The Right Rice

Tonight was Taco Thursdays. Tacos are quick, delicious and easy for meeting nights. I got a little creative and threw in some black beans and green chilis into the ground beef, along with seasonings, of course. Everything was smelling good and simmering just spectacularly. Then there is the rice. You see the problem with rice is that for amateur cooks it can be difficult to distinguish one type from another. So I decided to try my hand at making my own version of Spanish Rice to go with my kicked up tacos. (The tacos themselves turned out great. Phew.) I threw in some seasoning, tomatoes, and pepper in the rice and put the lid on and let it go to town absorbing all the yumminess. Cooking rice is tricky because you can't take the lid off during cooking or that defeats the purpose. So you wait until the time is up to take a look at what it is you've created.
Back to distinguishing types of rice...there are many kinds...of which we have at least four varieties in our home. There is regular white rice that we use for most things...like Spanish Rice. Then there is my favorite, sticky rice. There is a term for it, of which fails me now and I am not running downstairs to get the name and make this technically accurate. Sticky rice is used in most asian dishes. We make a lot of beef broccoli stir fry and such in our home. It goes well and is easy to pick up with chopsticks, hence it being sticky rice. Well, it all looks the same to me. As I took off the lid to inhale the delicious smells and bask in the glory of my creation, I stirred once and saw the sticky consistency. Slop, squish, sqalsh. Immediately I knew I had done something very wrong! Long story short....tonight I made a giant batch of Spanish style sticky rice that wasn't seasoned nearly enough and tasted more like rice with tomatoes. Uh..I was going for healthy/interesting...yes Thoroughly Modern Jen's Asian-Spanish sticky rice and Kicked Up Tacos...heh heh. It's good, right?

Almost Wasn't Sausage and Rice

I think that I subconsciously mess things up or have near misses so that I have something to write about. Tonight, for example, I was making Sausage and Rice. It is a good, hearty meal to have during fall/winter weather. It is also extremely easy. Well, easy unless you are me and working to get everything done before everyone gets home. I will make an excuse for doing what I am about to relate. I got little sleep last night, so I was tired oh that and other things. It's those other things that really got me. So yes, back to being tired. Yes, that's it...I was extremely tired!

Here is my thought process as I begin to make this casserole. "Self," I say. "You need to take the sausage out of the refrigerator so it can finish defrosting." (Takes sausage out of the fridge.) "Self, this sausage doesn't look like it has any casing on it." (Little voice telling me that just can't be the case.) "Go away little voice! I know what I'm doing." (I poke the sausage as if that's the determining factor of whether or not it has a casing.) So I take the sausages out of their packaging and place them ever so nicely in a hot pan waiting to brown them up. I let them sit for a minute because they are still a bit frozen, but then I notice the outside is starting to burn, but they aren't cooked. "Self, what is happening?" (Tries to cut them with the spoon to no avail. "Uh oh." Light bulb goes off. I am so out of it and unresponsive that I am totally not surprised to realize I had not peeled the casings off!) "Ha." I think. I quickly turn the pan off, burn my hands a bit quickly peeling the casings off and all is saved. Yea!

"You idiot." I say with laughter and continue preparing the meal. Oh the joys of cooking and talking to yourself in your mind and having no one hear your plight. Lesson learned once again.

The interesting part of all of this is that I have made this before...same exact ingredients and everything. Yes, sausages are almost always put into a casing...I've even seen them made on TV. So, you'd think I would know to automatically pull it off. Oh well. OBVIOUSLY I'm not the brightest cook in the kitchen. Cooks need a lot of sleep before preparing gourmet creations!.....heh heh....You don't believe me?

Sausage and Rice

Rice...Sausage(sans casings)...Mushrooms, Marinara sauce(homemade or preferred jar brand)...Mozzarella Cheese.

Layer in a casserole dish. Rice, Sauce(has been mixed with sausage/mushrooms), and slices of Mozzarella cheese. REPEAT. Bake for 30 min at 350F

Flops Turned Foodlicious!

I recently had some mishaps in the kitchen arena. Now being a bit of a perfectionist, little things can seem like MAJOR things. The other night I decided to make dinner for my family. We have this recipe for Spinach Pizza. It is delicious. Granted I was out in service all day and forgot to take the dough out to thaw until after 4pm that day. Bread normally takes hour to thaw(if frozen) and rise. So the back of the package suggests a quick defrost method using the microwave. Now microwaves are good for many things, however do not defrost dough in it no matter what the package says! It starts to cook the ends of the dough and will not let it rise. I take it out and of course do the finger poke test. Yikes! The edges were tough and cracked. Oh well I thought. I will let it sit until 5pm and let it rise. Well, rise it did not...boo hoo! So I start cooking the sausage, spinach, and grating cheese. I roll out this interesting half cooked dough as much as it will go. It is ripping and breaking because it's already partially cooked. However, I became creative and used a little camouflaging. The parts of the raw dough I wrapped around the yucky parts. The oven worked it's magic! It was delicious and I even had time to make a healthy and colorful salad. I told my family what had happened and they would have been none the wiser had I withheld that information about my microwaved and mutilated dough.



Then last night I come home from work and begin preparing my Cafe au Lait Cheesecake that I bragged about (and posted pictures about) until I was asked to make it for our congregation lunch(today). Unbeknownst to me, we have about 3 different sizes of spring form pans. So I pull out the first one I see, thinking I am so cool because this time it took me lickety split time to prepare this cheesecake. I pour the first layer(the thought crosses my mind that it is too thin) but I bake it anyway. The second layer goes on and I bake it despite my strange feeling about the way it looks. It has to cool for about 30 minutes and when I pull the outside part of the pan off, no joke it's about 1.5 inches thick!!! WHAT!? I look at my mom and say OH NO! What happened!? My mom informed me that we have many sizes and I obviously used the wrong one. It's a good thing I've had years to calm down my crazy and not throw it out and start over. Granted, I was still worried about it, but I drizzled some chocolate over the top and lo and behold...it was a hit. The friends enjoyed it and although it wasn't what I had expected, it filled bellies and gave smiles and that is all I can ask for.

So...I have learned 2 things: 1. Perfection holds no ground in the kitchen because the unexpected often makes the best meals (like last night's creation of everything but the kitchen sink grilled chicken salad). 2. Don't tell everyone that you messed up and used the wrong pan because 9/10 times they have no idea what it was supposed to be like, don't care that it isn't perfect and are just happy to have something yummy to satisfy their sweet tooth/insatiable hunger. I'm really enjoying cooking because even when you mess up the bread, the cake isn't exactly right, the rice is undercooked...etc., etc., there is usually something salvageable about it and lesson learned for next time! :D

Oh and just a little side note...cutting veggies, fruits, or whatever strikes your fancy is a great way to get rid of stress. I recently discovered that being a sous chef would not be so bad. It is a creative way to try new ways of preparing ingredients for main dishes, how you can slice, dice, chop, cut, chiffonade items, get lost in your own little world and just think about the thoughts of the day. I can even pray or just plain ignore people with the excuse that "I'll cut myself if I lose my concentration, this is a very sharp knife." Some may say that is the sign I am not a good cook because I can't multi-task. Whatever! Think that as they may, I like my own little kitchen world of thought processing and food making magic. :P