Rice Recipes & Other Ruminations

We headed south today to Cadillac. Our kitty had a 7:30 a.m. appointment at the vet's to be spayed and front declawed. Maybe her attack cat mode will be subdued. I can only hope. You'd think she'd be grateful; I am, after all, the one who rescued her when some jerk dropped her off next door.

Also made a trip into Wally World. Had a real short list and it was still early morning so there were no throngs of people buying useless stuff. Found a few deals so I increased our stores of butter, jasmine rice, and canned cat food. The dry cat food had gone up by 84 cents since buying it six weeks ago. Those cats eat as well as we do. Oh well, they are our main source of entertainment and companionship.

It's 38 degrees here today, windy and raining. No backhoe work or raking today. Now we may not build the pole barn as the backhoe has not sold. Some days its up, some days its down. They way I look at it, Sweetie's stuff can remain under cover on pallets and the backhoe can clear snow.

He says he'll prepare the site anyway. He may as well or we have a pile of brush and stumps sitting next to his other pile of Stuff!

Thought I'd share a couple meatless rice recipes. I love rice; could eat it every day.

Jasmine Pineapple Pilaf

1 Cup uncooked Jasmine Rice
1 Tablespoon butter
1 C. chopped onion
1/2 C. chopped walnuts
1/2 C. raisins
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground ginger
1 8-oz. can pineapple bits

Cook rice in 1-1/2 C. boiling water for one minute. Reduce heat and cover. Let cook for 6-10 minutes. Do not stir the rice; this releases the starch and makes it sticky. In a skillet, heat the butter and add the onions, ginger, salt, raisins, and walnuts. Cook and stir for 4-5 minutes until the onions are tender. Add the rice and pineapple (with the juice) and heat through.

Curried Rice, Onions and Peas

1/2 C. white rice, uncooked
2 large onions, sliced
3 Tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg or mace
3/4 C. cream
Either one can peas or 1 C. frozen peas

Cook rice according to package directions and set aside. In a skillet, cook the onion slices in the butter. Add cooked rice and peas. In a small bowl mix the cream with the salt, curry powder and nutmeg and add to the rice mixture. Heat through and serve. Makes four servings.

If you don't have cream use 1/2 C. milk.

Received my gallon of Sal-Suds soap from Dr. Bronner's. I'd kept an empty Dawn dish soap bottle so I filled half the bottle with water and half with soap. That way I don't overuse the Bronner's. I love the natural fragrance of Fir Needle Oil and Spruce Oil and feel better knowing I'm not disposing of countless Dawn bottles. The soap is good for all purpose cleaning, laundry and dish washing. As usual I've dated the jug, so we'll see how long it lasts.

Well, Sweetie's up from his nap so I'll pay attention to him now instead of this machine! Later, Treesong