11.25.2008

Red rice


2 Cups cooked white rice
6 oz tomato sauce
1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
1/8 tsp chili powder
1 cub vegetable bullion
1/4 cup water
5 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 cup white or yellow onion chopped
1/2 cup fresh or frozen white corn
salt and pepper to taste

In large non stick skillet add rice over medium heat. Toss every minute allowing the rice to begin to crisp and dry out a little. In microwave safe dish add water and bouillon and microwave 2 minutes or until boiling. Stir until bouillon is dissolved. Add onions, garlic and corn to rice and continue tossing to cook. Combine tomato paste, bouillon, coriander, chili powder, salt and pepper in bowl. Slowly add 1/4 of tomato mixture and toss to coat cook about 1 minute. Add another 1/4 tomato mix in and repeat until all tomato mixture is added. Cook until tomato mixture has cooked into rice completely so the rice is not wet. Taste for seasoning.

Note: You could sub veggie bouillon for chicken bouillon if you would like for a meatier flavor.

Red bean quesidillas


This portion will serve two

1 can red beans
1/2 cup fresh or frozen white corn
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 tsp ground corriander
1.5 cups shredded monteray jack cheese
2 large flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse beans. In microwave safe dish heat beans for about 1 minute 30 seconds. Combine beans, corn, tomatoes and corriander. Place tortillas on cookie sheet. Line half of tortilla with 1/4 cheese. Top with half of your bean mixture. Top with 1/4 cheese and fold. Repeat. Spray the tops with cooking spray and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes to cook through. Turn broiler onto high and brown side one of your quesidillas. Remove them and flip them over. Spray with cooking spray and brown that side. Serve with sour cream and salsa if you desire.

HINT! When browning the outsides of your tortillas DO NOT leave your husband in charge of letting you know when they begin to brown. If you do, you may end up hearing SHIT SHIT SHIT coming from the kitchen as you run in to find your dinner looking like this.

My husbands favorite breakfast potatoes


4 white potatoes quartered and sliced very thin
1/2 yellow onion fine diced
1 clove garlic fine diced
1.5 tbsp rosemary chopped
1 SMALL pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1 slice bacon

The key to making these potatoes right is to make sure to put everything in the right order. A very common mistake is for people to throw things in all at once and burn the onions and garlic. In a large skillet add olive oil and butter over medium heat. Toss in potatoes and leave them alone. The key here is to let them start to brown. Turn them a few times until they are a light brown. Add in the onions and rosemary and toss it all to coat. Make a well in the center of the potatoes and add in your slice of bacon. Once the potatoes are brown and the onions are clear toss in the garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Reduce to low and toss a few more times. Remove the bacon before you serve this is simply there for flavor, I usually toss it in the pan with the other bacon I'm cooking to let it fry up properly.

I used to cook my bacon and then make the potatoes in the same pan but I found that any remnant pieces burned and it was also too much of a bacon flavor. The one slice of bacon gives it just a hint of smokey pork fat goodness.