Tomorrow night I am making dinner and breakfast on the Amtrak train back to Florida. For dinner we will be having muchos, muchos snacks. Cheese, crackers, pepperonis, a can of vienna sausages, cheez-its, juice boxes and Yoo-hoos. Complete balanced nutrition? Oh hell no! A way to stay quiet and entertained on a train with a five child to one adult ratio? You betcha! Breakfast will be Pop-tarts, grapes, and frozen yogurts in a tube (AKA go-gurts) and more juice boxes. Mommy will probably have a coca-cola and a Vicodin. We will be on the train 13 hours, most of it HOPEFULLY sleeping. We get into Orlando around 10 a.m.
I will be making dinner the next night in my mother-in-laws GIANT marble counter topped kitchen with her full range of appliances. Her stove/oven has more dials and buttons than the Starship Enterprise. Her dishwasher is a quiet, efficient, stainless steel interior dream machine. I covet it like I have never coveted anything in my life. It's a good thing the Bible only mentions wives and asses or I'd be in real trouble! The rest of the week I will be sharing a rental house with some women from my church as we attend a spiritual retreat and workshop. I will be making dinner at the rental house! Looking forward to learning some new recipes from my friends too!
I went to last year's conference and completely enjoyed it, even though it didn't seem like the kind of thing I'd really like to do. I sort of went out a sense of duty, and then was completely shocked to find it entirely peopled with my kind of folks! Life can be surprising like that. I learned I am not the only foul-mouthed, free-wheeling, liberal Christian on earth. Of course I am not some special freaking snowflake! Good times all around.
I hope you get to do something inspiring in this first month of the New Year, be it a new job, new hobby, new book or even a new haircut (hoping to get one of those too!) I'll be making some short but sweet posts from my phone if internet connectivity is a problem. Later!
Monday, January 3, 2011
The skinny on casseroles
Here's the thing, in the depths of winter (and winter in NC is pretty depthy to me) I want comfort food. Casseroles, stews, soups, roasts, baked goods, basically anything that warms the soul and the house makes me happy. Casseroles are not the most elegant or sophisticated of dishes but they are tasty and filling and just the very definition of home-cooking. I mean when is the last time you saw any type of casserole on a restaurant menu?
Today's casserole takes the very last bits of the New Year's day feast and transforms them into a bubbly, cheesey delicious main dish. Serve with a side of steamed veggies or salad depending on your climate and enjoy.
Ham and Rice Casserole
Chopped ham
3 cups of cooked white rice (can be leftovers from NY dinner)
1 cup (or more) of shredded cheese (I like a 4 cheese blend)
1 can of cream of something soup (or make a white sauce) (Or more than one can if you like a moister casserole.)
Panko, cracker or bread crumbs for the top
Melted butter
Mix cooked rice and chopped ham, cheese, and soup and place in a buttered 9 x 13 pan (or smaller if you aren't cooking for a crowd. You can cut this recipe in half and make it in an 8 x8 pan.) Cover with bread crumbs of choice and pour some melted butter over the top. Bake at 350 degrees (170 C?) covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Take off foil and brown for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
If you do not eat ham or meat simply replace the ham with broccoli florets or chopped spears and follow the recipe as indicated. You can also make this with cooked brown rice and it is even better. I can't tell you how many times I have intended to make my MIL's famous broccoli and chicken casserole and FORGOTTEN TO PUT IN THE CHICKEN. This has happened so often as a matter of fact that it is known in my house as "Chicken Surprise-- Surprise! There's no chicken in it!"
I will serve these tonight with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower which I am fortunate that my kids love. My sister-in-law's kids won't eat them plain, but they do like them with cheese sauce. Another friend's kids won't eat them cooked but will eat them raw with ranch dressing. My sister's kids won't eat them AT ALL but clamor for more of my Mom's spaghetti sauce which is packed with (you guessed it) broccoli, carrots, onion, and celery. My Mom was the Sneaky Chef way back in the 70's.
**UPDATE** The casserole dish I was using was SO BIG that I added the frozen vegetables right into the casserole. I did take the extra step of cutting them up a bit into smaller, uniform pieces and they cooked beautifully right in one dish. Even the strenuous anti-vegetable crowd at the table couldn't resist them. Score!
Hope your dinner is really good tonight and that you have one of those good parenting days that don't make you fantasize about a long restful stay at the local hospital!
Today's casserole takes the very last bits of the New Year's day feast and transforms them into a bubbly, cheesey delicious main dish. Serve with a side of steamed veggies or salad depending on your climate and enjoy.
Ham and Rice Casserole
Chopped ham
3 cups of cooked white rice (can be leftovers from NY dinner)
1 cup (or more) of shredded cheese (I like a 4 cheese blend)
1 can of cream of something soup (or make a white sauce) (Or more than one can if you like a moister casserole.)
Panko, cracker or bread crumbs for the top
Melted butter
Mix cooked rice and chopped ham, cheese, and soup and place in a buttered 9 x 13 pan (or smaller if you aren't cooking for a crowd. You can cut this recipe in half and make it in an 8 x8 pan.) Cover with bread crumbs of choice and pour some melted butter over the top. Bake at 350 degrees (170 C?) covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Take off foil and brown for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
If you do not eat ham or meat simply replace the ham with broccoli florets or chopped spears and follow the recipe as indicated. You can also make this with cooked brown rice and it is even better. I can't tell you how many times I have intended to make my MIL's famous broccoli and chicken casserole and FORGOTTEN TO PUT IN THE CHICKEN. This has happened so often as a matter of fact that it is known in my house as "Chicken Surprise-- Surprise! There's no chicken in it!"
I will serve these tonight with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower which I am fortunate that my kids love. My sister-in-law's kids won't eat them plain, but they do like them with cheese sauce. Another friend's kids won't eat them cooked but will eat them raw with ranch dressing. My sister's kids won't eat them AT ALL but clamor for more of my Mom's spaghetti sauce which is packed with (you guessed it) broccoli, carrots, onion, and celery. My Mom was the Sneaky Chef way back in the 70's.
**UPDATE** The casserole dish I was using was SO BIG that I added the frozen vegetables right into the casserole. I did take the extra step of cutting them up a bit into smaller, uniform pieces and they cooked beautifully right in one dish. Even the strenuous anti-vegetable crowd at the table couldn't resist them. Score!
Hope your dinner is really good tonight and that you have one of those good parenting days that don't make you fantasize about a long restful stay at the local hospital!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Day after dinners
When you make a BIG meal on one day, like Thanksgiving for instance, you get the benefit of guaranteed leftovers the next day. You can always use those leftovers just as is, which is terrific, or you can get creative. I mean, who doesn't love a turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving?
For New Year's Day leftovers here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy leftover greens, beans, and pork.
* Chop leftover ham and heat it up in barbecue sauce and make BBQ sandwiches.
* Use leftover black eyed peas to make "Cowboy Caviar" it is a sort of fabulous "pico de gallo" with your leftover black eyed peas. Mix cubed avocado, chopped roma (or other smaller) tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, and kernel corn together. Top with some fresh lime juice, a bit of apple cider vinegar, a splash of good olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Stir gently and serve with tortilla chips. Add some tabasco if you think it needs to be a little bit spicy.
* Hopping John stir fry, fry leftover white rice in some peanut oil in a wok or large skillet. Mix in fresh chopped onion, peas, and a moderate amount of well-drained greens. Add a lightly beaten egg and stir fry together. YUM!!!
*Mix leftover, well-drained greens into cheese grits, press into a well-greased baking dish and bake until edges are set. Cut into cubes and serve for any meal, even breakfast. DEEEE-lish.
* Mix creamed corn into a thin batter made from about 1 cup of flour, one beaten egg and maybe 1/4 C of milk. Make thin corn pancakes and pour onto a hot greased griddle. Serve as pancakes with or without syrup.
I really hope the New Year is already treating you well. Here is a brand new recipe for you, another great Southern American dish.
Gramma Tallent's Ambrosia Salad
Take 3 pounds of small Florida oranges, cut off the skin and outer membrane. Pull sections from their membranes and drop into medium mixing bowl, Squeeze leftover bits of orange over the bowl to extract juice, but strain with fingers to keep seeds out. To the sections add 2 small handfuls of chopped coconut. Then add 1/2 C chopped pecans (or more to taste) and the juice of 2 more oranges. Stir together and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Serve chilled. A delicious fresh appetizer, salad or breakfast dish, even a light dessert!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
It begins! New Year's Day menu
Hello and Happy New Year!!! Today begins my Dinner 365 challenge and it has already been, um, challenging.** The kids stayed up to ring in the New Year and still woke up early, so they are a little it cranky already. I am in my parent's tiny cabin in North Carolina, super charming, but space is at a premium. There are 5 kids here under the age of 10 and 3 adults. The kitchen doesn't have a garbage disposal or a dishwasher and the counter space could best be described as "miniscule" but we forge ahead. I have a friend in Australia cooking her New Year's dinner over a camp fire today, so things could be a mite more challenging still.
The menu:
Baby Back ribs; the kids' preferred method of eating pork and a catchy jingle of the late 90's, ("I want my baby backs, baby backs, baby backs..." )These are liberally seasoned with my trusty Adobo seasoning blend "con pimienta!" and then squeeze a fresh lime over all. I wrapped them in heavy duty foil and they will sit and "marinate" for awhile before we cook them "low and slow" in the oven. 275-300 for maybe 3 hours should do it.
We also made a picnic butt roast, a small but fatty piece of meat. We rubbed it all over with my father-in-law's super secret dry rub and tented it with foil in a shallow baking pan. Use any good BBQ spice rub or make your own seasoning blend with salt and spices, some people even use brown sugar in their rubs. The roast went in at the same temperature until a meat thermometer reached a minimum of 140 degrees. When you bring the meat out of the oven to rest the temperature will rise by 5-10 degrees.
Collard greens; the greens are best purchased pre-washed in the bag if available. They will still need an extra rinse or two, collards, mustard and turnip greens are notoriously gritty. If you like the frozen ones work well too. Greens are great with a bit of tabasco sauce or peppered vinegar, or my preferred way, just a dash of salt and pepper.
Plain white rice; I usually make brown rice, yellow rice or wild rice, but on New Year's Day it is typical long grain white rice for me. This is one of those recipes I have memorized, 2 cups boiling water, 1 cup of rice and salt to taste (maybe a teaspoon). Boil the water, add the rice, bring back to a boil for 1 minute then turn down, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Black-eyed peas; these can be taken dry from the bag, rinsed and then placed in a large stock pot with salted water. You can also add a bit of onion and garlic to the water. Usually mine are boiled up with a piece of ham, ham hock, or bacon, but I also make them vegetarian by adding chopped carrot, onion, celery and garlic and maybe a bay leaf for flavor and then adding a few tablespoons of olive oil when they are almost done. They take about 45 minutes. Today, due to space and time constraints we made frozen field peas with snap beans (aka black eyes peas with green beans). They were my first attempt at using frozen beans and they were great actually. If I had more freezer space I'd probably make them that way more often.
Cornbread, use any mix or recipe you like for the cornbread, but my tip to you is to get the pan hot in the oven with some oil or grease in the pan. When the oven is preheated, the pan will also be hot and ready. Pour your batter directly and quickly into the pan and let it bake according to your recipe or package directions.
Creamed corn; again, a frozen food I was not aware even existed. When I make creamed corn usually I am cutting corn off the cob and then "milking" the cob by scraping it with a spoon. Then I cook the corn for 25 minutes in the microwave with an entire stick of butter and some salt and pepper. Here my mom just took a frozen package of creamed corn, mixed it with a package of kernel corn and microwaved it all in about 10 minutes. It is not as good as fresh corn off the cob, but it is winter time and not the season for fresh ears of corn and it makes a fine winter substitute.
Our garnishes were home-made salsa and chow-chow from a local farm store. Chow-chow is a sweet relish and terrific with the beans and rice.
If you wanted to make this meal vegetarian, it would still be delicious. Skip the pork, use extra spices in the greens and beans and rice, for instance, using vegetable broth to make the rice (super flavorful!). Mixed black eyed peas and rice is it's own special dish called Hopping John, round out the plate with the hot cornbread and that is a wonderful meatless meal.
** Right after I wrote this post, we put the meat in the oven, set the temperature to 275 and left to take the kids swimming at the Y since the weather was so miserable today. We returned from the Y prepared to make rice and cornbread, heat up the greens and eat only to discover the oven had never turned on!!! We quickly cranked the heat in the oven to 350 degrees and cooked everything for an hour less than planned. We staved off hunger with a big platter of cheese, crackers, sliced meats, and grapes. The kids were remarkably calm after ingesting the entire platter in about 5 minutes and then ate a good dinner when it was finally ready. The cabin was quite cold so the meat had stayed fresh and probably the extra time "marinating" in the spices made them even better, so alls well that ends well!
The menu:
Baby Back ribs; the kids' preferred method of eating pork and a catchy jingle of the late 90's, ("I want my baby backs, baby backs, baby backs..." )These are liberally seasoned with my trusty Adobo seasoning blend "con pimienta!" and then squeeze a fresh lime over all. I wrapped them in heavy duty foil and they will sit and "marinate" for awhile before we cook them "low and slow" in the oven. 275-300 for maybe 3 hours should do it.
We also made a picnic butt roast, a small but fatty piece of meat. We rubbed it all over with my father-in-law's super secret dry rub and tented it with foil in a shallow baking pan. Use any good BBQ spice rub or make your own seasoning blend with salt and spices, some people even use brown sugar in their rubs. The roast went in at the same temperature until a meat thermometer reached a minimum of 140 degrees. When you bring the meat out of the oven to rest the temperature will rise by 5-10 degrees.
Collard greens; the greens are best purchased pre-washed in the bag if available. They will still need an extra rinse or two, collards, mustard and turnip greens are notoriously gritty. If you like the frozen ones work well too. Greens are great with a bit of tabasco sauce or peppered vinegar, or my preferred way, just a dash of salt and pepper.
Plain white rice; I usually make brown rice, yellow rice or wild rice, but on New Year's Day it is typical long grain white rice for me. This is one of those recipes I have memorized, 2 cups boiling water, 1 cup of rice and salt to taste (maybe a teaspoon). Boil the water, add the rice, bring back to a boil for 1 minute then turn down, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Black-eyed peas; these can be taken dry from the bag, rinsed and then placed in a large stock pot with salted water. You can also add a bit of onion and garlic to the water. Usually mine are boiled up with a piece of ham, ham hock, or bacon, but I also make them vegetarian by adding chopped carrot, onion, celery and garlic and maybe a bay leaf for flavor and then adding a few tablespoons of olive oil when they are almost done. They take about 45 minutes. Today, due to space and time constraints we made frozen field peas with snap beans (aka black eyes peas with green beans). They were my first attempt at using frozen beans and they were great actually. If I had more freezer space I'd probably make them that way more often.
Cornbread, use any mix or recipe you like for the cornbread, but my tip to you is to get the pan hot in the oven with some oil or grease in the pan. When the oven is preheated, the pan will also be hot and ready. Pour your batter directly and quickly into the pan and let it bake according to your recipe or package directions.
Creamed corn; again, a frozen food I was not aware even existed. When I make creamed corn usually I am cutting corn off the cob and then "milking" the cob by scraping it with a spoon. Then I cook the corn for 25 minutes in the microwave with an entire stick of butter and some salt and pepper. Here my mom just took a frozen package of creamed corn, mixed it with a package of kernel corn and microwaved it all in about 10 minutes. It is not as good as fresh corn off the cob, but it is winter time and not the season for fresh ears of corn and it makes a fine winter substitute.
Our garnishes were home-made salsa and chow-chow from a local farm store. Chow-chow is a sweet relish and terrific with the beans and rice.
If you wanted to make this meal vegetarian, it would still be delicious. Skip the pork, use extra spices in the greens and beans and rice, for instance, using vegetable broth to make the rice (super flavorful!). Mixed black eyed peas and rice is it's own special dish called Hopping John, round out the plate with the hot cornbread and that is a wonderful meatless meal.
** Right after I wrote this post, we put the meat in the oven, set the temperature to 275 and left to take the kids swimming at the Y since the weather was so miserable today. We returned from the Y prepared to make rice and cornbread, heat up the greens and eat only to discover the oven had never turned on!!! We quickly cranked the heat in the oven to 350 degrees and cooked everything for an hour less than planned. We staved off hunger with a big platter of cheese, crackers, sliced meats, and grapes. The kids were remarkably calm after ingesting the entire platter in about 5 minutes and then ate a good dinner when it was finally ready. The cabin was quite cold so the meat had stayed fresh and probably the extra time "marinating" in the spices made them even better, so alls well that ends well!
Friday, December 17, 2010
In which I launch an audacious plan
So here's the thing. I make dinner for my family a lot. I make dinner almost every single night. I make entrees, side dishes, salads, soups, sometimes even breads and desserts. Sure, we have the occasional pizza or once in a while a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, I mean those are staples. However we almost never go out to dinner unless we are on vacation or something. This as not always the case mind you. When I was working full time and my husband was in law school we were "regulars" at our local Mexican place. We kept stacks of what we called "emergency back up pizzas" in the freezer. We routinely cadged meals from my in-laws after work/school and ate at more fast food restaurants than you could probably even easily name.
Since then I have had the time to really teach myself how to cook and even though there are still those nights that I want to wave a magic whisk and have dinner appear magically on the table, (or you know, call out for some Chinese food) I have come to really (mostly) enjoy the process. I am a Stay at Home Mom, which helps FOR SURE, but I too have to have dinner on the table quickly. Those hours from 5 to bedtime go by awfully fast for everyone, and with dance classes and after school activities and PTO meetings and church and homework it is essential for everyone to be on their GAME in maximizing that time. In fact some of my best dinners have been inspired by having "something come up" and I suddenly have only 20 minutes.
Of course you can make a meal with all day to cook and a full refrigerator. What do you make when the cupboard is bare and you have literally no time (or often) no money to run to the store? That's my inspiration right there! A moment of grace as life teeters on the edge of catastrophe...
So for the next year, starting January 1st, I plan on cooking dinner for my family every night. In fact, if you stay with me on this journey of culinary self discovery, we can learn together the answers to the questions, "What makes a good weeknight meal?'" "How long does it take to make pot roast?" "Leftovers, again?" and "Who put the ram in the ramma lamma ding dong?". I have a lot of fun ideas!
I plan on making Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter) into a vegetarian period for my family, excepting the fish on Fridays tradition I was raised with. And of course kicking that time off with a real New Orleans style crab boil on Fat Tuesday! Cinco De Mayo will bring us an entire week of Mexican food; favorites from my family, as well as recipes that I have never tried. St. Patty's day we will travel beyond the realms of Corned Beef and Cabbage and try some authentic Irish cuisine; sweets for Valentine's Day, a simple anniversary dinner, and of course what to feed your little ghouls and goblins before they go out to Trick or Treat! I'll bake bread, I'll toss salads, I'll flambé a dessert or two. Perhaps even some intentionally! And along the way I am hoping you guys chime in with your favorite recipes, trick and techniques to getting the food on the table.
Disclaimer: **Some restrictions apply, offer not good in the District of Columbia** I am reserving a total of 14 days to not cook dinner. There will be one (glorious) 5 day period where I am going to be in a hotel room in Washington D.C on vacation with my family. We will be making simple breakfasts that week since we will have access to a refrigerator and a microwave oven. The rest of the days I am reserving in case I come down with Bird Flu or Swine Flu or One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest or something. There will be pictures, there will be recipes, there will be jokes made at the expense of myself and others. Join me, won't you? Please? Pretty please? I'll make you dinner!
Since then I have had the time to really teach myself how to cook and even though there are still those nights that I want to wave a magic whisk and have dinner appear magically on the table, (or you know, call out for some Chinese food) I have come to really (mostly) enjoy the process. I am a Stay at Home Mom, which helps FOR SURE, but I too have to have dinner on the table quickly. Those hours from 5 to bedtime go by awfully fast for everyone, and with dance classes and after school activities and PTO meetings and church and homework it is essential for everyone to be on their GAME in maximizing that time. In fact some of my best dinners have been inspired by having "something come up" and I suddenly have only 20 minutes.
Of course you can make a meal with all day to cook and a full refrigerator. What do you make when the cupboard is bare and you have literally no time (or often) no money to run to the store? That's my inspiration right there! A moment of grace as life teeters on the edge of catastrophe...
So for the next year, starting January 1st, I plan on cooking dinner for my family every night. In fact, if you stay with me on this journey of culinary self discovery, we can learn together the answers to the questions, "What makes a good weeknight meal?'" "How long does it take to make pot roast?" "Leftovers, again?" and "Who put the ram in the ramma lamma ding dong?". I have a lot of fun ideas!
I plan on making Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter) into a vegetarian period for my family, excepting the fish on Fridays tradition I was raised with. And of course kicking that time off with a real New Orleans style crab boil on Fat Tuesday! Cinco De Mayo will bring us an entire week of Mexican food; favorites from my family, as well as recipes that I have never tried. St. Patty's day we will travel beyond the realms of Corned Beef and Cabbage and try some authentic Irish cuisine; sweets for Valentine's Day, a simple anniversary dinner, and of course what to feed your little ghouls and goblins before they go out to Trick or Treat! I'll bake bread, I'll toss salads, I'll flambé a dessert or two. Perhaps even some intentionally! And along the way I am hoping you guys chime in with your favorite recipes, trick and techniques to getting the food on the table.
Disclaimer: **Some restrictions apply, offer not good in the District of Columbia** I am reserving a total of 14 days to not cook dinner. There will be one (glorious) 5 day period where I am going to be in a hotel room in Washington D.C on vacation with my family. We will be making simple breakfasts that week since we will have access to a refrigerator and a microwave oven. The rest of the days I am reserving in case I come down with Bird Flu or Swine Flu or One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest or something. There will be pictures, there will be recipes, there will be jokes made at the expense of myself and others. Join me, won't you? Please? Pretty please? I'll make you dinner!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
In which I write a post for wikiHow
I recently wrote an article for wikiHow, a wiki that I end up on a lot when I am searching for clear, concise How-To instructions on just about anything! Here is the article in its entirety.
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
If your kitchen brush is dirty, how can you be "cleaning" anything with it? A brush's bristles are the perfect place for bacteria and germs to hide and multiply, so let's make sure it is clean and safe to use!
How to Sterilize a Kitchen Brush
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
If your kitchen brush is dirty, how can you be "cleaning" anything with it? A brush's bristles are the perfect place for bacteria and germs to hide and multiply, so let's make sure it is clean and safe to use!
Steps
- If your brush is a firm, solid heavy plastic brush you can simply place the brush in the top rack of the dishwasher and run it through on a sterilizing cycle with the rest of your dishes.
- If your brush has a wooden handle or is made of thin plastic that is inappropriate for washing in the dishwasher, run the brush (handle and bristles) under hot running water to remove any large particles of dirt, food or debris. Then use some dish soap to thoroughly remove any grease or sticky substances. Rinse brush under more hot running water.
- To sterilize the brush simply make a bleach and water solution to soak your brush. 3/4 of a cup of household bleach to 1 gallon of water is a good solution for sterilizing hard, non-porous surfaces and everyday items like brushes or even countertops or cutting boards. You can soak your brush for 10 minutes and be confident that it is sterile and ready to use.
Warnings
- Chlorine bleach should only be used in a well-ventilated area. Use caution when working with chlorine bleach as it can irritate skin, lungs and eyes. Bleach (obviously) can remove color from clothes so make sure you do not accidentally splatter yourself with your sanitizing solution. Wear old clothes for housekeeping just to be on the safe side.
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Sterilize a Kitchen Brush. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Dinner: Hit it!
Tonight's dinner is : Sauteed chicken with onion and zucchini, brown rice with tomatoes. Side dish of either mandarin ornages or slice apples, your choice.
Take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and season on all sides with adobo and extra pepper or favorite peppery spice blend. Place in a hot iron skillet with olive oil and onion slices. Brown meat on all sides. Slice zucchini with a mandolin and place all over and around chicken (you can also use a mixture od zucchini and summer squash or just summer squash). Cover with a lid and reduce heat. Let it all steam while you prepare rice.
Add to your pressure cooker, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 C of brown rice, 2 1/4 C of water, 1 bay leaf, salt, 1 thread of saffron (if desired) 1 smashed clove of garlic. Put on lid and cook according to manufacturer instructions. In my Cuisinart pressure cooker brown rice cooks for 10 minutes under pressure, and another 10 minutes under natural pressure release, before you manually release the steam, stir and serve! Brown rice in 20 minutes y'all! Everything will be ready at once, hearty and satisfying and QUICK this is on your table in 30 minutes.
Take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and season on all sides with adobo and extra pepper or favorite peppery spice blend. Place in a hot iron skillet with olive oil and onion slices. Brown meat on all sides. Slice zucchini with a mandolin and place all over and around chicken (you can also use a mixture od zucchini and summer squash or just summer squash). Cover with a lid and reduce heat. Let it all steam while you prepare rice.
Add to your pressure cooker, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 C of brown rice, 2 1/4 C of water, 1 bay leaf, salt, 1 thread of saffron (if desired) 1 smashed clove of garlic. Put on lid and cook according to manufacturer instructions. In my Cuisinart pressure cooker brown rice cooks for 10 minutes under pressure, and another 10 minutes under natural pressure release, before you manually release the steam, stir and serve! Brown rice in 20 minutes y'all! Everything will be ready at once, hearty and satisfying and QUICK this is on your table in 30 minutes.
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