Oh orzo! Why have you forsaken me?!

So this weekend, being Memorial day and all, we decided that it was time to bite the bullet and try out some Semi-Homemade culinary delights(read: trainwrecks) on some of our nearest and dearest. So Liz hosted a backyard barbeque and we set out selecting a recipe. Considering our reputation amongst friends as good cooks, we decided not to put that in jeopardy by doing a full Aunt Sandy menu. I know, I know, it was a golden opportunity to hit up the craft store and assault our friends with a hideous tablescape as well as semiedible entrees, but we like our friends, and we want them to continue liking us. Soooo we chose a dish that seemed suitable for human consumption: Warm Orzo Salad with Mint and Feta. Mmmm Mmmm good. Or not. First, why is the recipe's name so long? It lists every key ingredient sans peas. What did peas do to deserve such neglect? The recipe calls for cooked orzo, olive oil and vinegar dressing, garlic and herb feta, mint, peas and lemon juice. This sounded perfectly reasonable. Maybe even kinda good.

The assembly was uneventful. The only small hitch was that olive oil and vinegar dressing is not a very specific direction. So unlike her! Normally the directions are so specific they even have a brand recommendation! I was briefly at a loss. Did she really want me to make my own dressing? Like homemade? So I asked myself "what would a self respecting semihomemaker do?" And then the answer came to me in the salad dressing aisle like a shiny beacon of hope - Wishbone Fat Free Zesty Italian dressing. That's what Ms. Lee would do. I was also a little sad that the Safeway didn't have precrumbled garlic and herb feta so unlike Aunt Sandy who abhors prep-work, I was forced to crumble the feta myself. Psh.

When the moment of truth came, before either of us had eaten it, I made a general announcement to our loved ones that they were about to become guinea pigs for our blog and if the salad was nasty to let us know but please not hold it against us. So we tried it and it tasted like...mint. Or nothing, depending on the bite. Turns out that a quarter cup of Fat Free Wishbone Zesty Italian dressing is not enough to flavorize 8 oz of orzo. And with a quarter cup of mint you wouldn't think it would be so overpowering but when it was there it was REALLY there. We took a poll and most people said it wasn't bad or it didn't taste like much. A few people said it would be good with basil, and more flavor.

On the upside this recipe was not the worst thing we've made so far and it's a good thing, because we were serving it to people we like. And in all honesty, I would probably make it again, with more flavor and with basil instead of mint. All in all, we may have just stumbled upon her first edible creation.