Long Weekend!

Hurray for French Holidays! Last Wednesday was John's Friday! Thursday was Ascension and if a holiday falls on a Thursday in France you just CAN'T go back to work on Friday. So, we took a short camping trip last Thursday and Friday to a town called Aix-en-Provence with a couple of other stops on the way there and back. On Saturday we went to a HUGE food and flower market that was just down the road from our apartment. It was fantastic and we bought quite a few local food products. I'll be blogging about them later in the week. Sunday was spent in Cannes for the film festival! It was a really great weekend with lots going on and tons of pictures. This coming weekend we have our trip to Corsica. Busy busy week ahead!

For all of you in the States, here is a good recipe for all of those add a dish, potluck dinners that you might have coming up on Memorial Day!

Greek Orzo Salad 

Ingredients
 

5 cups cooked orzo
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
3 or 4 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 medium red onion, small diced
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts (give or take), cut into eighths
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh parsley or chervil, chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large lemon, halved
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 or 4 ounces reduced fat feta cheese, crumbled

20 pitted kalamata olives, cut into quarters (didn't have these and it tastes perfectly ok without it. So, if you don't like or don't have olives, leave them out!)

 Method

1. To a large mixing bowl, add orzo, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives, artichoke hearts, and parsley. Stir to combine.

2. Pour olive oil into orzo mixture. Juice the entire lemon into the same bowl. Add salt and grind pepper to taste. Stir gently to combine. Add feta. Stir again. Serve cold or at room temperature.

the Original Recipe is on Serious Eats