Spring has sprung!

I was invited to the lovely home of an even lovlier family, and tasked with bringing a dish. The hostess thoughtfully created an event on FB to help guests coordinate the sides and such. In my laziness, I waited until late to weigh in with what I wanted to bring, so there were only a couple of things left. I opted for the rice dish and deviled eggs. I wasn't worried about the deviled eggs, but I did know I wanted to do something a little different. Not going to lie, the rice dish intimidated me a bit. I grew up eating rice regularly, and I love it in pilaf, risotto, stir-fried and in pudding, but it's not something I really set out to make on any sort of regular basis as an adult. Each time I think of making something with rice, the first thought that pops in my head is, "ain't nobody got time for that". Given that I had a 10 pound bag of dried rice sitting in my pantry itching to be used, I figured I may as well get over myself and dive in. I knew I wanted something colorful and chocked full of veggies (I mean, how else would I get the color?).

At any rate, I went to the store and picked up any veggie that looked "fun". To my utter delight, as I was getting some pine nuts in the bulk bin section, and saw organic wild rice on CLEARANCE!!!! I probably shouldn't have been so excited, but dude, CLEARANCE!!! In my head, I was thinking I would be feeding millions, so I left the store with enough stuff to last the rest of the year. I was also thinking there would be no leftovers, so I'd planned on making a lamb based dirty rice for the week (I mean, I did have a freakin' 10lb. bag of rice, after all). At any rate, below you will find my recipes, scaled down a bit from the originals (that I am STILL eating). I had plenty of leftovers, so I didn't need to make a seperate dish for the week, I just ended up adding stuff to the leftover rice (that did not originally contain meat, btw).

Festive Bacon Deviled Eggs
Yield 12 servings (2 pieces per serving)

1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup mayo
1 t dried parsley
1/3 cup bacon pieces
1/3 cup chopped grape tomatoes, seeded
pinch or two of salt and pepper
Extra tomato, bacon and fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Hard boil the eggs. Before peeling, make several cracks in the shell and let them sit in cold water for about 10 minutes. This will help stop the cooking and the water will seep between the shell and the egg white to make shell removeal eaiser.

Once the shells have been removed, halve each and put the cooked yolks in a small mixing bowl. Add the other ingredients, and mix until creamy. Taste for salt and pepper.

If you are wanting to make a more impressive presentation, place the yolk filling in a pastry bag and pipe it into the cooked whites. Garnish with extra chopped tomato and bacon. Just before serving, rain parsley over the eggs.

Notes: If you're a mustard fan like myself, you can add 1 1/2 t mustard to the filling to give it some pep. Extra yumminess!



Easter Rice
Serves 10 (1 cup servings)-great way to sneak veggies in kiddos

2 cups dry rice
1 cup wild rice
1 lb. ground lamb
Olive oil
1 leek, halved and sliced
4 shallots, minced
1/3 cup shittake mushrooms, chopped
1/3 cup baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 bunch of kale, finely chopped
1 1/12 cups carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 rib of celery, minced
2 t dried mint
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
6 cups of chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add about 4 T olive oil to a pan. Turn the heat onto med-high, and add rices and shallots.
Saute until rice browns lightly.
Add ground lamb, and mint. Brown lamb (you should be able to smell the mint).
Start adding veggies with a couple of pinches of salt, stirring after each addtion until they are covered in oil (add 2-3 T of oil if the mixture seems dry).

In a small, dry pan, toast pine nuts until you can smell them (be careful that they do not burn!). Add the nuts to the pan with all the rice and meat.
The veggies should be have had time to sweat a bit, so go ahead and at the chicken stock at this point. Let everything boil for about 7 minutes, then turn the heat down to low and simmer until very little liquid remains (probably 15 minutes).
Turn off the heat, and remove from the burner. Allow the rice to sit until all liquid has been taken up by the rice. Nothing should be sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Fluff the rice, mix in the parmesan cheese, and serve!

Note: You can brighten the whole dish by squeezing half a lemon's worth of juice on just before serving. Add creaminess by mixing in marscapone or goat cheese.