Hey Y'All...It's Tuesday

quite the catchy blog title, i know, you don't need to congratulate me. (ha, ha, chortle, guffaw) anywho, since i received two, yes count 'em, two requests for the recipe for the orzo...and since i always aim to please...yessiree nellie, i do. here she be. although, this has left me wondering why nobody ever requested the recipe for the alpo. :) please bear with me on the whole recipe thing. you see, when i cook i don't usually use exacts and i throw in a bit of this and a bit of that so if something doesn't look right or is totally confusing, please feel free to e-mail and say something like "what the heck are you trying to say here?" i promise i won't be offended and i definitely promise it won't be the first time someone has uttered that exact phrase to me.

orzo w/some beef thrown in for good measure:

ingredients -

*about 1 lb. of beef cut into small cubes (i prefer stew meat because it's already pretty much cut up, although i do sometimes make it smaller, but you can use whatever you have on hand as long as it's not ground beef)

*16 oz. orzo (uncooked)

*two of the little containers of grape tomatoes, cut in halves (not sure if that type of container qualifies as a pint or what, and i'm sure you could also use cherry tomatoes but i just love the sweetness of the grape variety)

*1/2 to 3/4 lb. fresh spinach (this amount depends on how much of the green goodness you want in the orzo, i like baby spinach the best but any kind works, if i'm using the larger variety i like to remove the big stems first)

*about 8oz. of crumbled feta cheese

*about 2 tbsp. of olive oil

*1 to 2 tbsp. of minced garlic depending upon your tastes

in a big 'ol pot bring quite a bit of water to a full boil. while you are waiting for this to come to a boil put the olive oil in a large skillet, swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan, let it get just a little hot and then put in the beef. when the beef has just a few minutes left until it is completely cooked, put the minced garlic and grape tomato halves in with it and continue to cook until the beef is no longer pink in the center. once this is cooked you can set it aside and tend to your orzo. if the water is boiling, put the entire 16 oz. box of orzo in (yes people, we are cooking for an army here, or at least a good week of leftovers). let the orzo cook for 10-12 minutes. when the orzo has reached the last minute of cooking, put all of the fresh spinach right in the pan with it and let that all boil together for one minute. turn off the heat and immediately strain the water from the orzo/spinach mixture. put the orzo and spinach back in the big 'ol pot and dump the beef/tomato/garlic concoction in on top and mix well. then dump your crumbled feta in with it and mix well again. then eat up.

viola, there you have it. hope yours turns out yummy too. if you make it, let me know how it goes. have a great tuesday everybody. this evening i am off to a homeschool group meeting which translates into filling up my planner and ingesting entirely too much chocolate. ;)