herbs {I like thyme, rosemary, garlic powder and usually a pinch of nutmeg.  You can also use oregano, cayenne, or bay leaves.}
• dash or two of Worchester sauce, optional
• 1 cup of red wine {or a stout like Guiness, you don’t have to measure, just dump in the whole bottle}
• large carton of beef broth {or homemade stock if you have it}
• 2 –3 cups of veggies {corn, peas, green beans, lima beans, mushrooms, zucchini, even broccoli or cauliflower}
• corn starch and water – or – a roux

First, you will want to brown your stew meat, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go.  Heat a heavy pot to medium high and sauté the meat in batches with a little olive oil so that all sides get browned.  You won’t need to make sure it’s completely cooked through at this point, you just need to get a great sear.  I use tongs to turn each piece and pull it out when all sides are browned.  Hint:  You’ll know when to flip when the meat releases from the pan, if it’s still sticking as you go to turn, wait a bit and try again.  If you’re wanting to be lazy, just throw all the meat in and brown it up a bit… doing small batches is best, but you’re not going to ruin it if you do it the lazy way.

After the meat is seared and set aside, you will sauté your onion and carrots.  They will release liquid when cooking, to help deglaze the pan.  That just means it will loosen all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan when you seared the beef.  You can use a wooden spoon at this point to help scrape those off the bottom.  Cook for about 2 minutes, just enough to get the raw out of the onion.  Add some salt, black pepper, herbs, and a couple dashes of Worchester sauce if you have it. 

Add the meat back in and add your potatoes.  You will want to keep the potatoes slightly larger than bite sized.  If you cut them too small, they’ll fall apart and dissolve into the stew.  I used small white potatoes and just cut them in half after scrubbing them.  You can use a big potato and peel it, baby reds with the skins on or off, fingerlings, or really any potato you like.

 

Then you will cover everything with a cup of red wine {or substitute a stout like Guiness} and the stock.  I used homemade turkey stock today because it’s what I had on hand, but beef stock is fantastic here.  Canned or carton is just fine, just try to get a low sodium version.  You can even add a little water if the stock doesn’t cover everything.

Cover and cook for one hour {or longer if you want} at a low simmer.  Next, add your veggies and cook for another half hour to 45 minutes on medium low.  When I’m using frozen, I usually just leave them out on the counter when the beef is cooking to thaw slightly.  You can also just throw them in frozen.  

 

After everything has cooked, stick a fork into a potato and try one of the veggies to make sure everything is done.  TASTE the broth here to see if you need to add any seasoning.  Is it flavorful enough?  Does it need something?  Add a bit at a time, stir and re-taste until you’re sure the flavor is there.  The potatoes are tricky because they absorb a lot of the seasoning during cooking, I almost always need to add seasoning.

Once the flavor is good, turn up the heat slightly to keep it at a simmer.  Then, you’ll make your slurry of cornstarch and cold water.  {You can also make a roux instead, but it’s more involved and I am lazy.}  To make the slurry, in a coffee cup, put 2 – 3 heaping tablespoons of corn starch, add cold water and stir frantically until all of the cornstarch is combined, making sure to scrape the bottom.  You will feel like you screwed something up, just keep stirring until it combines and looks like milk.  Pour about half into the stew, stirring continuously.  I usually use a whisk here, but you can use a wooden spoon too, just make sure to keep stirring.  You will see the stew start to thicken, add more of the slurry if you need to, I usually have a big enough pot that I use all of it.  If your stew gets overly thick, you can always add more stock or hot water to thin it down a bit, just stir and it will loosen up.  If it’s not thick enough, let it bubble for a minute or two, it will likely thicken up.

Serve with buttermilk biscuits, dinner rolls, or a good, crusty bread.

It’s even better the next day.

How To Grill Pizza.

Grilling pizza is something we do a lot over the summer since there is no need to heat up the oven.  I’ve covered using pre-cooked crust and popping it directly onto the grill grates and a yummy barbeque chicken pizza before.  Today I’m going to share with you a fun tip on how we grill homemade pizza dough.

While you can use the direct grill method, the crust tends to burn a bit on the bottom when you use a dough.  We’ve also used the indirect method, where you turn on two burners at high and leave two off, putting the pizza on the ‘off’ side and using the grill like an oven.  That one is good too, but it kind of defeats the purpose of grilling if you’re doing it like an oven.  Now, I want to introduce you to the elevated method.

The what?

The elevated method.  It consists of building an elevated cooking rack and putting the pizza dough on that to cook.  It gets it just enough away from the heat that it doesn’t burn, but close enough that it still gets that great crunchy crust.  We use a veggie grill basket that has a removable handle with a metal cooling rack on top.  {Those are Amazon Affiliate links to the two specific things we use.}  You can also use a couple empty tin cans or fire bricks in lieu of the veggie basket if you have those available to you.  Just make sure it’s stable so your pizza doesn’t end up falling all over the grill.

After you build your rack, preheat the grill to 500 degrees.  You will want to cook the pizza around 450 degrees but as you open the lid the temp will go down.

Get all of your toppings ready to go and roll out your dough.  {I don’t care one bit if you get the pre-done dough in the refrigerator section or buy it at your local store or Trader Joes.}  We use a recipe from a bread book that Dave has had for years.  There are tons and tons of recipes out there if you like to make your own.  

 

Put the dough on the elevated rack and grill for a minute or two, then flip it and top it with anything you like.  We don’t have a pizza peel, we just use a giant spatula to flip ours.

 

Close the lid and let it cook for 8 – 12 minutes depending on how done you like it and how much stuff you put on it.  To pull it off the grill, you can just slide it onto a cookie sheet.  We’ve been stacking ours with mozzarella, pepperoni, and sliced Roma tomatoes right out of the garden sprinkled with some Italian seasoning.Then right before serving we top it with loads of fresh basil from the garden.

I’m totally going to miss summer when it’s gone.

Lemon Basil Lemonade. {And Cocktail.}

My in-laws have a huge garden each summer.  We benefit greatly in the form of raspberries, zucchini, lettuce, and sometimes even dreaded beets.  Every time Finn or Tate go over there, they come home with cartons of gooseberries or a radish or two.  Yesterday, we stopped to visit.  At Tate’s insistence, we wandered through the garden with Grandma Sue, talking about tomatoes and peaches, when we came to a pot of lemon basil that smelled a-mazing.  The first thing I asked was, what can you make with lemon basil?  We talked about pasta and marinade.  I think it would also be good for potatoes, vinaigrette, chicken, or shrimp dishes.  Then, I said it would be awesome to try a lemon basil lemonade with it because it really has a pungent citrus smell.  Sue picked a bunch and sent it home with us to give it a try.

I decided first, I would make an EASY homemade simple syrup. 

What is simple syrup?  I’m glad you asked.  Simple syrup is just water and sugar heated together until it combines and you no longer have sugar crystals.  Sounds fancy, but it takes just a few minutes on the stove for this to happen.  It’s great for making sweet tea or lemonade because the sugar is already incorporated.  FYI, my friend Emily made simple syrup for a shower once and I thought it was a genius idea so people aren’t stirring in a bunch of sugar that sits at the bottom of their tea, she put it in a cute little container with a pour spout.  Ta daaa!  Tea as sweet as you’d like it.

Simple syrup is also versatile because you can add anything you like to flavor it.  Remember that yummy vanilla lime simple syrup?  The only limit is your imagination.  Add mint and lime for a simple syrup mojito, add lavender or rose or hot chilies for fancy unique cocktails, and yes, lemons for simple syrup lemonade.  The ratio I always use is 1:1.  Equal parts sugar to water.  Then add whatever you’d like for flavor.

 

Lemon Basil Lemonade

• Lemon Basil Simple Syrup {recipe below}
• 1 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice {about 5 lemons}
• 2.5 - 3.5 cups of water {to taste, you can use fizzy here if you want}
• strawberries {optional}
• lemon slices, + basil leaves to garnish

In a pitcher, combine lemon basil simple syrup, lemon juice, and water.  Stir until combined.  Serve over ice and garnish with a lemon slice and basil leaf.  If you like, you can slightly mash a few strawberries and add.  My kids loved both versions.

If you want to make it a cocktail, add vodka to taste.

 

Lemon Basil Simple Syrup

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of lemon basil leaves * {if you want it extra basil-y, add a few regular basil leaves as well}
• peel from 1-2 lemons {use your vegetable peeler here, it’s super easy!}

Put everything in a saucepan on the stove.  Heat, stirring until all sugar crystals are fully incorporated.  {The water will look clear again.}  Remove from heat and allow to stand one hour.  Then, strain out solid pieces and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

* If you don’t have access to lemon basil, you could use regular basil, however I would use 1/3 cup of regular basil and double the lemon zest while making the simple syrup.

Orzo Pasta Salad.

This is hands down Dave’s favorite summer dish.  I made it the first time for his birthday five years ago and it quickly became a family favorite.  Each time I make it, someone asks for the recipe.  It is definitely one of those dishes that having never tasted it, you might find it odd, but trust me it just works.  It has a little bit of everything, sweet cherries, a peppery punch from the fresh basil, a subtle nuttiness from the pine nuts, saltiness from the feta, and a light lemony brightness.  I love it because I can make it ahead of time AND it can be served for outdoor/hot weather potlucks. 

Perfect for summer. 

I never really measure ingredients for this, but I did this time and apparently, I should just call this “quarter cup Orzo” since it is all in quarter cup measurements.  Bonus, it’s easy to remember!

You will need:

• 8 ounces of Orzo pasta {half a package}
• salt for pasta water  
• handful of pine nuts, toasted {approximately 1/4 cup}
• handful of dried cherries, chopped {approximately 1/4 cup}
• zest and juice of one lemon {approximately 1/4 cup of juice}
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• fresh basil
• salt + pepper or seasoning blend, to taste
• feta cheese {yep… 1/4 cup}

Salt the water and set to boil.  Add half a package of Orzo pasta and cook pasta slightly longer {a minute or two} than the directions on the pasta.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  I use a fine mesh strainer because the pasta is small, but you can use any pasta strainer.

While the pasta is boiling, lightly toast the pine nuts in a pan.  Shake the pan often and don’t leave them unattended.  You will burn the hell out of them… not that I would know that from experience or anything. Ahem.  Allow to cool.

 

Zest the lemon. I just use a small grater and give it a quick once over.  Then use a citrus juicer and squeeze the juice out, reserve.

Chop the cherries.  Chiffonade the basil. {This just a fancy pants way of saying you roll it up and slice thinly.  It makes these thin ribbons of basil.} 

  

Pour the pasta into a bowl and add lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil.  Mix.  Add pine nuts, dried cherries, basil, and salt and pepper to taste.  I usually shake on a seasoning blend instead.  {I love the Kick N’ Chicken from Weber, a lemon pepper blend, or a veggie blend.} 

At this point, you can cover and throw it in the fridge until you are ready to eat.  I think it just tastes better when it has had an hour or two for the flavors to come together, but you can certainly just eat it right away too.

When you are ready to serve, add the feta cheese and give it all a quick stir.