Summer Orzo Salad
inspired by Caity’s summer Orzo salad

Ingredients:

The Salad

16 oz Orzo
1 1/2 cups or 1 small package of cherry tomatoes
2 ears of fresh corn on the cob
8 oz of fresh mozzarella cut into bits
4 tablespoons of pine nuts (toasted optional)
1/3 cup of chopped fresh basil

The Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions and set aside to cool
Boil corn for 4 minutes and slice kernels into a medium sized bowl
Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl
Whisk together all of the vinaigrette ingredients and stir into the salad
Refrigerate until ready to serve

Serve as a side, a light meal/snack, or even add grilled chicken for a one dish dinner.

This is my new favorite salad for the summer. I found the recipe on pinterest (of course) then I went to make it and the directions were written pretty much in paragraph form and there were no quantities listed. 

For example: “Lots of fresh basil, cut into chiffonade (Pronounced the French way—like “shif-o-nod”. Rinse and pat or shake the leaves dry. Pull them off of the stems and put into small stacks. From the short side of the leaf, roll the stack tightly, then with a nice sharp knife, cut as thinly as possible into beautiful, delicate green ribbons.)”

So I appreciate the recipe, but too much information (yet not enough). I had to guess how much to add of every single ingredient and I am not a natural in the kitchen, so I like to have an idea of quantity, especially when I am grocery shopping. That’s why I decided to post my version. That way when I make it again I will remember what I modified and how much I need of each ingredient. 

And while I am on the subject, I often find with these online food creations that the ingredients, back stories, and personal preferences are all intermingled in the blog post, but I really just want the recipe. The other day I was creating a meal off of a blog recipe and I had to scroll down constantly (with icky gooey cooking fingers). The reason was because they had huge pictures. Pictures of EVERYTHING. Add 2 eggs and there was a picture of the eggs going into the bowl. Scroll down, now add a dash of salt, along with a photo of salt sprinkling onto the eggs. Then add two tablespoons of water and I am not exxagerating THERE WAS A PICTURE OF A SPOONFUL OF WATER. It was really annoying. If you were to print this recipe it would have been 12 pages long!

I remember totally botching up another online recipe one time and J was wondering what had happened. My response, in defensive tired mom tone, was “If I didn’t have to read an interjection in the middle of the recipe about how the cook was planning a birthday party for her one year old who already likes steaks etc. etc. then maybe I wouldn’t have skipped that part!!!” 
That was my excuse for the night and obviously I  have a pet peave. I like to look at blog recipes the same way I would find them in a cookbook, but that’s just my personal preference. That’s why I chose to leave all this rambling for after the recipe in case someone else looks up this summer salad and gives up because of my longwinded rant about not liking blog recipes. Huff puff. So, as I was saying, it’s a really good salad. 

***If the the cooks that created this recipe happened to trace the link back to this post just know that I like to joke around, but your blog, photos, and format are all wonderful. I would hate to offend someone just because I am grumpy and in a hurry. 🙂