Greek Orzo Salad

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Take-Away dishes from Metropulos, Santa Barbara

Dish: Greek Orzo Salad
My theme for this week's blogging marathon is very interesting. Valli gave us a list of 10 best take-out restaurants in 3 travel destinations. We had to pick a destination and a restaurant from that list and cook 3 dishes for the week.

After a lot of browsing, I chose Metropulos restaurant from Santa Barbara. It is a fine foods market that sells amazing sandwiches, paninis and a ton of gourmet specialty food items. After reading about the place I have added it to my bucket list of places to visit :-)

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Vegetarian Hoagie Sandwich

Blogging Marathon# 50: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: American Sandwiches

Dish: Hoagie Sandwich

We are starting a brand new edition of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'American Sandwiches'. Didn't realize that there are around 70-80 different types of sandwiches in the US until I saw the list of sandwiches on Wiki that Valli shared with us. More than 90% of these are meat based, so after carefully looking through all my options, I picked 3 sandwiches that were vegetarian and those we knew I would be making again and again. 

For the first day, I made Hoagie sandwich. This is a kind of submarine sandwich and has quite a few different names like a sub, wedge, hoagie, hero, grinder etc. it is interesting to know that there are about 13 different names for this very sandwich in US. A submarine sandwich basically consists of a long roll of Italian or French bread that is split width wise either into two pieces or opened in a "V" on one side, and filled with a variety of meats, cheeses, vegetables, seasonings, and sauces.

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Linguine with Pesto & Artichokes

Last night’s meal was a breeze to make; Spinach Linguine with Pesto & Artichokes, from Isa’s Veganomicon. I used regular linguine instead of spinach flavored one and it was still delicious. Also the recipe calls for Cilantro-Basil pesto, I used regular basil pesto, and again we liked and enjoyed the dish.

Recipe adapted from Veganomicon
Ingredients:
Linguine – ½ lb
Red Onion – 1 medium, chopped into thin half moons
Garlic – 3 cloves

Pesto – about 2/3 cup (or more), I used 5 cubes of frozen pesto made from here

Artichokes – 1 16 oz. can, drained and rinsed, cut into quarters (not the marinated in oil kind, but the once in brine)

Method:

• Bring a large pot of water to boil and season with generous amount of salt. Add linguine to water and bring to a boil and simmer for at least 10 minutes or until tender (al dente).
• In the meantime, heat 2tbsp oil in a large skillet; add the onions and sauté until lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes.
• Add garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
• Pasta should be cooked by this time; using a slotted spoon carefully add the pasta into the onion mixture along with some of the pasta water.
• Mix in pesto and artichokes. Cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Serve hot.