Martha Monday--Mojitos and a sandwich

In the July/August issue of Everyday Food, I marked ten recipes as must-do's for this month. Of the ten, six of them are for cocktails. Go figure.

Last week I made the Watermelon Mojitos on page 94. They weren't bad!

There are five cocktails featured on the "Instant Party" spread--everything from a Singapore Sling to a Painkiller. Once I've made my way through them all, I'll let you know my favorite. ;)

After the mojitos, I made the Pesto Chicken Burgers from page 13.  I didn't have any ground chicken on hand, so I simply used cubed breast meat.  The ciabatta rolls, pesto, chicken, melted cheese and tomato slice was a terrific combination--what a great sandwich!

I'm not entirely sold on the watermelon mojito (a regular mojito is more my thing) but I am smitten with these pesto chicken burgers.  I'll be making them again. Need something different for dinner? Give these pesto chicken burgers a try!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Martha Monday--Skillet shrimp and orzo

In the May 2012 issue of Everyday Food, there is an amazing one-pot recipe of skillet shrimp and orzo:

The ingredients are fairly simple, as is the process, and I just had to make it. The recipe calls for 3/4 pound of orzo, but as you might know, most boxes of orzo are a full pound. Rather than deal with the math, I put in all the orzo and two full cans of chicken broth.  And, since I used canned tomatoes, I added all of the juice. The orzo turned out just fine.

However, I got the crazy idea to GRILL OUT the accompanying shrimp (along with some chicken). As you can see, that did not turn out just fine.  Grilling simply isn't my thing.

Then, to add insult to injury, I wasn't watching the orzo closely enough during the cooking process and a small layer was burned to the bottom of the pan.  Not fine. I'd say cooking isn't my thing, but I will not let this one mishap diminish my quest to become Aurora's version of Martha Stewart. 

COOKING IS STILL MY THING.

And because it is summer, watermelon is also my thing. A thing which, when following dinner, totally makes up for blackened shrimp and chicken and burned orzo at the bottom of the pan. Which is just fine with me.

I will be trying this recipe again. The orzo was delicious, and I can only imagine that by following directions and cooking the shrimp in the skillet that the entire dish would be amazing.  Give this recipe a try today, but please learn from my mistakes and follow the instruction.  Just in case, keep some watermelon on hand and you'll be just fine.

A note to Tenney in Hawaii:  your emails always brighten my day. Aloha!

A note to everyone: As always, thanks for reading. Have a wonderful week!