Vegetables and rice can get boring pretty quickly. Add a new sauce and liven things up. If you chop the lime up finely, everyone will have a good time trying to guess the “secret ingredient” …always a favorite game at our table!
Boil up some basmati rice, and start your sauce. A few minutes before the rice is ready, bring the sauce back up to simmer and add your veggies. We used broccoli, and it was delicious.
Ceylonese Sauce
2 T vegetable oil
Medium onion, chopped
Large clove of garlic, chopped
1 t mustard seeds
2 t curry paste or favorite curry spice …read more

After putting the first few ingredients into a pan, you’ll just stick it in the oven and walk away for about 45 minutes. Time to read a chapter of your novel, do a load of laundry (yuck), talk with a friend on the phone, supervise homework…
When you return to your kitchen, you’ll just saute up the veggies quickly, smother the rice and chicken with them, and eat!  You can also substitute turkey if there are still leftovers hanging around 
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole with Artichokes
1 c uncooked wild rice
4-1/2 c stock
Skinned chicken breasts
Paprika
Olive oil
3 carrots, sliced
2 …read more

I posted awhile ago about how to make basic risotto. Don’t let the multiple steps throw you off…it’s not hard, and it’s really worth it. No other cooking method yields the creamy goodness of risotto! Since it’s one of my favorite comfort foods, I thought I’d share this variation with you during our Comfort Food blitz
This particular recipe mixes wonderful corn with the arborio rice. Fresh grated parmesan tops it off. It goes wonderfully with chicken – grilled, oven-roasted, crock potted, whatever! Make sure you add basil and olive oil to your chicken, and it’ll make …read more

Making risotto is not the basis of a thirty minute meal. Nonetheless, it is delicious and comforting in a way that just can’t be achieved by boiling up some instant rice. Yuck!  It is actually the perfect dish to introduce during, November, our month of Comfort Food 
Here are the basic directions for risotto, and I’d suggest just reading through them if this is your first time so that you understand how the process works. The directions below are a bit abbreviated, so check the link above if anything doesn’t make sense.
Red Pepper Risotto with Italian …read more

Lots of onions! This is one of the tastiest polenta dishes I’ve ever had. The recipe below serves 4 as a side dish; if you’d prefer to make it the main dish, the recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled.

Polenta with Prosciutto and Onions

Olive oil
3 – 4 thin slices of prosciutto
2 onions, chopped
1 c water
3/4 c chicken broth
1 t dried sage
1/2 c coarse cornmeal
1 T butter
1/2 c parmesan, fresh grated
Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, and lightly crisp the prosciutto. Remove and set aside. Add the onions and more oil if needed, and cook till tender. Remove …read more

Ok, the first time I made this dish, I scorched the milk in the bottom of the pan! I forgot what a mess milk can make in a very short time. A little baking soda paste and heating later…I was ready to try it again.
I would recommend that if you’ve got a double-boiler you use it. I also experimented with using my crock pot for times when I wasn’t in a hurry. I’ve included both instructions below. But even if you have to suffer through scraping the pot, this Indian dessert is worth it!  Traditional Diwali rice pudding is considerably …read more

Not that polenta isn’t served in other parts of the country, but it is as common as pasta in the north. And it is amazingly versatile as well. Basic polenta is a snap to make and can be dressed up or dressed down in an infinite number of ways. It can be served with a rich tomato sauce, with or without veggies, sprinkled with parmesan, loaded with meats and onions, topped with tapenade, on and on and on! It makes a great basis for a vegetarian meal, a main dish, or a side dish.
In larger …read more

Here’s a delicious Once A Month Cooking treat for you: jambalaya that you’ll eat with a fork instead of a spoon! You can double, triple, or whatever this recipe to make multiple batches. The recipe below makes enough to feed an average family of four. I like to add something green to the meal on the day it’s served.
For a refresher on how OAMC works, visit the link above. Go here for more OAMC recipes.
Baked Jambalaya
1/2 c celery, chopped
1/2 c green pepper, chopped
Scallion, chopped
Clove of garlic, minced
1/2 lb kielbasa, cooked and sliced
1/2 lb ham, cooked and diced
1/2 t …read more

Here’s another delicious Once A Month Cooking treat for you: slightly sweet chicken, warm and bubbly that goes beautifully with a simple spinach salad. This serves my family of four with the addition of the salad, and sometimes rolls if everyone’s really hungry!
For a refresher on how OAMC works, visit the link above. Go here for more OAMC recipes.
Mandarin Orange Chicken
1 T olive oil
2 c fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 T flour
1/2 c scallions, sliced
1 c chicken broth
3 oz frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 c long grain rice
1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
11 oz can of mandarin …read more

Do you remember the Sweet Spanish Rice we made a couple weeks ago? Well, here’s an easy variation that you can do on it, creating a completely different taste sensation. I like this type of rice for shrimp. If you buy the pre-cooked shrimp, they can just be thrown in on top of the rice in the last few minutes of cooking time, just to heat through. Even if they’re raw, shrimp don’t take all that long to cook
Basically, the recipe for this rice is the same as the other, but we’ll substitute the grated peel and the …read more