"Greek" Pasta Salad

Last week, Joef graduated from the Yale School of Management. I'm wildly proud of him, and feel very lucky to have been able to spend two years with such a fascinating and fantastic group of people. Joef's parents, sister, and our youngest nephew came into town to celebrate with us, and we knew where we wanted to take them: The Place in Guilford. I've actually only been there once, last summer, and I've been wanting to take Joef since then. It's an all-outdoor restaurant with a giant firepit in the middle of bunches of tables with tree stumps for chairs. They serve grilled clams, lobster, salmon, chicken, shrimp, corn-on-the-cob, and delicious desserts. Shattered clam shells serve as flooring, and it's just great.

It's also a BYO type of place, from beverages to sides to, well, pretty much whatever you want. I decided to put together a quick pasta salad, something I'd seen Rachel Ray throw together on TV a few years back. It's simple and delicious, and great as leftovers the next day. It complemented our grilled salmon in aluminum foil and clams with butter just right. It's an "eyeball it" type of recipe, so here's approximately what you need:

3/4-1lb orzo pasta, cooked
1 package grape/cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
Kalamata olives, however many you want
Feta cheese sprinkles, sprinkled generously
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

You guessed it: just prep the ingredients and mix them all together, using a 2:1 or ratio on the olive oil: vinegar. Picnic time!

Cooking Lesson!

 This year's Piccina cooking lesson bid went to Megan Richer! Megan, like Greg before her, chose risotto (this time, with parmesan and arugula), with a side of Brussels sprouts (which Jason prepared expertly), also with parmesan. Joef taught hot fudge, one with naga jolokia, and one without. There's nothing better than cooking (and even more so, eating) with friends, and we had a fantastic time with everyone!