So I mentioned a few days ago that we have a summer staple salad that was deserving of a post of its own. This is the salad. We've made a lot of salads this summer; fresh tuna, curried chicken, spinach and bacon, but this one we keep coming back to. It's a shameless knock-off of the Chicken Florentine Salad from the Macaroni Grill, but, dare I say it, mine's better. I won't put amounts because those are fluid kinds of things, but here's the recipe.

Salad:

Orzo, cooked al dente and chilled

Chopped spinach (I julienned mine)

Sundried tomatoes, sliced

Kalamata olives, sliced

Pine nuts, if you have them. I don't always.

Shaved parmesean

pick your protein...sometimes we use chicken, sometimes nothing. Last night I used grilled shrimp that I marinated in lemon and honey.

Dressing (this is where amounts would really help, but I just splash, squeeze and taste):

Vinegar, this time it was pear-infused balsalmic

Garlic (I usually use a small spoonful roasted garlic paste from Williams Sonoma)

honey

lemon juice

olive oil

Assemble salad ingredients. Combine dressing ingredients in a blender and pour over salad. Mix thoroughly and gobble, gobble.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think. Maybe I'll start Recipe Tuesday or something. Next up, for Marianne, if you're still reading these days, I'll post that Gazpacho recipe you have to keep asking me for!