Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Say Something Once, Why Say it Again?

I've been eating Greek pasta salad for three days now and you know what? I want more.

On Saturday I made a huge-ass batch of it for Sunday Plus Lunch at "church."

Which? I'm sorry. I still can't call "church" church-without-the-quotation-marks even though we've been going there nearly two years. I mean, really. They don't shove religion down your throat. They encourage questions. And where else, other than a Unitarian Universalist "church," can you go to the director of Children's Ministries and say, "Hey! Have you seen the graffiti on the playground? It's kick-ass. Can we keep it?"


And she walks out there and says, "Oh, that is cool. I like it too!"

COME ON, seriously. It's awesome.

Anyway, so I made this ginormous batch of gluten-dairy-soy-egg-nut-corn-free Greek pasta salad so we can start being even more all inclusive than we already are and offer options for those of us with crazy-ass food allergies. However, not many of us came and Laura's been known to go a little crazy in the kitchen so we had lots of leftovers.


I used the base of my Greek salad and instead of lettuce, added pasta. And I tripled the recipe. But the basic recipe goes like this...

For the dressing:
1 lemon, zested & juiced
oregano leaves, from 5 or 6 sprigs, chopped/minced
a couple of tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
olive oil (some people use a lot, I like it just enough to bring it together, a few tablespoons)

... combine in a salad bowl and whisk.

I make the exact same in a second bowl (and add three or four minced garlic cloves) and use it as a marinade for chicken to throw on the grill.

Now back to the salad, add whatever you like - for us it's usually half a cucumber (seeded & sliced), a quarter red onion (thinly sliced), a sliced red pepper, a handful of grape tomatos and some kalmato olives. Throw in a head of romaine or pound of cooked & chilled pasta, toss and hello, lovah. (We serve the feta on the side. You need feta. Unless you're allergic.)

I'm writing this all because lately I'm completely focused on what I'm not accomplishing. I'm not accomplishing quilting, crafting, dusting, vacuuming and hell, I can't even appropriately stay on top of the damn dishes. But I do cook and quite a bit. I just need to get my head out of my ass and focus on the accomplishments and not the failures.

(Faaaaaaiiiiiiiillllllluuuuuuuuurrrrrrrreeeeeeessssss!!!!!)

6 comments:

ROLLERWRITER said...

Our family has several who attend a Unitarian church. Favorite joke about it: What happens when you anger a Unitarian? They burn a question mark in your yard. Dumb but...
Love the Greek salad. Have you tried it with tortelli as the pasta for all the non allergic?

kristi said...

The salad is awesome. We still haven't made it through the bowlful you gave us. Do you think it's still good today?

MichelleB said...

That salad sounds great! I'll add that to my miniscule pasta salad repertoire.

I'll join you in the "unable to get a damn thing done" department.

Chickenbells said...

Thank you for the wonderful recipe! It actually has everything I'm allergic to out of it, so this should be a no brainer for me to make! And, I really like the UU's too...I'm not one to haul butt out of bed on Sunday's to do anything but hike and drink coffee, but if I were...you'd find me at the local UU "church"

amy h said...

We've been eating pasta salad for a few days, too. It is one of the only things Chris can cook, and he makes giant vats of it.

I always mean to join up with the UUs, but for some reason never do. Laziness maybe? Too attached to my PJs on Sundays?

Rachel said...

Gorgeous salad!!! That recipe sounds delish and I love the graffiti ;-) and her attitude about it! That's awesome.