Wild Rice Casserole!

My mom gave me this recipe, and it's kind of vague.
It calls for a box of wild rice.
Box? I am guessing that the stuff I bought last time was 8 oz.
I will go look and see what a box is
at the grocery store, but now my friend Jane went to Northern
Minnesota and brought me back one pound bags, so we shall see
how this works. I'll fix it when I find out.

Grease a casserole dish.

1 Box wild rice soaked in water overnight.
drain, then mix in the bowl with:
1 cup of whole canned tomatoes, chopped up.
1 cup sliced black olives
1 cup onions, shopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup oil
1 cup boiling water
1 cup grated cheese

Bake 1 hr @ 350

I'd salt and pepper to taste,
I'm going to use chicken stock,
my mom used American cheese, I think
I'll use a cheddar.

I am a farmer

Okay..I am not a farmer; but I did grow fresh herbs, tomatoes, red and green peppers this year. If the squirrels don't grab the tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro to make salsa with, we should be good to go in a few weeks.

Oh, BTW..those tomato planters, the Topsy Turvy things..hahahaa..THEY WORK! Photographic proof to follow.

I will be making the marinara sauce on this blog ( some place ) if we don't eat them all or they don't all get stolen. Something small and furry ate my Italian parsley.....

My annual post

WOW..I really need to be better about this, don't I? :p You think with over 100 cook books and all the online sites I belong to, that I would contribute more.

Huh.

Nutella..chocolate hazelnut crack in a jar..now in cookie form!

Chocolate Nutella Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 3/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of Nutella
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter in an electric mixer for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and Nutella and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between each. Add the vanilla and mix for 10 seconds.

3 Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda (do not skip this step as sifting eliminates clumps of cocoa). Mix into the butter mixture on low speed until fully incorporated, scraping down the bottom and sides at least once to ensure even mixing. Fold in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts and refrigerate the dough for ten minutes.

4 Spoon tablespoon-sized drops of dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the sheets for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 6 dozen.

What I made yesterday and the day before

I made some cornbread, used real corn, grits, eggs and AP flour, baking soda and salt. the stuff came out of my 9 x 13 pan a bit dense, moist and tasty, but not cornbread. It was an experiment that sort of failed. I saved it til the next day. I cut it into large squares, and ran a knife thru those squares and fried each square in butter. ha.

I had some deli roast beef left in the fridge, I fried up some onions, put mayo on the bottom square, onions, heated up the roast beef just a tad, and Nico had some verde salsa in the fridge, that he'd put avocado in, I thought it was gross, til I put in as the last thing on the sandwich before I put another slice of the cornbread on it, and OMG was it good. It was so good I have to put it here so I don't forget it.

WOW

Audrey,

Your friend Deb sure is smart...HAHAHAAAA

I have tons to post..I shall return!

Spinach Rice Salad

I can't find my mom's recipe book, well, I could but don't want to.
Too busy.

So, when I wanted to make my mom's Spinach Rice Salad, I called Deb,
hoping I'd told her what it was, but no. I had forgotten.
Par for my course.

She suggested Googling the ingredients that I remembered, and
There It WAS, oh, man, now Deb's ahead of me in points.

This is as close as I'm going to get until I find the original one
from my mom, I'm not much on sugar in my salad, but you might be.


* 1 tablespoon soy sauce
* 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
* 5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
* 1 celery rib, thinly sliced
* 4 green onions, thinly sliced
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar
* 2 cups baby spinach

In a bowl, combine the salad dressing, soy sauce and sugar.
Stir in rice, celery and onions. Cover and refrigerate for
at least 1 hour. Just before serving, stir in spinach and bacon.
___________________________________

I think my mom did the rice with the sauce soaking in the fridge
the night before, and I think that altho I abhor the thought of
Uncle Ben's, I think it holds up better, the shape, as I had my
son cook some rice for me to use tomarrow, and it got all
split looking. Whats with that?