Golden Carrot Bake

This is another incredible comfort-dish. While the Bounty Rice featured Italian flavours reminiscent of lasagna, this Golden Carrot Bake follows in the tradition of quiche. On the one hand it is not so rich as quiche, but on the other it feels lighter & more guilt-free with no loss of yum-factor.

This recipe, once again from Simply in Season, was split into three easy steps.

1. Boil 3 cups of shredded carrots, 1.5 cups of water, a half cup of brown rice, salt & pepper. Then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Do not strain.

(I used long grain white rice. So I only simmered for fifteen minutes.)

2. Add to the pot 1.5 cups of shredded Monterey Jack, one cup of milk, two eggs (beaten), a quarter cup of chopped onion, & nutmeg.

(I used green onion for added colour.)

3. Pour into 2 quart casserole dish & bake at 350 for an hour. Then sprinkle a half cup of shredded Monterey Jack on the top & bake for another two minutes.

I served ours with some tea. We sat at the table for a few hours nibbling "just one more small slice" & sipping tea. One thing that always amazes me about good food is the good conversation it invites. Especially when shared in good company.

Favorite Song (on my favorite radio station during prep time): Damien Dempsey- Madam I'm A Darlin'

Apple Rice Stuffing

This Sunday I made an Apple Rice Stuffing. In the spirit of Simply in Season, it was easy to make. Be warned it did take a few hours of cook time. But as the snow was piled high outside & we were in merry company, the aroma of baking apples only added to the atmosphere. The finished product was well worth the wait.

To begin this recipe, simply cook up some brown rice in apple juice. Simmering for forty minutes.

Then saute some onion and celery. Add this to the rice along with two diced large apples. Add brown sugar and walnuts to taste. (The recipe calls for certain amounts, but I really think these two ingredients, within reason, should be left up to the cook. Only you know how sweet the apples are, how sweet you like your dish, and how much (if at all) you enjoy walnuts.) Also add savory & oregano.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for fifty minutes.

The recipe noted that the Apple Rice Stuffing pairs well with pork chops. In this case, I was planning a lunch so I opted for the thin sliced "breakfast" pork chops. Which, happily, also happened to be on a sale. I dry rubbed them with Italian seasonings, garlic powder, and red pepper. Seared them until they were brown. And then I simmered them in apple juice, covered, for around ten minutes.

They went quite well with the stuffing. This was the first time I tried thin-cut chops, and I think I will go back to regular chops in the future. But they are convenient because they cook up faster and make for a lighter meal.

The stuffing was lick-your-spoon, must-have-another-bite, fare. I think I would put a little less sugar in the next time, but that comes down to preference. This is a sweet & savory treat, good for any occasion or just to warm up your day.

Some of you perceptive readers who have been following along may have noticed that this post is a bit different. This is because I was a guest in my brother's kitchen when I made this dish. It takes a generous person to allow another into their kitchen! Which is not to say it is easy for the guest cook either.

His roommate was also kind enough to offer his camera for the project, when I realized I had forgotten my memory card.

Though I usually like to cook in the warm shell of my own kitchen, with folk tunes floating in from the adjacent room, I do feel that cooking is a great social activity as well. The group nature of a food-project makes the meal satisfying on a whole new level. Group pride, for a job done well, can be one of the most natural & pleasant feelings. This I believe.

So the song I will share today, was one that my husband had stuck in his head as we were playing one of our favorite games, while the stuffing was cooling and the pork chops were sizzling on the pan.

Bob Dylan- Everybody Must Get Stoned

Wild Rice Bake

Yesterday I made the "Wild Rice Bake", and earlier in the day there was actually some sunshine coming into our apartment!

The wild rice & pearl barley were so visually appealing to me, and I enjoyed capturing that a bit in that sunlight.

The first step to this dish was rinsing and then boiling one cup of wild rice. This filled the apartment with an almost herbal aroma.

Next I sauteed the

two cups of onion in two tablespoons of olive oil. My brother taught me to pile the onions up in the pan, pour the oil over them, and then leave for five minutes. The onions cooked up quite nicely this way. He tells me they cook up quicker this way because they are containing the heat.

Next I mixed the wild rice, onion, and one cup pearl barley together in a 9X13 dish.

Then I chopped up four cups of sweet potatoes. The recipe called for two cups parsnips and two cups sweet potatoes. I think the parsnips would have definitely added to the dish. However, it was reaching the end of our grocery-week and this is what I had to work with.

I also chopped up two cups of butternut squash, any winter squash would do. I found a pretty easy way of chopping up butternut squash over here. I microwaved it for three minutes first, and this made the skin softer to cut through.

Then I mixed the squash & sweet potatoes with one pound of whole mushrooms (which the recipe reassures are optional). I spread this on top of the grain mixture, & sprinkled it with salt and pepper. In the future I may add some oregano or paprika. I'm not really a salt & pepper only person. But I tried to stay true to the recipe since it was my first go at it.

Then I poured over the top three cups of our homemade chicken broth & one cup of apple cider.

It baked for an hour at 375 degrees, filling the house with a grainy-sweet & chicken smell.

The result was what I would describe as a playful dish. The colors and textures of the meal were visually appealing and the flavors were equally tantalizing. The texture was firmer than I would have supposed. The result was a filling dish made to feel even more satisfying by mouthfuls of chewy goodness. The mushrooms were cooked to perfection, and balanced out the heartiness of the rest of the meal with a bit of softness.

The recipe said it serves 6-8. I would say it serves more like 8-10. We certainly have plenty of leftovers. I would also not recommend serving this dish as a side, I think it felt like the feature dish it was.

I served this dish with mulled apple cider. This added the smell of cinnamon to the aromas wafting through our apartment. The apple cider was great, but I felt its flavors were lost when paired with the meal. It made a fine dessert, however.

The meal gave us plenty of positive energy, which we spent grocery shopping for next weeks adventures...

Favorite Song (on my favorite radio station during prep time): Kathryn Tickell-Peter Man

Comfort Rice-Dish

As we were sampling the beet salad, we had "Bounty Rice" baking in the oven.

There were several variations of this recipe. The one I originally meant to try was cooked on the stove. However, it called for sour cream and we'd used all of ours in the dilly bean soup. Below this variation was a "Cajun" version made on the stove without sour cream. The variation I opted for was essentially the same as the original, minus the sour cream, & baked in the oven.

This dish may not sound like it, but it is usually served with Italian flavors. Tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, & mozzarella. The recipe calls for beef or pork, and since we've had the perfect amount of beef sitting in our freezer for a few weeks now, I opted for that.

On a tangent, we are not vegetarians. However, we find meat is often an extra cost and we love vegetables. For example, for this week's groceries we spent our same weekly budget for groceries. We came away with, in all seriousness, five more bags of groceries than the week before. So much of it vegetables!

So this is just to say, I like this book because most of the recipes don't have or are light on the meat & dairies. I would take it a step further and say that in most cases these recipes could be easily adapted to a vegetarian or even vegan lifestyle.

The recipe did not call for fresh fennel, though some of the recipes up ahead in the book do. I think I would like to try this dish with the fennel next time and also with Italian sausage in place of the beef. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

This dish was amazing. Definitely a comfort food for any cold night. It was like lasagna, only with less cheese, less meat, rice & Brussels sprouts!

Really the recipe called for cabbage not Brussels sprouts. We had some of the sprouts left over from a good sale a few weeks ago where we picked up four pounds of the little cabbages. Cabbage would have been much easier to prepare for this dish. I opted to use what I had, in the spirit of this cookbook, but would generally find the cabbage more practical.

I am so glad to add this dish to my list of foods to snap together & dig into when there are troubles or coldness in our world.

Favorite Song (on my favorite radio station during prep time): Steeleye Span- Captain Coulston